The Very Best of John Michael Montgomery

John Michael Montgomery

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 26, 2003)
• Original Release Date: August 26, 2003
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Rhino / Wea
• ASIN: B0000AQS53
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #20,474 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Bound for the airwaves, Montogomery's first-ever TV-marketed career-spanning compilation features all the hits, signature ballads, and two new, 2003 songs, 'Cool' & 'One Day Less'. Slipcase. WB Records.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Generous collection of commercial honky tonk and ballads, September 9, 2003

By	hyperbolium (Earth, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)

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.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars More Tracks But Less Satisfying Than His Prior Greatest Hits, September 11, 2003

By	James E. Bagley "Jim Bagley" (Sanatoga, PA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I would love to rate it higher ...., October 31, 2003

By	Mitch Istre (Houston, TX USA) - See all my reviews

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.