Charley Pride had nearly thirty number one hits on the American country charts, as well as many other big hits, yet his music his poorly represented on CD in comparison with much less successful singers. This Australian set is the most comprehensive collection available. It would seem that Charley is better remembered in Britain and Australia than in his homeland. For those who do remember, there is much pleasure to be had from the fifty tracks here. The collection covers the whole span of his years at RCA from the sixties to the eighties.
Everybody has his or her own favorites. Crystal chandeliers (the final track here) was not released as a single in America, but it has become his most famous song elsewhere. The other tracks will be familiar to Americans and include Mississippi cotton picking delta town, All I have to offer you is me, Just between you and me, Is anybody going to San Antone?, Kiss an angel good morning, I'm just me, Does my ring hurt your finger? and Snakes crawl at night.
With songs like these, how is it that there seems to be so little interest in Charley's music compared to some of his contemporaries? I can't answer that, but it is likely that this will remain the strongest collection of Charley's music on CD.
If you dig Charley Pride like I do you will appreciate the completeness of this collection, all in the original recordings.
I scoured alot of record shops for a long time trying to replace the selections from my vinyl albums like Charley Pride's Greatest hits #2 but I could never find some tunes like 'I Ain't All Bad' and others which are all included on this CD.
For most of us it will be the last Charley pride CD we buy because it is so complete.
Whether you're a country fan or not, you can't discount the sheer talent that Charley Pride posessed. And in this particular collection you can find all of his singles from his early days, to his last gasps.
Charley hasn't gotten the props he deserves of late, but that's due to change at some point. Until then, you can always pick this up and tell everybody "I told you so!" when the time does come.
This is a great cd set! I am very happy with it. It includes a lot of hit songs as well as other great ones.
