Track Listing

1. Walkin' the Floor Over You - Ernest Tubb, Tubb, Ernest
2. Mean Mama Blues - Ernest Tubb, Tubb, Ernest
3. Our Baby's Book - Ernest Tubb, Tubb, Ernest
4. You Nearly Lose Your Mind - Ernest Tubb, Tubb, Ernest
5. Soldier's Last Letter - Ernest Tubb, Tubb, Ernest
6. Tomorrow Never Comes - Ernest Tubb, Tubb, Ernest
7. It's Been So Long, Darling - Ernest Tubb, Tubb, Ernest
8. Rainbow at Midnight - Ernest Tubb, Miller, John
9. Filipino Baby - Ernest Tubb, Cox, Billy
10. Drivin' Nails in My Coffin - Ernest Tubb, Irby, Jerry
11. Have You Ever Been Lonely (Have You Ever Been Blue) - Ernest Tubb, DeRose, Peter
12. Let's Say Goodbye Like We Said Hello - Ernest Tubb, Tubb, Ernest
13. Slipping Around - Ernest Tubb, Tillman, Floyd
14. Blue Christmas - Ernest Tubb, Hays, Billy
15. Letters Have No Arms - Ernest Tubb, Tubb, Ernest
16. I Love You Because - Ernest Tubb, Payne, Leon
17. Goodnight, Irene - Ernest Tubb, Ledbetter, Huddie
18. You Don't Have to Be a Baby to Cry - Ernest Tubb, Shand, Terry
19. Two Glasses, Joe - Ernest Tubb, Walker, Cindy
20. The Yellow Rose of Texas - Ernest Tubb, George, Don
21. Half a Mind - Ernest Tubb, Miller, Roger
22. Thanks a Lot - Ernest Tubb, Miller, Eddie [coun
23. Mr. & Mrs. Used to Be - Ernest Tubb, Deaton, Joe
24. Waltz Across Texas - Ernest Tubb, Tubb, Billy Talmadg
25. Sweet Thang - Ernest Tubb, Stuckey, Nat

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7974 in Music
• Released on: 2006-06-06
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered

Customer Reviews

MOST OF THESE ARE NOT THE ORIGINAL HITS!
From the opening notes of "Walking the Floor Over You," something just didn't sound right. Gone was the rich, thick baritone and ET's plaintive wailing over his true love. Instead, we get the vocals of a baritone that displays the wear and tear that a lifetime of singing and smoking (and emphysema) can do to a voice. Sure enough, when checking out the "American Masters" series, it's got the exact version on it, down to ET's comments to his guitar player before a brief solo. The difference is that the "American Masters" has the honesty to list it as "1963 version" -- not the '40s classic I love so well. And so it goes with most of the tracks on this CD -- most follow the same pattern. We don't hear ET progress through time. Instead, all the songs are sung by rote by a man clearly in his late 50s or early 60s, and the band backing him is definitely not the Texas Troubadors!

A couple of classics are here -- the duets, for instance. But I'd estimate 90 percent of this CD was recorded in '63, or '73, or whenever, but you certainly don't hear ET's voice age over the years like you should.

Clearly, ET met in a studio with session musicians, did a few run-throughs, and then cut this CD in a day or so. All the songs have the same sonic "background," and Tubb's voice stays the same from beginning to end.

I was born and raised in rural Texas and the music of Ernest Tubb (along with a few others) comprise the "soundtrack of my youth." I give this CD 1 star out of love for ET, and one star because the songs are great, even if they aren't the original recordings. If not for his memory and the great music he left behind, this would rate zero stars. Clearly some record executives had him sing his hits, paid him some decent money, and now are making MORE money by passing this off as a "greatest hits" compilation. IT IS NOT. There's some great ET on CD. Shop around. AVOID THIS! What a disappointment.

MEMORIES
ERNEST TUBB REPRESENTS THE REAL COUNTRY MUSIC OF THE 40 S AND 50 S AND NOT THE CONTEMPORARY MUSIC WHICH MAY BE NICE BUT NOT COUNTRY.THIS ALBUM IS FANTASTIC AND WILL BRING BACK MEMORIES OF A BETTER TIME.....TOM SMITH

Ernest Tubb Is A True Texas Original
I'd had a lifelong dislike of country music, falling only for a crossover song or two that might happen to hit the pop charts. But when it got into deep country, classic country, I was not a fan at all.

One man who really changed that for me was Ernest Tubb, who, by the way, was instrumental in the establishment of Country music as a major American genre, not only helping launch the careers of Johnny Cash, Loretta Lynne, Hank Snowe, Hank Williams and many others, but also helping to give Country Music its very name.

Before Ernest Tubb, record labels invested very modestly in what they termed "Hillbilly Music." Tubb used his prestige, along with several other artists, to lobby the music industry into using the term County-Western and constantly urged them to promote the art form more prominently.

My story with Ernest Tubb began in a way he would have loved. I was in a rental car, driving across Texas, for reasons I cannot explain now, (I am a California native). And I could find no pop or rock music. I finally gave in and reluctantly tuned into the only station I could get, a Country Music station, and at that time, as I drove the vast Texas desert, what should come on the radio to guide me through the darkness but Tubb's tune Waltz Across Texas. The magic of that song, combined with the vast space of Texas, and the lonely, endless road and the dark night, combined to provide a mysterious and erie effect.

Later, again, after I'd long had my mind in other types of music, I stumbled into Tubb's You Tube videos, and was again knocked out of my chair by such greatly ironic songs as Thanks A Lot, and such wise tunes as Let's Say Goodbye Like We Said Hello. And there's there's the charming innocence of Walking The Floor Over You. And I was truly taken by the cynical lyrics and the minimalist tones of such numbers as Tomorrow Never Comes.

I gave this particular collection four stars instead of five because it did not include Remember Me, (I'm The One Who Loves You), which happens to be my second-favorite of his tunes. I'll have to essentially buy a separate collection of Tubb tunes to get that one. But who knows, I may discover many other gems in there that I don't yet know of.

Take some time and get to know Ernest Tubb, you won't regret it.