Track Listing

1. I Lost It [#]
2. Don't Happen Twice [#]
3. Tin Man
4. Fall in Love
5. All I Need to Know
6. For the First Time [#]
7. Me and You
8. Back Where I Come From
9. When I Close My Eyes
10. She's Got It All
11. That's Why I'm Here
12. How Forever Feels
13. You Had Me From Hello
14. She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy
15. What I Need to Do
16. Baptism
17. Because of Your Love [#]

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1413 in Music
• Released on: 2000-09-26
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .20 pounds

Amazon.com
East Tennessee-born singer Kenny Chesney has, in the course of his relatively brief career, proven to be an unremarkable but thoroughly competent singer who shows occasional flashes of brilliance when teamed with the right song. That happens roughly half the time on this 17-cut compilation disc, which, despite its title, actually includes four new songs, one rerecording, and a remix. Amid soppy country-pop chart fodder ("Me and You," "When I Close My Eyes") and second-rate ditties ("How Forever Feels," "She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy"), Chesney hits his stride on robust country ballads like "You Had Me from Hello" and the lead single "I Lost It." On other gems--like "That's Why I'm Here," a heartfelt tribute to the Alcoholics Anonymous 12-step program that topped the charts a while back; "Baptism," a great duet with Randy Travis; and his fine rerecording of "Tin Man," the song that launched his career in the mid '90s--Chesney even manages to attain an ephemeral but utterly moving transcendence over his vocal limitations and sometimes questionable song choices. --Bob Allen

Customer Reviews

Excellent First Chapter of Chesney's Music Career
In 1993, Kenny Chesney put out his first album My Wildest Dreams (on Capricorn Records) which sold poorly and generated no radio hits. Each subsequent Chesney release, however, has done better than its predecessor, culminating in 1999's platinum-selling Everywhere We Go. The momentum continued with this, his first hits collection.

For starters, the ten previous hits are truly great. The wedding anthem "Me and You" and the alcoholic saga "That's Why I'm Here" are incredibly moving, whereas the foot stompin' "How Forever Feels," "She's Got It All," and "She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy" generate loads of excitement. Those latter uptempo tunes are where Chesney really shines, with his twangy vocals at their most distinctive and full of personality.

None of the seven new recordings on Greatest Hits (two of which are remakes) are remotely as rowdy. The Randy Travis duet "Baptism" aims for inspiration, but gets mired in a lumbering melody, while the mid-tempo tales "Don't Happen Twice" and "For The First Time" are thematically and musically repetitive. A live version of "Back Where I Come From" offers a stronger vocal than the original, however, and "I Lost It" is one of his best ballads to date.

Ultimately, the success of "Don't Happen Twice" and "I Lost It" at country radio helped make this set a mega best-seller. Still, Chesney needed to pick up the pace with some high-octane new material next time around. He did just that with the strong followup album No Shirt, No Shoes, No Problem and its toetapping leadoff hit "Young."

Can it get any better than this?
This CD is awesome! I am a huge KC fan and he just keeps getting better with every release. The new songs have wonderful lyrics and are the best kind of country, songs about love. The live version of "Back where I come from" is the best live recording I've found by any artist. Also, "Fall in Love" is the new version he's been singing at his shows. The new song, "When I close my eyes" is a beautiful love song that I can see being played at weddings very shortly. I recommend this CD for any country music fan and of course, for any Kenny Chesney fan. Even though it is a Greatest Hits CD, he spreads the new material throughout, balancing old favorites with future ones. Also, for everyone who thinks that not only his tractor is sexy, the picture behind the CD is gorgeous as he is soaking wet in the pool.

"All You Need to Know" About Early Kenny...
The title of this album seems pretty obvious: a collection of Kenny Chesney's greatest hits. Interestingly, most of his
biggest hits came after this album. So what gives? Well, Chesney was a fixture in the country world for the better part of the 90s, an artist who made a presence at radio but not so much outside of that world. That's not to say this album
doesn't represent great work, because it does: even before Kenny began his ascent, he still picked good material. This
disc contains seventeen songs, a few more than the standard hits package in country. And like most modern hits collections, it contains new material, here in the form of four songs which are all pretty darn good. The first two new songs, "I Lost It" and "Don't Happen Twice", open the album. They were also the album's big hits, with the latter hitting #1. Both songs exemplify Chesney's style of telling stories in song, whether about love-against-the-odds or young love (a common theme of his). This is followed by "The Tin Man", which is actually a re-recording of a song Chesney recorded on his first (and second) album. There's an underated quality about this song, which is essential Kenny. It alludes to "The Wizard of Oz", and how Chesney wishes he were the Tin Man, since "I wouldn't have a heart, and I wouldn't miss you". Great stuff. The older songs occur after this in mostly-chronological order. "Fall in Love" (a remix?), and "All I Need to Know", are memorable hits from his first BNA album "All I Need to Know". They are followed by "For the First Time", another new track that remembers young love. Next up is "Me and You", a sweet song that was Kenny's first #1. A surprise pops up amongst all of these tracks: a live verson of "Back Where I Come From", which wasn't a single but pays tribute to Kenny's roots. It's fun to hear the crowd scream, and the quality of the recording is great (at the beginning of the song he says "Okay Dallas...", but the album says it says recorded in Tennessee; maybe it's some bizarre hybrid). The next few songs continued his run of hits: "When I Close My Eyes" and "She's Got It All" helped Kenny hone his
craft, while "That's Why I'm Here", a song about alcoholsim, is probably the heaviest song Kenny has released as a single. Kenny's 1999 release, "Everywhere We Go", saw his career kick into high gear; subsequently, it is represented here with no less than 5 tracks. The first single,"How Forever Feels", became Kenny's biggest hit upon it release, and is a radio staple today. The next single, "You Had Me From Hello", is a beautiful love song that become another #1 for Chesney. The song also took on unintentional hilarity when its inspiration briefly became his wife. "She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy" is a fun, sexy novelty that quickly became a fan favorite. The last two selections are pretty amazing in their own right. "Whar I Need To Do" is a classic song of lost love and inaction, and "Baptism" (a duet with the great Randy Travis) adds some religious flavor to Kenny's catalog. The album closes with the last new track "Because of Your Love", which is pretty great too-shame it wasn't a single.
So there you have it: a seventeen-song guide to Kenny before he was one of the most bankable concert draws around. Of course, his career REALLY hit the stratosphere his with first album after this one, "No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems". But that's a story for another day. Looking at the back cover of this album, we see Kenny on the beach, looking out to the future; these photos have become an album staple, and with the success of this album, it's easy to see why. The future looks bright for Kenny; can Greatest Hits, Volume 2 be far behind?