Customer Reviews

Ultimate Collection

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Although the true "Ultimate Collection" of Gene's hits would include 37 tracks as he has had 37 top 40 hits, this CD issued by Hip-O does do a good job with cross-licensing from the labels he has recorded over the years in chronological order starting with 5 of his tracks from Capitol, unfortunately omitting many of his Capitol hits, especially these 2 tracks which would be truly essential for single disc cross-licensed compilations: "Farewell Party," and "You Could Know As Much About a Stranger," but the 5 Capitol tracks here are essential anyway which are "Love In The Hot Afternoon," "Pick The Wildwood Flower," "Where Love Begins," "Nothing Sure Looked Goodand "Paper Rosie" while the rest of his Capitol hits can be found on the "18 Greatest Hits" CD available here at Amazon. The rest of this disc follows his career from his years on MCA by duplicating all of the tracks on the MCA CD called "Greatest Hits" including such essentials as "Fourteen Carat Mind," his sole #1 hit, "You're Out Doing What I'm Here Doing Without," "This Dreams on Me," "Sometimes I Get Lucky and Forget," "Speak Softly (You're Talking To My Heart)" and others, making that disc unnecessary these days, plus "Got No Reason Now For Going Home" which is also from his MCA years not included on the MCA Greatest Hits album from 1986 but Curb did reissue it on their CD compilations previously as MCA and Curb do co-own the rights to the "Heartaches, Love and Stuff" album from 1984, which is the album "Got No Reason Now For Going Home" originally appeared on. The 1 MCA hit omitted is "Little By Little," which peaked at #33 in 1984, on the Little By Little album which is on CD and that CD is available right here at Amazon. The Epic years are represented here by "Cold Summer Day In Georgia," the shuffle "Memories To Burn," which peaked at #5 in 1986, "Everything I Used To Do," and "Everybody Needs a Hero," omitting "Carmen," which peaked at #32 in 1986. The final 3 tracks on this compilation are the 3 hits he had on Warner Bros., most notable in this bunch is "Don't Waste It On The Blues," a bluesy styled song that peaked at #5 in 1989. Buy this and "Eighteen Greatest Hits" and you'll have nearly all of his top 40 hits in just 2 purchases with great sound to boot. The liner note booklet on this compilation is very comprehensive making this a 5 star disc. Buy this and "Eighteen Greatest Hits" and you will have the bulk of his hits.

This CD has the best of Gene Watson's songs. I was looking thru some old 8-track tapes and found one that I had of Gene Watson that I bought in 1980 when I saw one of his performances. I loved his music and had not heard him in years. Since I don't have anyway of playing 8-tracks now, I looked for a CD of his songs. I found this CD and it is GREAT! It has all the songs I remembered and loved, such as "BETWEEN THIS TIME AND THE NEXT TIME", "PAPER ROSIE", "MEMORIES TO BURN" and many more. I didn't realize how much I miss Gene Watson's singing until I bought this CD. I play it over and over!!

If the opening track ~ "LOVE IN THE HOT AFTERNOON", is any indication of what the remaining 22 selections have in-store for us, let her rip...Watson sang his way into our hearts from the mid '70s...and some of my favorites have showed up for a good time ~ "THIS DREAM'S ON ME"..."FOURTEEN CARAT MIND"..."YOU'RE OUT DOING WHAT I'M HERE DOING WITHOUT"..."GOT NO REASON FOR GOIN' HOME", and my personal all-time pick is "MEMORIES TO BURN"...whether ballads, down-home country or pure honky-tonk...his style will put a lump in your throat or a smile on your face.

Total Time: 67:13 on 23 Tracks ~ Universal/Hip-O Records 088-112-730-2 ~ (2001)

I was looking for a pretty complete collection of songs of Gene Watson. This is it. Am just sitting here listening to it for the first time and this will get a lot of play. I've missed Gene.

