Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. No Money In This Deal
2. I'm Ragged But I'm Right
3. Why Baby Why
4. Just One More
5. Color Of The Blues
6. White Lightning
7. Out Of Control
8. You're Still On My Mind
9. The Window Up Above
10. Tender Years
11. She Thinks I Still Care
12. A Girl I Used To Know
13. The Race Is On
14. We Must Have Been Out Of Our Minds
15. Take Me
16. We Can Make It
17. Loveing You Could Never Be Better
18. What My Woman Can't Do
19. A Picture Of Me (Without You)
20. Nothing Ever Hurt Me (Half As Bad As Losing You)

Disc 2:

1. The Grand Tour
2. Once You've Had The Best
3. We Loved It Away
4. The Door
5. These Days (I Barely Get By)
6. Memories Of Us
7. I Just Don't Give A Damn
8. A Drunk Can't Be A Man
9. Stand On My Own Two Knees
10. The Battle
11. Someday My Day Will Come
12. He Stopped Loving Her Today
13. If Drinkin' Don't Kill Me (Her Memory Will)
14. I've Aged Twenty Years In Five
15. Still Doin' Time
16. You've Still Got A Place In My Heart
17. I Always Get Lucky With You
18. The Right Left Hand
19. I'm A One Woman Man
20. Choices

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #15480 in Music
• Released on: 2006-03-28
• Number of discs: 2
• Format: Original recording remastered

Customer Reviews

country music for the rest of us
for those of you who don't recognize what is played on contemporary country music radio but who have fond memories of your parent's country music. You will appreciate this anthology. For me it brings back memories of childhood and provides a reference for the REAL country musicians of today that don't get the play they deserve. George Jones has a heartbreaking voice and his music is still relevant.

"He Stopped Loving Her Today..." brings tears to my eyes.
I'm not a big C & W fan, but I saw George Jones recently on Letterman, and he sang the above mentioned song, which I hadn't heard for many years. WOW, very moving, so much so that I'd see the old guy in concert if he came to town, plus it made me want to purchase this CD. I'm glad I did, because in his prime -- as he was when he recorded this album -- he was REALLY good. All the songs on this double CD are great; strong vocals and terrific interpretation, great arrangements with top musicians backing him up. If you enjoy country, this CD must be considered a classic. And if you're not so familiar with country (like me) this is a great place to start your your collection.

Superb overview of country music's legendary singer
The mergers and acquisitions that have marked the last decade of the record industry may be concentrating more power in the hands of the few, but it's also making it a lot easier to market multi-label anthologies of long-running artists such as Jones. This 2-CD, 40-track collection surveys nearly all facets of Jones' career, from his early success at Starday, through his breakout sides on Mercury, a stint on United Artists and his long run on Epic. Missing are his late '60s sides for Musicor, which had been licensed for earlier multilabel sets, but were unavailable (or too expensive) this time out. The out-of-print Musicor-focussd "George Jones: 24 Greatest Hits" (on the Tee Vee label) thus makes a nice complement to this set.

Jones' earliest sides find him still in the thrall of honky-tonk legends Hank Williams and Lefty Frizell. His work for Starday and Mercury were hardcore country, honed in the roadhouses of his native East Texas. But by the start of the '60s, at the tail end of his tenure for Mercury, Jones started to find a new voice. On breakthroughs like "She Thinks I Still Care," Jones and his producer shook off a bit of the twang, slowed down the dancehall tempos, and introduced the beginnings of the vocal style that would become his trademark over the next two decades.

The quality of his recordings surged and floundered throughout his hit-making years, alongside his drinking and drugging, but not always in correlation. At turns, the despair of his personal life fueled his performances, at other times it simply overtook him. By the end of the '60s, having left Musicor, he landed at Epic and wrote his legacy large with recordings produced by Billy Sherrill. Solo and with then-wife Tammy Wynette, Jones recorded many of country music's most indelible sides, including "Love You Could Never Be Better" and "Take Me." His divorce in 1975 and subsequent substance abuse fueled sides like "Memories of Us" and "A Drunk Can't Be a Man." Jones bottomed-out personally and triumphed professionally in 1980 with the song many consider to be country music's all-time greatest, "He Stopped Love Her Today."

Jones continued to record with Sherrill into the late '80s, at which point he moved to MCA and finally to Asylum, minting top-10 singles (and catching a Grammy© for "Choices" in 1999) along the way. This 2-CD set provides a broad overview of Jones' career, save for the missing Musicor years, and provides an excellent introduction for the neophyte, as well as a nicely condensed listening experience for fans. [2006 redtunictroll at hotmail dot com]