Track Listing

1. Wine, Women and Song
2. Happy Birthday
3. Blue Kentucky Girl
4. You Ain't Woman Enough (To Take My Man)
5. Don't Come Home A-Drinkin' (With Lovin' on Your Mind)
6. Fist City
7. You've Just Stepped In (From Stepping Out on Me)
8. Woman of the World (Leave My World Alone)
9. Coal Miner's Daughter
10. After the Fire Is Gone - Loretta Lynn, Conway Twitty
11. You're Looking at Country
12. Lead Me On - Loretta Lynn, Conway Twitty
13. One's on the Way
14. Rated "X"
15. Pill
16. Love Is the Foundation
17. Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man - Loretta Lynn, Conway Twitty
18. As Soon as I Hang Up the Phone - Loretta Lynn, Conway Twitty
19. Trouble in Paradise
20. When the Tingle Becomes a Chill
21. Feelins' - Loretta Lynn, Conway Twitty
22. Out of My Head and Back in My Bed
23. Somebody Somewhere (Don't Know What He's Missin' Tonight)
24. She's Got You
25. I Can't Feel You Anymore

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #16313 in Music
• Released on: 2005-06-07
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered

Customer Reviews

Best single disc Lynn set now available, but not definitive
Currently experiencing a career resurgence thanks to her Grammy-winning album Van Lear Rose, Loretta Lynn established herself as one of country music's greatest artists during her twenty-plus years on Decca/MCA. Lynn's early records at Decca like "Wine, Women, And Song" and "Blue Kentucky Girl" were very much in the traditional female country vein and had a subservient theme. 1965's "You Ain't Woman Enough" and 1966's "Don't Come Home A Drinkin'" drastically altered that doormat persona and were also the first hits Lynn wrote at Decca. From then on, Lynn would become a voice and role model for women everywhere.

From 1967 - 1971, Lynn was at her commercial and artistic peak. She wrote most of her hits during this period and no subject appears to have been off-limits. "Fist City" finds Lynn willing to get physical to keep her man while "Rated X" discusses the stigma placed on divorced on women. "One's On The Way" humorously poked at the drudgeries of being a housewife with a lot of kids. Country pride also played a prominent role in Lynn's music during this era with "You're Looking At Country" and"Coal Miner's Daughter," which would become Lynn's signature song.

By 1972, Lynn stopped writing her own material (due to a bad publishing deal with the Wilburn Brothers). Her musical stylings had expanded, with "Trouble In Paradise" finding Lynn experimenting with rock (and sounding extremely ill at ease). Pop-flavored ballads like "When The Tingle Becomes A Chill" and "Somebody Somewhere" also became more common as Lynn's distinctive sound became watered down during the mid-to-late 1970s (when her recording career began to wind down), yet all retain at least a modicum of charm.

For this Definitive volume, Universal Music merely added three recordings to Lynn's twenty-two track All-Time Greatest Hits (2002) cd: ""Blue Kentucky Girl," "You're Looking At Country," and "The Pill." It leaves off such truly definitive recordings as Lynn's first hit "Honky Tonk Girl" (1960, for the Zero label), her first Decca hit "Success" (1962) and her last top-ten hit, "I Lie," as well as such fan favorites as "To Make A Man (Feel Like A Man), "Home," and "Red, White, and Blue" which aren't currently available on cd. Instead, we get five duet chart-toppers with Conway Twitty that were already included on their Definitive set in April. While this is the best single disc Lynn set available, you really need to purchase her box set Honky Tonk Girl (1994) to get a true feel for her greatness.

1. Wine Women & Song
2. Happy Birthday
3. Blue Kentucky Girl
4. You Ain't Woman Enough
5. Don't Come Home A Drinkin'
6. Fist City
7. You've Just Stepped In
8. Woman Of The World
9. Coal Miner's Daughter
10. After The Fire Is Gone (with Conway Twitty)
11. You're Looking At Country
12. Lead Me On (with Conway Twitty)
13. One's On The Way
14. Rated X
15. The Pill
16. Love Is The Foundation
17. Louisiana Woman, Mississipi Man (with Conway Twitty)
18. As Soon As I Hang Up The Phone (with Conway Twitty)
19. Trouble In Paradise
20. When The Tingle Becomes A Chill
21. Feelins' (with Conway Twitty)
22. Out Of My Head And Back In My Bed
23. Somebody Somewhere
24. She's Got You
25. I Can't Feel You Anymore

The best single CD of Loretta's hits
Note - this compilation is a re-issue and re-packaging of an earlier compilation (All-time greatest hits) with three additional tracks - Blue Kentucky girl, You're looking at country and The pill. This compilation has a higher price so if you're choosing between the two, your decision will be based on the value you place on those three tracks.

At the start of the sixties, female singers had a really hard tine getting noticed, except Patsy Cline. Loretta (along with Dolly and Tammy) helped to change this forever, by recording songs that appealed to women as well as men. While men (including myself) can sometimes be satisfied with women singing love songs, Loretta recorded some hard-hitting songs about life and its struggles.

Examples of her diverse themes include her heritage (Coal miners' daughter), fending off other women (You ain't woman enough, Woman of the world, Fist city), everyday life (One's on the way) and the evil of drinking too much (Don't come home a-drinking). All these songs can be found on this collection. Of course, she sings love songs too and plenty of those are included on this set, although these are not what Loretta is best remembered for. Among the love songs here is a cover of She's got you, a Patsy Cline song that Loretta also had a huge country hit with.

Her duets with Conway Twitty were an important feature of her career. Five are included here - After the fire is gone, Lead me on, As soon as I hang up the phone, Louisiana woman Mississippi man and Feelins'.

Notwithstanding Van Lear Rose, her incredible comeback album in 2004, Loretta's reputation ultimately rests on the music that she recorded in the sixties and seventies. 25 tracks are nowhere near comprehensive (notable omissions include Your squaw is on the warpath, Hey Loretta and They don't make 'em like my daddy anymore) but this single CD will be enough for most people, particularly those of you whose introduction to Loretta's music was via that comeback album.

If you only want a single CD of Loretta's sixties and seventies music, make it this one or All-time greatest hits. Committed fans may prefer the boxed set (Honky tonk girl).

Grade-A, classic, killer country
A fine, 25-song best-of that overlaps with other Loretta collections (including a few duets with Conway Twitty...) "Definitive" is definitely a relative term, here, especially considering how thorough and gratifying the old, 4-CD "Honky Tonk Girl" box set has proven over the years. Still, this is a great introduction to her work, and dips into some of her later work from 1975-onwards, stuff that doesn't readily come to mind when you're thinking of Loretta's glory years, but that still holds up nicely today. They seem to have omitted her novelty hit, "Your Squaw Is On The Warpath" (presumably because of modern-day PC concerns...) but the rest of the songs on here are of at least equal calibre to that old chestnut. Other Loretta best-ofs may serve you equally well, but this disc is unquestionably first-class.