One of two 'KEY' Watson collections.
This "The Ultimate Collection" is the SECOND major set of hits to get,
to conveniently have 36 different hits within 2 C.D.'s.
This "Ultimate Collection" contains 16 top tens, 2 top twenty's, and 5 top fourty's.

The two C.D.'s are:
1. "Gene Watson Eighteen Greatest hits, 1999 by Tee Vee Records" ALL original recordings.
This is exactly Watson's first 18 hits from 1975 to 1980.

2. "Ultimate Collection, Gene Watson" 2001 by Hip-o/Universal Music Co., (this one)
ALL original recordings, it does repeat 5 top ten songs as it picks up
at the end of the previous C.D. in 1981 and takes you to Watsons 42'nd hit in 1989,
leaving out only 6 songs.

Some of Watson's country classic on this set are:
"Fourteen carat mind"
"This dreams on me"
"You're out doing what I'm here doing without"
"Got no reason now for goin' home"
"Memories to burn"

The six hits jumped over are:
1. "Anyway you want me" - 1981 top 40.
2. "Little by little" - 1984 top 40.
3. "One Hell of a heartache" - 1985 just missed the top 40.
4. "Carmen" - 1986 top 40.
5. "Bottle of tears" - 1986 top 100.
6. "Honky tonk crazy" - 1987 just missed the top 40.

Of the time period that this C.D. covers, 1981 to 1989,
Watson had 24 songs chart, 18 are here.
Those same 18 are NOT on the "18 Greatest Hits" collection.

This IS a great c.d., with this one and "The 18 Greatest Hits"
there are 36 of the first 42 hits, from Watson's 1st hit release in 1975 "Bad water"
to 1989 "The juke box played along".
This is truely a EXCELLENT collection.

From 1989 to 1997 Watson had an additional 6 more songs chart.

...because there is still no definitive CD on the work of this gifted, sadly underappreciated country singer.

I'm glad the hits from his various labels were cross-licensed to comprise this package, but calling this "The Ultimate Collection" is a big misnomer since Watson's signature tune, the morbid masterpiece "Farewell Party," is not included here! I can't figure this one out; I also cannot believe that another Gene staple, the honky-tonker "Should I Go Home (Or Should I Go Crazy)" is also omitted.

If these two songs would have been included, I'd have given this CD 5 stars. Fortunately, the rest of the biggies are all here - "Love in the Hot Afternoon," "Fourteen Karat Mind," and my favorite, "Paper Rosie."

It's taken me a while to collect a thorough Gene Watson catalogue - each "Greatest Hits" CD was on a different label so you had to buy three or four CDs to get all the hits. I'd hoped that buying this CD would have spared others the same trouble, but until a complete retrospective including the two songs mentioned above is released, I can't give this CD a full thumbs up.

Don't get me wrong. I love Gene Watson. I love this CD. But anyone who knows anything about Gene Watson cannot call this a definitive collection because it is missing his trademark song..."Farewell Party". This is the reason I am only giving this four stars. There are a couple of other songs that should have been included in this collection but weren't: "Should I Come Home (Or Should I Go Crazy)" and "No One Will Ever Know the Truth But Me". But a Gene Watson collection without his most famous tune, "Farewell Party" is most certainly not definitive. This is still a great collection though and one which will disappoint none of his fans and those who like traditional, great country music sung by a man with a distinctive, clear, beautiful voice who doesn't sound like everyone else. And best of all, its not bubblegum!! Enjoy! P.S. If you're looking for the CD that has "Farewell Party" on it get the Curb compilation, "Gene Watson's Greatest Hits". That one also contains "Should I Go Home".

I had never been a big Gene Watson fan, but he was a favorite of my husband who passed away in 2004. I bought the CD because of a couple of his favorite songs, but found that I loved everything on the CD myself.

You forget how smooth Gene Watson sings. I remember reading somewhere that the worlds stops when Gene sings. It is so true. The song, "Love in the Hot Afternoon" is a classic country song.

my husband and I have been looking for this album for a very long time. It has been a blessing and we both enjoy it very much.