Country Ballads: the Greatest Country Love Songs in the World… Ever
Country Ballads: the Greatest Country Love Songs in the World… Ever
Customer Review: A wide-ranging compilation with diverse styles
This double CD of pop-country music includes songs from the fifties to the nineties. Brooks and Dunn (Long goodbye), LeAnn Rimes (How do I live), Shania Twain (You’re still the one), Shelby Lynne (Lonesome), Eva Cassidy (It Doesn’t Matter Anymore) and Lonestar (Amazed) represent the modern era.
Elvis Costello (Good year for the roses), Lee Greenwood (Wind beneath my wings), Kenny Rogers (Lady) and Kenny Rogers and Sheena Easton (We’ve got tonight) are represented by songs that became UK pop hits during the eighties, a decade that country records were are rarity in the UK pop charts. The Judds wrote and first recorded Love Can Build A Bridge (included here) in the late eighties. It later topped the UK charts when a cover was recorded for charity by a group of singers including Cher. Also included from the eighties is Willie Nelson’s superb cover of Always on my mind.
Lynn Anderson (Rose garden), Johnny Cash (A thing called love), Dr Hook (If not you, A little bit more), Olivia Newton John (If not for you), Crystal Gayle (Talking in your sleep), Ray Stevens (Misty), Bellamy brothers (If I said you have a beautiful body) and Faron Young (It’s four in the morning), Charlie Rich (The Most Beautiful Girl), Tammy Wynette (Stand By Your Man), Billie Jo Spears (What I’ve Got In Mind) and Kenny Rogers (Lucille) all had UK top ten hits in the seventies with those songs although Tammy had actually recorded Stand by your man in the sixties, seven years before it became a UK hit. Dolly Parton (I will always love you) and Kris Kristofferson (Help me make it through the night) did not have hits with those songs, but covers of them became huge hits for other singers.
From the sixties, you will find Glen Campbell (Wichita lineman, Honey come back, Gentle on my mind), Bobbie Gentry (I’ll never fall in love again), Jim Reeves (I love you because), Jeannie C Riley (Harper valley PTA), Bob Dylan (Lay lady lay), Patsy Cline (Crazy), Leroy van Dyke (Walk on by), Kenny Rogers (Ruby don’t take your love to town), Hank Locklin (Please Help Me, I’m Falling), Eddy Arnold (Make The World Go Away), and Roy Orbison (Dream baby). Green green grass of home became a number one hit for Tom Jones but here you get the chance to hear Bobby Bare’s country version.
The oldest tracks are, of course, the two Everly brothers songs (All I have to do is dream, Bye bye love), the only fifties songs included here.
For anybody who does not have any country music in their collection, this is a great introduction to it. For country fans, this gathers together a lot of great songs in one handy package.
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