Track Listing

1. Take Me
2. The Ceremony
3. Let's Build A World Together
4. We're Gonna Hold On
5. Golden Ring
6. (We're Not) The Jet Set
7. Near You
8. We Loved It Away
9. God's Gonna Get 'Cha (For That)
10. Southern California
11. Two Story House
12. A Pair Of Old Sneakers
13. Something To Brag About
14. There's Power In Our Love
15. Keep The Change
16. Roll In My Sweet Baby's Arms

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #33151 in Music
• Released on: 1999-08-10
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.com
George Jones and Tammy Wynette had already been married three years when they began cutting duets together, and this album's opening pledge of eternal love, 1971's "Take Me," followed by their recitation of wedding vows in "The Ceremony," sets the tone early on. Somewhere soon thereafter, Jones began hitting the bottle and the blow again, and by 1973 he and Wynette were knocking on wood and pledging "We're Gonna Hold On." They did reconcile, but the next year they were lamenting "We Loved It Away," and in 1976 they checked out with the lachrymose "Golden Ring." By 1980 they were feeling more conciliatory toward each other, explaining themselves with the comeback "Two Story House." Great autobiographical track not about the ups and downs of their relationship: "(We're Not) The Jet Set." Here's some country music that means what it says to the people who sang it. --John Morthland

Customer Reviews

Their songs told their story
George and Tammy were already legends before they started recording duets. It was natural that they should, because country duets were very fashionable, thanks in no small measure to the successful recording partnership between Porter and Dolly. Unlike those two, George and Tammy were married to each other. Many of their biggest hits told of some aspect of their life together.

So, there is Take me (before marriage), The ceremony (the actual wedding), Let's build a world together (looking forward to years of happiness), Near you (wedded bliss), We're gonna hold on (problems in the marriage, but it can be saved), We loved it away (marriage beyond repair) and Two story house (we live in the same house, but we ignore each other). By the time they recorded Two story house, they had divorced and each had found a new marriage partner.

Of course, they did have other hits as well, including Golden ring (the saddest song they recorded as a duet), We're not the jet set and Southern California.

George and Tammy, along with Porter and Dolly, Conway and Loretta were one of the three great country pairings of the early seventies. All the essential duets can be found here, although they recorded a brilliant album in the nineties (One) which is not represented here. Buy that, too, if you can find it.

Mr & Mrs Country Music For The Record
By the time they stepped into the CBS recording studio in 1971 George and Tammy had been married two years, he was already considered one of the great traditional artists in the genre and she was the industry's First Lady. They were sitting on top of the country music world. The downhill slide was only a few years away, but for a brief time they were country music's camelot ... they were the original "Mr. & Mrs. Country Music". Only a few of their duets went number one (GOLDEN RING, WE'RE GONNA HOLD ON) and some seemed to miss the mark all together (THE CEREMONY, A PAIR OF OLD SNEAKERS), but the simple joining of two of country music's most famous voices makes this BIGGEST HITS collection a haunting, biographical journey into the country music of yesterday that shouldn't be forgotten nor missed.

Another Good One
Besides Conway & Loretta, noone sang a duet like George and Tammy........although I was partial to George and Melba Montgomery. George Jones is one of the most sincere stylists in Country Music history; and Tammy had the most "vulnerable" voices around. This album showcases the combining of these two legends, and out of 16 numbers, there's not a bad one here. All of the usual suspects are included: "Golden Ring", "...Hold On", and "Two Story House", as well as a few of their cover songs (which they made their own) like "Something to Brag About". Great recordings and mixing.