Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. I Hate Everything
2. Fool Hearted Memory
3. A Fire I Can't Put Out
4. You Look So Good In Love
5. Right Or Wrong
6. Let's Fall To Pieces Together
7. Does Fort Worth Ever Cross Your Mind?
8. The Chair
9. Nobody In His Right Mind Would've Left Her
10. It Ain't Cool To Be Crazy About You
11. Ocean Front Property
12. All My Ex's Live In Texas
13. Am I Blue
14. Famous Last Words Of A Fool
15. Baby Blue
16. If You Ain't Lovin' (You Ain't Livin')
17. Baby's Gotten Good At Goodbye
18. What's Going On In Your World
19. Ace In The Hole
20. Love Without End, Amen
21. I've Come To Expect It From You
22. If I Know Me
23. You Know Me Better Than That
24. The Chill Of An Early Fall
25. So Much Like My Dad
26. I Cross My Heart

Disc 2:

1. Heartland
2. Easy Come, Easy Go
3. I'd Like To Have That One Back
4. The Man In Love With You
5. The Big One
6. You Can't Make A Heart Love Somebody
7. Lead On
8. Check Yes Or No
9. I Know She Still Loves Me
10. Blue Clear Sky
11. Carried Away
12. I Can Still Make Cheyenne
13. One Night At A Time
14. Carrying Your Love With Me
15. Today My World Slipped Away
16. Round About Way
17. I Just Want To Dance With You
18. TRUE
19. We Really Shouldn't Be Doing This
20. Write This Down
21. The Best Day
22. Go On
23. Run
24. Living and Living Well
25. She'll Leave You With A Smile

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #496 in Music
• Brand: MCA
• Released on: 2004-10-05
• Number of discs: 2
• Dimensions: .26 pounds

Amazon.com
When George Strait's "She'll Leave You With a Smile" moved to the top of the country charts in early 2003, the handsome Lone Star crooner bested Conway Twitty for the most No. 1 singles by a solo artist. This collection of 50 chart-toppers, spanning 22 years, showcases the Cadillac of country singers at his best, blending traditional and contemporary stylings, but never straying too far from the core of his Texas barroom sound. "Fool Hearted Memory," from 1982, proves that Strait had his uncluttered production and straightforward vocal approach down from the start, no matter how many producers guided him to his peak. Through the years, the path to superstardom dictated that he trade the crisp Western swing of "Right or Wrong" and "Ace in the Hole" for squishy, mid-tempo crowd pleasers like "Check Yes or No" and "Write This Down." But he redeemed himself with such poignant heartbreakers as "So Much Like My Dad" and "…Smile." This retrospective's one new track, "I Hate Everything," about a man in a bar who's besotted more from pain than whiskey, doesn't match up with the singer's best material, but it's still got that irresistible Strait hook: average-guy sincerity wrapped in a down-to-earth heart. --Alanna Nash

Customer Reviews

+ 1/2 stars...Buyer Beware!!!
This two-disc collection of 50 No. 1 hits from the past twenty-two years sounded too good to be true. Turns out, it is. In order to squeeze 50 tracks onto two CDs, it was necessary to edit most of the songs on this collection. While I don't have a problem with fading out a song a few seconds early, many of these songs have been seriously edited. No fewer than eight songs have been shortened by at least twenty seconds and another six have been shortened by thirty seconds or more. The worst offender is the truncated version of "Carrying Your Love With Me," which was shortened by forty-three seconds.

To the casual fan this may be no big deal, but any serious George Strait fan will notice the difference. It would have made more sense to simply add a third disc, as well as a few other top 10 songs. This may seem to fly in the face of the title, but they already included two tracks ("True" and "Run") which only reached no. 2.

For nearly a quarter of a century Gearge Strait has been one of the best of country music's traditionalists, and he certainly needed an updated greatest hits package. However, fans deserved better than this doctored version. As for me, I'm going to stick with 1995's STRAIT OUT OF THE BOX.

George Strait Abridged
I am heartened to find that there are purists out there who share the same complaint I have about this CD. Cramming 51 number ones into a package is impressive...until you realize that they chopped down many of the songs (particularly the older ones) to make it all fit. They give us premature fade-outs and deleted lyrics in an attempt to market another Greatest Hits CD. It is inexcusable and not worthy of the purchase. Still, if you do happen to own this compilation, you can journey back to George's early days and experience the evolution of country music from the early '80's to today. The debate will forever rage on about the state of country music then and now and which time period was preferable, but this album can highlight those differences by charting the career of a constant bright star in country music who is now in his third decade of music-making. Outside of these historical musings, skip this album. There are several Strait Greatest Hits packages that you can buy very cheaply that encompass almost all of the songs on this album. The other albums also include many other worthy offerings that don't appear on this one like the classic, "Amarillo by Morning," "Unwound," "The Fireman," "The Cowboy Rides Away," and "Marina Del Ray." If older country isn't to your taste, just wait a few years until RCA puts out yet another compilation. Either way, give this album a pass.

