Customer Reviews

Very Best of John Michael Montgomery

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

 

 

The son of a Kentucky musician whose own Nashville dreams never came true, John Michael Montgomery kept a bit of his daddy's hometown grit, even as he put together an impressive string of Nashville-produced hit albums and singles. This generous compilation offers twenty tracks, and collects nearly every significant hit single that Montgomery's had in his twelve year recording career.

Montgomery's first hits, the ballads "Life's a Dance" and "I Love the Way You Love Me," had a middle-of-the-road sweetness that hit an emotional chord with both record buyers and award givers -- the second single was the ACM song-of-the-year for 1993. The love songs continued in 1994 with, "I Swear," as did the awards (ACM song-of-the-year and single-of-the-year). As with most of Montgomery's ballads, the country flavor is to be found almost entirely in his vocals. There's a hint of steel, but the drums-guitars-bass-keyboard backing could just as easily host a pop vocalist (in fact, the song was covered by the R&B group All-4-One and netted a grammy). It's the slight edge in Montgomery's voice, the phrasings, and the down-home sentimentality of the lyrics that brings his slow songs into the country arena.

Later in 1994 his singles began to capitalize on Montgomery's uptempo numbers, charting with the rowdy country-rocker "Be My Baby Tonight" and the mid-tempo "If You've Got Love." Both tracks kick up the twangy guitars and fiddle of a honky-tonk bred backing. His releases continued mix ballads and up-tempo tunes, including the lightning-quick auctioneer's cadence of "Sold (The Grundy Country Auction Incident)" and the contemplation of his father's death, "I Miss You a Little." The latter, unfortunately, is missing from this collection.

By 1996 Montgomery was mostly charting ballads, variously edging more towards the center and bringing a bigger dose of his country sound down-tempo. "Angel in My Eyes" is more contemporary pop than country, but 1998's "Cover You in Kisses" has a superb melody anchored by a strong underline of steel and fiddle. Montgomery's last #1 single, 2000's "The Little Girl" features Alison Krauss and Dan Tyminski on harmony vocals.

In addition to seven #1s (seventeen top-5s!), this collection adds "'Til Nothing Comes Between Us" from the "Pictures" album, and a pair of newly recorded tracks: the waltz-time generation gap tale "Cool," and the romantic "One Less Day." This is a terrific overview and introduction to Montgomery's hitmaking career. Though it's missing the top-5 "Cowboy Love" and top-10 "I Miss You a Little," it's probably the more complete pick over his 1997 "Greatest Hits" LP.

From his debut hit "Life's A Dance" in late 1992 through the rest of the '90s, John Michael Montgomery (with his easy going baritone) was one of country music's most reliable hitmakers. Over the past four years, however, he's had but one top ten hit, the chart topping heart tugger "The Little Girl." With his recent singles struggling, a hits collection was the logical choice for Montgomery's next release. A sequel to 1997's GREATEST HITS made the most sense, as Montgomery has ten top 20 hits not included on that first set. Instead, Warner Brothers went with this career encompassing VERY BEST OF that contains 11 of the 14 recordings already found on the strong selling GREATEST HITS.

Among the hits not included on either collection are the engaging "Ain't Got Nothin' On Us," "Love Working On You," and "Hello L.O.V.E." All are uptempo romps that would have contributed nicely to the ballad-heavy VERY BEST OF. The sequencing on VERY BEST OF distorts the musical nonbalance even more, with three fast tunes leading off, followed by a slew of slow stuff. The collection concludes with two new ballads: the paternal reflection "Cool" and the pledge of devotion "One Day Less." While pleasant, neither track seems likely to reverse Montgomery's recent chart struggles. Ultimately, while it contains more tracks and covers a longer period of Montgomery's recording career, this VERY BEST OF is not as enjoyable to listen to as his earlier GREATEST HITS.

Next to George Strait, John Micheal Montgomery is my favorite country singer and I always look forward to when he releases a new cd. However, I wonder what he and/or his management were thinking when they decided on the songs for this cd.

This is nothing more than the "Greatest Hits" cd with a few different songs. In fact, 11 of the 20 songs on this cd were also on that cd despite the fact that he has cut four studio cds since then. I do see that "Long As I Live" is included on this collection but it should have been on the first one to begin with.

I know that JMM made his career out of singing those great country love songs however, he does have some great up-tempo songs as well. I noticed that many are missing not only from this cd but from "Greatest Hits" as well. Where is "Just Like A Rodeo", "A Few Cents Short", and "Love Working On You"? How about "Hello L-0-V-E", "That's What I Like About You" and "Four-Wheel Drive"?

Of course, I also notice several great love songs are missing as well that could have been on this cd. Songs such as "I Couldn't Dream", "Even Then", "Sinkin' In", and "Pictures". I think those songs as well as the ones I mentioned above would have been better for this cd.

As for the two new songs, I can take it or leave it with the walz-tempo tale song "Cool", it did not knock me over. However, "One Day Less" is yet another very strong JMM love song along the lines of "I Swear" and "I Love The Way You Love Me". I could see this one being played at weddings.

In summary, This is a great cd to pick up if you do not already own any of his prior cds. Otherwise, I would not bother with it.

This CD is awesome from beginning to end. It has all of his greatest songs here, from "I Love The Way You Love Me" and "Life's A Dance" on his debut to the beautiful ballad from his latest album, "Pictures", called "Til Nothing Comes Between Us". His career has undeservedly struggled the past few years, and radio has practically ingnored him, despite him putting out his best music on "Home To You", "Brand New Me", and "Pictures". I like the two new cuts, "Cool" and "One Day Less". My personal favorites are "I Swear", "The Little Girl", "How Was I To Know", "Home To You", "Angel In My Eyes", "Hold On To Me", and "Til Nothing Comes Between Us". It may be a little heavy on the ballads, but that's what John Michael Montgomery does best. I thought that none of his last three albums sold as well as they should've, and I hope he can revive his struggling career with this awesome set. He's got one fan here who hopes he can. Keep trying, John Michael.

This guy today is so underrated it is practically sad how just a few years back he was selling up to 4 million albums per shot with releases like Kickin it Up and Life's a Dance then for some reason around 1999 or 2000 his career started kind of struggling as far as big hits go I really would like to see one of the two new cuts off this collection reach at least the top 10 because John Michael Montgomery is a great singer and his fans have not gone away there all still listening the thing is radio needs to give him a chance. This is very similar to 1997's Greatest Hits but this includes more hits ranging also between 1998 and 2002. Every song is nice to listen to and its real genuine quality not sappy country pop. To bad there was no Beer and Bones on here then it would been even more better but it is a great collection buy it. It is worth it.

This Collection is OK but it is miss three songs. One of the VERY BEST song he ever did BEER AND BONES is not on here. The other two are COWBOY LOVE and I MISS YOU A LITTLE. They can be found on his GH.

This Cd is great. The lists of songs are just right. John Michael Montgomery is one of the best Country singer of all times. His love ballads are one of the best that you will hear on this CD. And real good country tunes. If anybody that thinks country music is not one of the best,try this CD out you'll love it. Enjoy

This is a wonderful item. A must for any fan of John Michael Montgomery!

Since the replacement CD, I can give a true review of this 'album'!
TOP OF THE LINE!; the MAN is SINGING to MY HEART!; WHAT a TREASURE to have!; he is so g-o-o-o-o-d!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Now I just need to find a guy that feels that EXACT way towards me!!!!!!

great anniversary present. fav song... I love the way you love me... my husband loves to listen to it in the car.