Track Listing

1. Jimmie Brown, the Newsboy
2. Prisoner Song
3. Barbara Allen
4. Bringing Mary Home
5. Poison Love
6. Going to See My Baby
7. Don't Make Me Go to Bed and I'll Be Good
8. 'tis Sweet to Be Remembered
9. I Still Write Your Name in the Sand
10. Wabash Cannonball
11. I Wonder How the Old Folks Are at Home
12. Love Letters in the Sand
13. I Saw Your Face in the Moon
14. Waltz You Saved for Me
15. She's Got Leaving on Her Mind
16. Rocky Top
17. My Baby's Gone
18. I Heard My Mother Call My Name in Prayer
19. Where Is My Boy Tonight?
20. Mama, Put My Little Shoes Away
21. Your Best Friend and Me
22. Sweeter Than the Flowers
23. Wheels a Humming Home Sweet Home
24. I Haven't Seen Mama in Years

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #280656 in Music
• Released on: 1994-03-11
• Number of discs: 1

Customer Reviews

Cheap remakes
Don't even bother with this one, just pass it on by.

Cheaply done remakes, and guess what??? The package fails to tell you they are remakes.

No notes. Not worth the space it takes up.

How Not To Treat A Bluegrass Legend
There are in excess of 25 Mac Wiseman CDs on the market, but just one advertises his "greatest hits." This one. And, as another reviewer points out, all tracks are re-makes bearing no resemblance to the original nine Country hit singles he registered for six different labels from 1955 to 1979, and there are no liner notes. What a shoddy way to treat a Bluegrass legend and one of its most instantly recognizable voices! Not a single volume contains all those sides and, of course, none of the B-sides. What we need is an Ace of London treatment.

His first came on the Dot label in 1955 when his rendition of The Ballad Of Davy Crockett made it to # 10 in June b/w Danger! Heartbreak Ahead. His next didn't come until four years later when, still with Dot, his best hit, Jimmy Brown The Newsboy, rose to # 5 in late summer 1959 b/w I've Got No Use For The Women. That was followed by another 4-year gap before Your Best Friend And Me peaked at # 12 in October 1963 b/w When The Moon Comes Over The Mountain on Capitol.

This pattern continued as his 4th hit didn't come until November 1968 with Got Leavin' On Her Mind, which topped out at # 54 b/w She Simply Left for the MGM label. The next hit took only a year to appear this time as the novelty tune Johnny's Cash And Charlie's Pride reached # 38 in December 1969 b/w Mama, Put My Little Shoes Away. this time on RCA Victor. He was certainly getting around within the industry and perhaps this explains why it's been so difficult to draw all nine of his hits together in one package.

A 9-year hit drought then followed until March 1978 when, now with Churchill Records, he had Never Going Back Again go to # 78 b/w Goodbye Mexico Rose, and then another full year before the old standard My Blue Heaven reached # 69 in May 1979 billed to Mac Wiseman and Woody Herman. Yes, THE Woody Herman. The flip of that was a medley, If I Could Be With You/It Must Be True, again on Churchill, as was his next hit, a cover of the 1962 Kingston Trio hit Scotch And Soda, which topped out at # 77 in July 1979 b/w Dancing Bear.

His final came that October, now with the CMH label, when Shackles And Chains struggled to a # 95 billed to The Osborne Bros. & Mac Wiseman, with Midnight Flyer as the B-side.

THESE are what his many fans are looking for. Not poorly-produced, rehashed versions with minimal instrumental/vocal backing. Somebody please take the reins.

Not his best, but still pretty good
Later recordings by this once-revered bluegrass tenor... These tracks are a bit prissy and restrained, but they'll have to do since his classic mid-Fifties recordings are still mysteriously way out of print. The (nonexistant) liner notes don't say when these tracks were recorded, but I'd guess late 1970s or somewhere around then... If you can ever track down Wiseman's classic material on the Mercury label, don't hesitate to snap it up!