Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Why Baby Why
2. Just One More
3. Color of the Blues
4. White Lightning
5. Who Shot Sam
6. Window Up Above
7. Tender Years
8. She Thinks I Still Care
9. We Must Have Been out of Our Minds - George Jones, Melba Montgomery
10. Race Is On
11. Love Bug
12. I'm a People
13. Walk Through This World with Me
14. If My Heart Had Windows
15. Good Year for the Roses
16. We Can Make It
17. Ceremony - George Jones, Tammy Wynette
18. Loving You Could Never Be Better
19. Picture of Me (Without You)
20. We're Gonna Hold On - George Jones, Tammy Wynette
21. Once You've Had the Best
22. Grand Tour

Disc 2:

1. The Door
2. These Days (I Barely Get By)
3. Golden Ring
4. Her Name Is
5. Near You
6. Bartender's Blues
7. Maybelline
8. Two Story House
9. He Stopped Loving Her Today
10. I'm Not Ready Yet
11. If Drinkin' Don't Kill Me (Her Memory Will)
12. Still Doin' Time
13. Same Ole Me
14. Yesterday's Wine
15. I Always Get Lucky With You
16. Tennessee Whiskey
17. We Didn't See A Thing
18. She's My Rock
19. Who's Gonna Fill Their Shoes
20. Wine Colored Roses
21. I'm A One Woman Man
22. The King Is Gone (So Are You)
23. I Always Get Lucky with You
24. Tennessee Whiskey
25. We Didn't See a Thing - Chet Atkins, Ray Charles, , George Jones
26. She's My Rock
27. Who's Gonna Fill Their Shoes
28. Wine Colored Roses
29. I'm a One Woman Man
30. King Is Gone (So Are You)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #47601 in Music
• Brand: Sony
• Released on: 1998-08-18
• Number of discs: 2
• Format: Box set

Album Description
Sub-titled 'The Spirit Of Country' this exclusive 44 track collection spans the country great's entire hit and award filled career. The honky tonk legend's tumultuous personal life is in evidence here in songs like, 'We Can Make It', 'These Days (I Barely Get By), 'Why Baby Why' (mono), 'She Thinks I Still Care' and of course his classic duets with Tammy Wynette. Additional artists include James Taylor, Johnny Paycheck, Ray Charles, Chet Atkins, Melba Montgomery and Merle Haggard. 1998 release. Slimline double jewel case.

Amazon.com essential recording
The quarter drops, and out comes the voice of Despair, anxious at first, then desperate, with the singer sliding up a wail meant to caress and exorcise his demons at the same time. He holds the cry as he might the last bottle on earth and then plunges to the low notes in a moan that leaves no doubt--when you talk about pain and suffering, George Jones has been there. The proof is in this 44-song, two-disc box set, a tear built into every groove, starting with the stripped-down production of Pappy Daily's early Starday hits ("Why Baby Why"), segueing to the Mercury years ("The Window up Above"), dipping into the United Artists and Musicor material ("Love Bug"), and then moving on to the Billy Sherrill era at Epic, where Jones secured his legend with his emotionally charged renderings of melodramatic material ("The Grand Tour"). The set is rounded out with a smattering of Jones's countrypolitan duets with Tammy Wynette ("Golden Ring"), as well as "He Stopped Loving Her Today," the preeminent modern country song and performance. --Alanna Nash

Customer Reviews

An impressive two-CD box set of classic Possum tracks
The newfangled country radio stations may have stopped playing George Jones years ago, but he was, is, and always will be the voice of true country music. As a general rule, I don't like country music, but George Jones is something special. Two CDs is barely a start in terms of collecting all of his many, many hits over the years, but these 44 tracks still do quite a good job of showcasing his talent and tracing the evolution of his music over the course of the first thirty-three years of his unprecedented career. In addition, the accompanying booklet stands as a particularly good tribute to the man who, as you can see by all the quotes from big-name stars of today, has influenced country music perhaps more than any other entertainer.

One great thing about this collection is the fact that the release date and peak place on the chart are listed for each of these songs, ranging from 1955's Why Baby Why to 1998's The King is Gone (So Are You). A number of these songs should be familiar to a great number of people and hardly even need any sort of description. I have never really listened to country music, yet I knew many of these songs long ago, even before I began purchasing George Jones releases.

When it comes to George Jones, you have to start with one song: He Stopped Loving Her Today. This song never fails to give me goose bumps, and it has never aged one bit. I was fortunate enough to see George Jones in concert once, and the audience all but screamed for him to sing this song - it still has the power to melt your heart. Another touching song found here is Who's Gonna Fill Their Shoes, which is basically a tribute to the true pioneers and legends of country music. You'll find plenty of fast-paced fun songs here, as well: e.g., I'm a One Woman Man, The Race Is On, and White Lightning. Unforgettable songs revolving around heartache include A Picture Of Me (Without You), If Drinkin' Don't Kill Me (Her Memory Will), These Days I Barely Get By, She Thinks I Still Care, The Window Up Above, and the immaculate The Grand Tour. That vintage George Jones twang makes a sad song do things to your heart that no other performer's voice can possibly match. As I said, I could talk about every song included here; every one of them is just terrific.

