Hits I Missed...And One I Didn't

George Jones

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 13, 2005)
• Original Release Date: September 13, 2005
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Bandit Records
• ASIN: B000A8AXEA
• Also Available in: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #43,348 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
It's an interesting concept: George Jones, still the gold standard for country singers after nearly half a century, finally recording material submitted to and rejected by him from the '60s through the '90s--songs that would go on to become hits for others. Superbly produced by Keith Stegall, Jones masterfully tackles Willie Nelson's "Funny How Time Slips Away"; Randy Travis's "On the Other Hand"; "Detroit City," the Mel Tillis composition that became Bobby Bare's signature tune; and Merle Haggard's "Today I Started Loving You Again." A new version of Hank Williams Jr.'s "The Blues Man" with a cameo from Dolly Parton is reflective and thoughtful. Jones does equally well with "Too Cold at Home," the introductory hit for his friend Mark Chesnutt. While the remake of his own 1981 landmark hit "He Stopped Loving Her Today" is austere and dignified, the biggest surprises are finding Jones had first crack at Henson Cargill's socially relevant 1968 ballad "Skip a Rope" and "Pass Me By," Johnny Rodriguez's 1972 debut hit. Jones's brief notes on each tune provide some interesting hindsight perspectives. --Rich Kienzle

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The hits he missed, September 20, 2005

By	Jerry McDaniel (Ohio USA) - See all my reviews

With this CD, we hear a lot of songs from George that he had first shot at recording but turned down. It's interesting hearing George sing songs that others had hits with...well, what i mean is, the concept-hook of this CD is listening to songs that became hits for others. I love all the songs on this CD...the stand-out for me is his duet with Dolly Parton on "The Blues Man". "Skip a Rope" and "Busted" are surprises. I love his take on Vern Gosdin's "If You're Gonna Do Me Wrong" plus "Too Cold At Home", a hit for Mark Chesnutt in the early '90s. We also hear George doing his version of Alan Jackson's "Here In The Real World"!! The highlight of the CD is listening to his re-recording of "He Stopped Loving Her Today", which is 25 years old this year {he had a hit with it in 1980}. "Today I Started Loving You Again" and "On the Other Hand" are also great!! I didn't know George was pitched hardly any of these songs before!! It's mind boggling thinking of all the songs George turned down in his career!! The CD opens up with Willie Nelson's "Funny How Time Slips Away" and then glides into Bobby Bare's hit, "Detroit City". The 12 songs are all wonderful and it's eerie to realize that George is 74 years old and STILL able to create one of kind vocal performances of these songs!!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars George Jones delivers cover songs worth hearing, October 15, 2005

By	Bob McGrath (Sacramento, CA) - See all my reviews

Enough has been said about George Jones as a singer. In summary: you can't say enough about George Jones as a singer. He has the ability to truly inhabit a lyric, to bring it to life without getting in its way. He has been called the greatest country singer alive, and rightly so.

What's surprising here, then, is not so much Jones' performance as the way in which he sheds new light on the material itself. I've heard Vern Gosdin's "If You're Gonna Do Me Wrong" a hundred times, but hearing Jones' version of the song is still a revelation. Slight changes in phrasing and the very experience of hearing it done by someone else (after ninety-nine times, you start taking Gosdin's version for granted) challenge us to reexamine the songs and appreciate them in new ways.

The selection of material here is stellar. Covers of songs famously performed by Randy Travis, Mark Chesnutt, Merle Haggard, Alan Jackson, Johnny Rodriguez, and others remain faithful to the originals. For those of us who heard these songs the first time around, this plays like a tribute to classic country songs... which is not to say oldies - "On the Other Hand" holds up admirably beside "Today I Started Loving You Again." The cover songs here probably won't unseat any of the original classic performances, but the album is enjoyable from beginning to end and it serves as a nice reminder of what real country music sounds like - before Nashville became more interested in bubble gum, soccer moms, sippy cups, and pop instrumentation.

When lyrical eloquence and emotional depth mattered and a guy like the Possum could be heard on country radio.

Those were the days.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars GEORGE JONES IS THE GREATEST SINGER EVER, September 17, 2005

By	Lee Millholland (Dalton, Georgia) - See all my reviews

I think this is without a doubt one of the best cd's The Possum has ever recorded and I have listened to him all my life and he is without a doubt the greatest singer ever and it's sad that he is getting up there in age and probably will be winding down his great career soon and it's also sad that most radio stations will not play him or any of the greats like Hag and Waylon. On some of the songs on this cd you can tell his voice is cracking a little but it's still George at his best. I have said it a million times he could sing the phone book and I would buy it. I have not took this cd out of my player since I bought it. Thats how great it is. That's how great of a singer he is....