Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. I'll Go on Alone
2. I Couldn't Keep from Crying
3. That's All Right
4. I Can't Quit (I've Gone Too Far)
5. Singing the Blues
6. Mister Teardrop
7. Knee Deep in the Blues
8. White Sport Coat (And a Pink Carnation) - Ray Conniff, Marty Robbins
9. Story of My Life - Ray Conniff, Marty Robbins
10. She Was Only Seventeen (He Was One Year More) - Ray Conniff, Marty Robbins
11. Just Married - Ray Conniff, Marty Robbins
12. Stairway of Love - Ray Conniff, Marty Robbins
13. Ain't I the Lucky One - Ray Conniff, Marty Robbins
14. Hanging Tree
15. Paso
16. Big Iron
17. Ballad of the Alamo
18. Don't Worry
19. Devil Woman
20. Ruby Ann

Disc 2:

1. Cigarettes and Coffee Blues
2. Begging to You
3. Ribbon of Darkness
4. Cowboy in the Continental Suit
5. Faleena (From El Paso)
6. Tonight Carmen
7. Shoe Goes on the Other Foot Tonight
8. I Walk Alone
9. You Gave Me a Mountain
10. My Woman, My Woman, My Wife
11. This Much a Man
12. Walking Piece of Heaven
13. Love Me
14. Paso City
15. Among My Souvenirs
16. I Don't Know Why (I Just Do)
17. Don't Let Me Touch You
18. Return to Me
19. Some Memories Just Won't Die
20. Honkytonk Man

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4736 in Music
• Released on: 2005-06-28
• Number of discs: 2
• Format: Original recording remastered

Customer Reviews

Forty-track overview of a monumental career
Robbins' musical legacy is often popularly pinned to his nostalgic song of the West, "El Paso," but over a 30-year recording career he waxed an astounding variety of honky-tonk, pop, blues, rockabilly, and standards. He moved mixed-up his core country and western sounds to jazz, tin-pan alley and Hawaiian influences. It's nearly incomprehensible how one person could sound so at home among the steel twang of honky-tonk ("I'll Go Alone"), hillbilly rock and blues ("That's All Right" "Singing the Blues" "Knee Deep in the Blues" "I Walk Alone"), sophisticated '50s teen ballads ("Mister Teardrop" "A White Sport Coat (And a Pink Carnation)"), and of course his beloved Westerns ("The Hanging Tree" "El Paso" "Big Iron"), but Robbins made it seem effortless.

What's particularly impressive is that Robbins wasn't a chameleon who reinvented himself with the style-of-the-day, he was a renaissance man whose singular style fit different genres with remarkable authority. In isolation, any one of these tracks seems to define Robbins' essence, but taken together, it's clear what a versatile singer and songwriter he was. After conquering the country and pop charts he added a Latin flavor with his 1962 original "Devil Woman" and a bit of New Orleans rock 'n' roll with "Ruby Ann," only to return to his roots with the countrypolitan "Cigarettes and Coffee Blues" and yodeling honky-tonk of "Begging to You." Throughout the '60s he zigzagged back and forth from genre to genre, penning hit originals (including a prequel and post-modern sequel to El Paso, "Faleena (From El Paso)" and "El Paso City," respectively) and cherry-picking songs from up-and-coming songwriters like Gordon Lightfoot.

Robbins' hit-making continued into the '70s, with a short stint on Decca followed by a successful return to Columbia, including new originals and interestingly selected covers, such as Connie Francis' "Among My Souvenirs" and Dean Martin's late-50s "Return to Me" Robbins closed out his career with the 1983 top-ten single, "Honky Tonk Man," completing a' catalog far too rich to be thoroughly anthologized on two discs.

Though one can point to missing sides (including top-charting hits and his Hawaiian sides for starters), the Essential series is more about capturing the essence of an artist's work than simply reciting their greatest hits. In this, these discs perform well. The out-of-print box set "The Essential Marty Robbins: 1951-1982" offers a slightly broader 50-track overview, and individual original album and genre reissues provide fans deeper views into particular aspects of Robbins' career, but as a roadmap to Robbins' career (or just a terrifically pleasant listening experience), this double-disc set gets top marks. [©2005 hyperbolium dot com]

VERY GOOD...BUT NOT PERFECT
This is a nice way to get most of Marty's highlights throughout his career at a relatively cheap price. The problem with this compilation & the others is that they leave off far too many Top 10 Country hits. For example, where's "It's Your World"? That single went to #3, and it even went to #51 on the Pop charts, yet it's curiously absent here. There are also several Top 100 Pop hits missing. Maybe the folks putting these collections together should look at Joel Whitburn's books now and again! My feeling is that if you're doing an "essential" collection by a country artist, you should include at least all of their Top 10 Country hits & Top 40 Pop hits. Is that too much to ask? I guess it is. Anyway...this is actually a pretty decent set if you enjoy Mr. Robbins' work but don't really care if it's missing some chart hits. But for a completist like me, it's somewhat frustrating. I just hope that some day Sony will get on the ball and do a 4-cd box set with all of his hits & some nice rarities.

There willl never be another like him.
I truly believe that Marty Robbins was one of the most talented men ever to walk this good earth. His voice is a wondrous musical instrument that charms and thrills listeners with it's sensitivity and sincerity. That he wrote so much of his output is proof of his god given talent and the sheer variety and versatility he displays are quite astonishing. You can imagine Marty in the studio deliberately recording something entirely different from the previous release knowing that he would wow his wide fan base. There are all kinds of songs on this album sung by a man who loved to sing; you just have to listen to the voice and know this is so. There will NEVER be another like him.