Because You Believed in Me/Beautiful Country

Gene Watson

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 10, 2005)
• Original Release Date: November 15, 2005
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Hux Records
• ASIN: B000B66ONA
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #57,793 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Between his major label debut on Capitol Records in 1975 & the present day, Gene Watson has excelled with his traditional slant on country music and has enjoyed several hit singles on the Country charts. Watson is a singer in country music's grand tradition & has the skill to give powerful vocal performances and draw all the emotion from his selected material effortlessly. In 1976, Watson released his second LP on the Capitol label, Because You Believed In Me, the title track of which was a Top 20 hit single. Beautiful Country, released the following year, included the hit singles 'The Old Man & His Horn', 'I Don't Need A Thing At All', and 'Cowboys Don't Get Lucky All The Time', which was a hit in 1978. This latter song also appeared on the soundtrack of the Sam Peckinpah movie 'Convoy’. The two albums on this CD are drawn from the most commercially successful period of his career and capture Watson in his prime. Both released here on CD for the first time. Hux. 2005.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Can't find the right words to classify this twofer....!, August 5, 2006

By	Ronald Van Scherpenzeel (Madrid, Spain) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

When you like to find out some more about an artist whom you
casually heard a song of you liked very much, the next step is
to get a "greatest hits" compilation and see if the initial
impression is possitive indeed. When I bought the "Ultimate
Collection" of Gene Watson, I liked it so much that I gave it
5 stars (see one of the previous reviews). Since there were
more "greatest hits" compilations I kept on buying them and
every time I was more impressed with Gene's style of singing
and the selection of songs. Only 2 or 3 weeks ago I bought
his latest CD from 2005 (that means a gap of 16 years)and
again it was 5 stars worth because nothing had changed: a
beautiful way of singing great songs. Finally I decided to
purchase these two original LP's on one CD although I was a
little bit worried about its contents because when any artist
normally has some good songs on a LP or CD there are also
usually some minor songs. Wrong!!! To anyone who likes Gene
Watson or country music in general THIS IS A MUST! I can't
find the right words to describe these two complete LP's on
one CD. There's everything within the country music: rock,
blues, honky tonk, bluegrass even the incredible "jazzy" song
"The Old Man and His Horn" (one of the nicest songs ever
recorded on a country record) and most of all his beautiful
ballads. I have been collecting records for almost 50 years
now and never thouhgt a "new" discovered singer would replace
my preferences on the private list for the best artists around.
However this has happened and I'm glad it did. This guy is
givin' me hours of listening pleasure and I immediatley have
asked for his other double LP on CD released also by the HUX
label. These "packages" are beautifully remastered and the
sound quality is superb.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Two Great Albums on One CD, November 29, 2005

By	Paul W. Dennis (Winter Springs, FL USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Gene Watson was at his peak during his tenure at Capitol and these are just two of several outstanding albums he issued for the label. BECAUSE YOU BELIEVED IN ME was Gene's second album with the title cut reaching the Top 20. BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY was (I think) his fourth album, and contains my all-time favorite Gene Watson single "The Old Man and His Horn" which has a definite New Orleans feel to it(including trumpet solos)and a terrific narrative story. Other singles drawn from this album include "I Don't Need A Thing At All", and "Cowboys Don't Get Lucky All The Time" (which appeared in the soundtrack of the movie 'Convoy'). Seven of the songs on this CD were penned either by Ray Griff or Dallas Harms. Great stuff

5.0 out of 5 stars Second and fourth of Gene's seventies albums, July 6, 2009

By	Peter Durward Harris "Pete the music fan" (Leicester England) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

In 2002, the same label released a twofer containing Love in the hot afternoon (the album that launched Gene's career in America) and Paper Rosie (the album that brought his music to the attention of British country music fans. From the liner notes to this 2005 release and the gap between the re-issues, it seems that the record label wanted to evaluate the market before re-issuing any more of Gene's albums. But sales obviously encouraged them to release this second twofer, though it was to be a few more years before another twofer (featuring his Reflections album, containing Farewell party) was released.

The first album here (Because you believed in me) didn't exactly build on the success of Gene's debut album (Love in the hot afternoon), but there is much to like about it nevertheless. The title track became a top twenty country hit (but only just) while the follow-up (Her body couldn't keep you off my mind) stalled outside the top fifty, so wasn't really a hit at all, though I love both of those songs. Elsewhere, the album features a superb cover of Bitter they are harder they fall (a Larry Gatlin song that has also been recorded by Dottie West, Elvis Presley, Anne Murray and others) and a cover of an obscure Roger Miller song (Sorry Willie), as well as several excellent original songs that you're unlikely to hear elsewhere. The one mystery surrounding the album is the identity of the blonde woman pictured prominently on the front and back cover of the original artwork. She doesn't feature among the musical credits, nor are there any comments about her. Maybe she was the subject of the title track. (If you know, please add the answer as a comment to this review.) I never had this album on vinyl, but I'm very pleased to have it on CD.

Any worries about Gene Watson being a commercial one-album wonder soon vanished as the follow-up (Paper Rosie) gave him a top three country hit, while the follow-up and the second album here (Beautiful country) featured three big country hits. One of those hits (I don't need a thing at all) made the country top ten, while two others (Cowboys don't get lucky all the time, The old man and his horn) just failed to make the top ten, both stalling at eleven. There are plenty of other great songs here, notably Hey Barnum and Bailey,, Raining in Dallas and He little thinged her out of my arms. I always regard this album as one of Gene's strongest among those that I owned on vinyl, and it sounds as good as ever now on CD.

For those who enjoy hardcore traditional country music with no frills, Gene Watson provided plenty of great music during the seventies and eighties. After that, the music business lost interest in him, but he continued to record occasional albums on small independent labels. For many years, only hit compilations were available on CD, but now six of his original albums are available on CD, which something I never really expected to happen, but which is very satisfying. Those six are all from his Capitol years, including the three I most wanted (Paper Rosie, Reflections, Beautiful country). If enough fans buy these twofers, perhaps his MCA albums will follow eventually.