There are a fair number of duets included here, of course, as that formed a significant part of George's illustrious career. Bartender's Blues features James Taylor, Johnny Paycheck puts in an appearance on Maybelline, both Ray Charles and Chet Atkins team up with George on We Didn't See a Thing, Yesterday's Wine features Merle Haggard, and Melba Montgomery lends her voice to We Must Have Been Out of Our Minds. Then there is Tammy Wynette, an integral part of both George's music and personal life. This collection gives us only a small sampling of four songs from the greatest duo in country music, but each of these four is amazing: Near You, The Ceremony (in which George and Tammy basically renewed their marriage vows), We're Gonna Hold On (which was inspired by the strains that developed in their marriage), and Two Story House.

Essentially, this two-CD box set is a great buy for anyone nursing a newfound love for George Jones' music or just experiencing some curiosity about the man whose music and personal life did much to define country music for so long. Established Possum fans will already own most of these songs, yet the excellent booklet full of track information, biographical material, and pictures from the course of George's career offers much for loyal fans, as well.

No Quibbling
At least half the songs on this collection are among the finest country songs ever recorded, some because they are flat out great songs (She Thinks I Still Care, Wine Colored Roses), some slight but made much more by the seen-it-all, drunk-it-all, sung-it-all Jones voice. List 'em -- Why Baby Why, Just One More, She Thinks I Still Care, We Must Have Been Out of Our Minds, The Race is On, A Good Year for the Roses, The Grand Tour, Golden Ring, and the incredible streak of cuts 8-14 on disc two -- Two Story House (story in both senses of the word of course), He Stopped Loving Her Today, I'm Not Ready Yet, If Drinkin Don't Kill Me, Still Doin' Time, Same Ole Me, and Yesterday's Wine. You are talking over 30 years of material here, add another 15 to bring us up to 2003 (see his last two CDs and you will have no doubt that George's quality has stayed superb) and that's nearly half a century of song stories that ring as true, sad, and life strong as the first time heard.

This CD belongs in the collection of every person with the slightest interest in country music. Ol' George has peers, Johnny, Merle, Willie, but no one is his better.

Couple last random thoughts -- 1) God, I miss Tammy Wynette. 2)Let's be honest, it wouldn't be George if there weren't a couple of over the top, corny dregs -- The Ceremony and Her Name Is are my nominees. 3) I wish he'd written more in the 70's and 80's. Looking at the early songs, I have to think that his great material from those decades could have been even finer mixed with some of his own compositions.

a great box set with only minor flaws
this box set was released in 1994 during the middle of his 40th Anniversary as a recording artist. this box set is great and for a major record label like Epic/Sony to showcase George's other hits on other labels too, well, that in itself is amazing. i love the selections that are showcased BUT (here comes the "but" interjection once again)...i didn't like the liner notes in the mini-booklet dealing with George's signing with Epic in 1971. the guy who wrote the liner notes, Rich Kienzle, if you didn't know, is or was a critic for a magazine called "Country Music". Rich and several other critics for that magazine don't keep their hatred hidden for George's Epic material. Rich and Bob Allen are the two biggest complainers of the Epic days. well, anyway, Rich goes into detail about the "soap opera" that Billy Sherrill created with George and Tammy's songs. he then goes in for more detail after the break-up and the "no show" days. on top of this, in a box set supposedly to celebrate George Jones' incredible body of work, Rich feels it necessary to quote Billy Sherrill's odd statement which went something like: {i think that George oversang 'Bartenders Blues'; it was like George Jones trying to sound like George Jones...}. was there any need for such a comment like that to be included in this box set? i love Bartender's Blues and in reality it's James Taylor's soaring harmony that would make you think it's "oversung". the music itself is excellent and all original material. the box set was issued by Sony/Epic and therefore all of George's major Top-40 hits on Epic from 1972-1989 are on here (minus his wonderful 1977 Top-40 "If I Could Put Them All Together", his 1984 Top-10 "You've Still Got a Place In My Heart" and his two Top-20 duet hits with Brenda Lee on "Hallelujah, I Love You So" and Lacy J. Dalton on "Size Seven Round and Made of Gold" in early 1985 but that's about the only Epic material that made the Top-40 that ISN'T on here, though!). as a result, this box set totally wipes out the importance of having 1982's "Anniversary: Ten Years of Hits" unless you're a completist. near the end of this booklet, Rich talks about how "I'm a One Woman Man" was his last hit for Epic in early 1989. this is incorrect. "The King is Gone", which was originally known as "Ya Ba Da Ba Do", hit #26 in mid 1989 and "Writing On The Wall" would hit #31 in late 1989. so, technically, "Writing On The Wall" was George's final hit single. two of his 1990 Epic singles wouldn't chart and THEN he moved to MCA in 1991...but that's another story, maybe there's a volume two in the works to showcase his post 1991 material???! get this box set but be aware of the highly opinionated liner notes and some inaccuracies (like the one i just described about "One Woman Man" NOT being his last hit for Epic). you know, some people assume because an album contains no hit singles that it isn't worth talking about. well, i look at it with this view: i'd rather have an album that had NO hits because NOBODY would know about it and i'd have a RARE/little-known album and as a collector i know that completists like myself want the rare unknown albums as much as the well known titles. there is simply no excuse for critics and "historians" on George Jones to ignore 1983's "Shine On", 1983's "Jones Country", 1984's "You've Still Got a Place In My Heart", 1987's "Too Wild Too Long", and 1990's "You Oughta Be Here With Me" and act like they don't exist. once again, get this box set BUT throw away the booklet if you walk away thinking it's too negative for an "anniversary" project like this.