Some of these tracks are really great! Cassette track listings:
1. Rest Your Love on Me
2. Touch the Hand
3. Boogie Grass Band
4. A Bridge That Just Won't Burn
5. I May Never Get to Heaven
6. I'd Love to Lay You Down
7. Happy Birthday Darlin'
8. I See the Want in Your Eyes
9. Don't Take It Away
10. I've Never Seen the Likes of You
A fine collection of Conway's hits
This compilation was released following Conway's departure from MCA in the early eighties (he returned after a few years with Warner). It contains a selection of hits not released on other compilations up to that time. Seven of the ten reached number one in the country charts. Two of the others made number two and the remaining single peaked at five. Thus, the title is inaccurate but it's not far out. What really matters is the quality of the music.
Pop fans may recognize Rest your love on me, as the Bee Gees wrote it during their disco period. Even their version has a country feel to it (and gave them a top twenty country hit - their only one), but Conway's interpretation is impeccable.
Elsewhere, it is hard to pick out favorites from such a strong collection but I particularly like Touch the hand and Boogie grass band. The rarity here is the final track, I've never seen the likes of you, the song that peaked at five in the charts. As I write this, I cannot find another CD on which it is included.
If you haven't got any of Conway's hits, you might be better to buy the boxed set if you can afford it - it contains nine of the ten songs here (omitting I've never seen the likes of you) and all his other essential hits from his two spells with MCA. The boxed set hadn't been released when I wanted to buy his hits on CD, so it was necessary to buy several single CD's to round them up. A cheaper alternative to the boxed set is the double CD #1 hits collection, which contains all his number one hits from his MCA years including the seven here - omitting Boogie grass band, A bridge that just won't burn and I've never seen the likes of you.
If you particularly want I've never seen the likes of you on CD, you'll have to track down this CD. Otherwise, you'll only really need this if you've got some of Conway's other hits on CD and this fills in some gaps in your collection. However, there is no denying that the music here is brilliant.
MCA rushed out this album in 1982 in the wake of his signing with Elektra. The album is historically inaccurate because not all the ten hits actually made it to #1 in the charts of Billboard, Cashbox, Record World, or Radio and Records. Nonetheless, it sold GOLD (Conway was one of the few country singers to consistently have GOLD albums at a time when it was normal for a "superstar" in country to sell 200,000 at the max! my how times have changed! now it's even considered a flop if you sell GOLD!!)"Number Ones" was a popular album and it's cover was a popular publicity photo. That all said, three of the ten hits didn't hit #1 and they were: the #2 "Boogie Grass Band" from 1978, "I've Never Seen The Likes of You" hit #5 in 1980, and "A Bridge That Just Won't Burn" hit #2 in 1980. The other seven were real #1 hits highlighted by "Rest Your Love On Me", his early 1981 chart-topper delivered in a Bee Gees type arrangement. The masterpiece of the album is not "I'd Love To Lay You Down" but the seductive "Happy Birthday Darlin", a 3 week #1 from late 1979. This got four stars because it included those three Top-5 hits that didn't make #1. However, if you're not a chart freak like me, a #1 is no different than a #67 or a #15 if you like a song to begin with.
