Wolverton Mountain: Very Best Of Claude King

Claude King | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 24, 1999)
• Original Release Date: August 24, 1999
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Collectables
• ASIN: B00000JWR7
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #33,194 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Tiger Woman

2. Wolverton Mountain

3. Big River, Big Man

4. I've Got the World by the Tail

5. The Burning of Atlanta

6. The Comancheros

7. Sheepskin Valley

8. I'm Building a Bridge

9. Catch a Little Raindrop

10. All for the Love of a Girl

11. Hey Lucille

12. Sam Hill

13. Little Buddy

14. Friend, Lover, Woman, Wife

15. Mary's Vineyard

16. Chip 'N' Dale's Place

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars "For Shame" to the Collectables Label, September 1, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Wolverton Mountain: Very Best Of Claude King (Audio CD)

Boo hiss to the Collectables CD label. They blew it big time on this one. First of all, while the obvious hits are here, they manage to overlook some of King's finest recordings -- "Laura," "When You're 21" and "He Ain't Country" come to mind.

Fine -- no greatest hits compilation will please everyone. And the biggest hits -- "Wolverton Mountain," "Sam Hill," "The Camencheros" -- are there.

But, the real affront is the poorly written liner notes, which declare that Claude King died in 1983. In fact, he's still alive! No, he hasn't risen from the dead -- he's never passed away, only retired.

The source of this misinformation is either the now out-of-print and consistently inaccurate "Definitive Country" encyclopedia, by Barry McCloud, or the All Music Guide, both of which also consider King a dead man.

Maybe when they write out the royalty check to King's estate, they'll realize the mistake. In the meantime, here's hoping Rounder or Razor & Tie or a more credible reissuer will put out the definitive King collection....

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This IS the definitive single disc CD of Claude King's hits, January 23, 2006

By 

Bradley Olson (Bemidji, MN United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wolverton Mountain: Very Best Of Claude King (Audio CD)

Throughout the 1960s, Claude has placed 19 songs on the country top 40 and all 16 of the songs that peaked in the top 30 on Billboard's country charts are included in this collection. An out of print CD in the "American Originals" CD series from the early 1990s contains 10 of these songs while this will give you 6 more. The liner notes do serve Claude justice as well and they even mention what he is up to today. Not only is his only pop chart top 40 hit, Wolverton Mountain, the only great song on it but other highlights include "Tiger Woman," "Big River, Big Man," "The Comancheros," his cover of his friend Johnny Horton's "All For The Love of a Girl," his version of "Sam Hill," which was also recorded by Jimmy Dean, "The Burning of Atlanta," and others. If you want more Claude than these 16 tracks, there is a boxed set on Bear Family that contains his entire Columbia output, but for most people, this will be all the Claude King you'll ever need in your collection. I highly recommend this CD.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not A Bad Compilation For A Collectables Release, September 9, 2007

By 

AvidOldiesCollector (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wolverton Mountain: Very Best Of Claude King (Audio CD)

I am in complete concurrence with another reviewer's complaint about the minimal liner notes. But after that, I cannot agree with the sentiment expressed regarding the tunes selected by the folks at Collectables. Not this time, although I have been critical in that regard with a good many of their other releases.

First of all, during his recording career, Claude had 30 Top 100 Country singles, six of which crossed over into the Billboard Pop Hot 100 charts and two to the Adult Contemporary charts, and in this set you get EVERY ONE of his fifteen Country Top 20 hits, including his first, Big River, Big Man, which made it to # 7 Country and # 82 Billboard Pop Hot 100 in the summer of 1961, plus one that just missed, Chip 'N' Dale's Place, which peaked at # 23 in 1971.

It would have been nicer for collectors had they made it an even 20-selection CD and added That's What Makes The World Go Around [# 33 Country in 1964], The Watchman [# 32 Country in 1967], and I'll Be Your Baby Tonight # 33 Country in 1971], which then would have given us all his Top 40 hits. To round it out they could have added one of his lesser hits such as Whirlpool (Of Your Love) - a # 47 Country in 1964, Laura (What's He Got That I Ain't Got) - a # 50 in 1967, When You're Twenty-One - a # 54 in 1971, or He Ain't Country - a # 48 in 1972.

But I'm being greedy. As it is (and it IS, after all, labeled "16 Original Classics") it's a fairly comprehensive collection which includes my all-time Claude King favourite, Tiger Woman, his second-best hit after the # 1 Hot 100/# 3 AC Wolverton Mountain at # 6 Country and # 110 Billboard Hot 100 "bubble under" in 1965.

You might not get all of his hits here, but you will put a pretty good dent in your Claude King "want list." The sound quality is excellent.