Longer is better
Wow. Twenty straight years with at least one #1 single, and he has more #1 hits than any country artist in history - 50 of them. How could a collection of all 50 of them plus a brand new song that sounds so much like a #1 that it fits right in with the other 50 ("I Hate Everything") be less than twenty bucks? Well, as with most everything in life, there's a catch. Technology hasn't yet allowed us to make CDs that have more than 80 minutes of content on them.

All the reviewers are right in saying that many of the tracks have been edited - some a little, some drastically. But saying that they've ALL been edited isn't true. I don't think they've been edited as badly as some make out, but it will strike a nerve when you find out one or more of your favories of these 50 #1s are some that have seemingly been cut in half or more. "Fool Hearted Memory" and "True" were two of the songs I was most looking forward to owning, and I'm glad that I own them now, but it makes me beyond mad how much they edited those! Rather than saying "is true" over and over at the end of "True", the song fades out before it gets to that point... Unforgivable!

After noticing this, I was glad I got the album for only $14.95 at a local Best Buy rather than paying more for these shortened versions. But still, how could you not be glad having all these songs in one CD case. George Strait is my favorite country artist without a doubt. So much that I'll likely get Strait Out Of The Box and other compilations by him in the future; not only because many of my favorites here don't last as long as they do on the radio and other CDs, but because even with 50 great songs, I don't have all the Strait I want. "Marina Del Rey", "Lovebug", "If You're Thinking You Want A Stranger (There's One Coming Home)", Adalida, Amarillo By Morning, etc., are missing. I'm shocked every single one of those didn't make a crash landing in the #1 spot! The booklet is right in saying that "The 50 No. 1 songs featured on this collection only tell part of the story."

I understand the frustration of all the others at the edited songs, because I'm one of them, but I still say this is worth owning, especially if you don't have the box set and all his other compilations yet. George Strait fans who are thinking twice of making 50 Number Ones their own deserve what the back of the CD doesn't give you: a list of how long each individual song is on this album.

CD 1: I Hate Everything - 3:55, Fool Hearted Memory - 2:12, A Fire I Can't Put Out - 2:57, You Look So Good In Love - 2:57, Right Or Wrong - 2:03, Let's Fall To Pieces Together - 2:21, Does Fort Worth Ever Cross Your Mind - 3:05, The Chair - 2:48, Nobody In His Right Mind Would've Left Her - 2:49, It Ain't Cool To Be Crazy About You - 2:38, Ocean Front Property - 2:40, All My Ex's Live In Texas - 3:17, Am I Blue - 3:04, Famous Last Words Of A Fool - 3:19, Baby Blue - 3:29, If You Ain't Lovin' (You Ain't Livin') - 2:17, Baby's Gotten Good At Goodbye - 2:55, What's Going On In Your World - 3:26, Ace In The Hole - 2:34, Love Without End, Amen - 3:05, I've Come To Expect It From You - 3:42, If I Know Me - 2:41, You Know Me Better Than That - 3:00, The Chill Of An Early Fall - 3:16, So Much Like My Dad - 3:19, I Cross My Heart - 3:29.

CD 2: Heartland - 2:16, Easy Come, Easy Go - 2:35, I'd Like To Have That One Back - 3:48, The Man in Love With You - 3:18, The Big One - 2:05, You Can't Make a Heart Love Somebody - 2:48, Lead On - 3:21, Check Yes Or No - 3:10, I Know She Still Loves Me - 3:04, Blue Clear Sky - 2:34, Carried Away - 2:58, I Can Still Make Cheyenne - 4:11, One Night At A Time - 3:19, Carrying Your Love With Me - 3:07, Today My World Slipped Away - 3:05, Round About Way - 2:50, I Just Want To Dance With You - 3:18, True - 3:12, We Really Shouldn't Be Doing This - 2:23, Write This Down - 3:33, The Best Day - 3:18, Go On - 3:21, Run - 3:46, Living And Living Well - 3:26, She'll Leave You With A Smile - 2:44