Conway Twitty Album: “20th Century Masters: The Millennium Collection: T”

Description :

Producers include: Owen Bradley, David Barnes, Ron Chancey, Jimmy Bowen, Conway Twitty. Compilation producer: Andy McKaie. Tracks recorded between 1968 and 1989. Includes liner notes by Rich Kienzle. Digitally remastered by Doug Schwartz (Audio Mechanics, Los Angeles, California). This is part of the MCA Records 20th Century Masters series. nitially heavily influenced by the rock & roll of Elvis Presley, Conway Twitty truly came into his own as a country singer in the 1970s and '80s. Twitty's greatest contribution to country music was his ballad singing. Don Gibson's "I Can't Stop Loving You" is a great example of Twitty's gift for slow songs. On this selection, Twitty's hearty baritone is both passionate and fragile. Additionally, the crying pedal-steel accompaniment adds intensity to the painful story being told, and the background vocals bring profound climax to the tune's hook. Twitty's best recorded moments are probably with Loretta Lynn, with whom he collaborated often. On this BEST OF collection, their hit "After the Fire Is Gone" shows the terrific rapport between these two vocalists. A song about an extramarital affair and life's tender goodbyes, "After the Fire Is Gone" is, at heart, a time-honored "drinking and cheating" tune, and it fits nicely along side the like-minded repertoire of George Jones, Ray Price, and others. If you're new to Twitty's music, this compilation is a great place to start.

I'll make this quick.

The '20th Century Masters' series are about as hit or miss as you can possibly be. In some cases, it's a hit (The Call and Head East's installments are fine examples). In other cases, such as Conway Twitty's second volume in the series, it is about as miss as they come.

Conway racked up 55 #1 hits from the late-'50s through to 1990, as the previous reviewer clearly establishes. This collection only has 12 (that's right -- 12) songs from Conway's career. It tries to act like a career spanning retrospective (putting 'Happy Birthday Darling' and 'Julia' on the same retrospective DOES NOT make it a career spanner!), but it clearly isn't. Stay away from this. About the only good thing about it is that it is remastered (so it sounds great) and it's priced cheap.

Do yourselves a favor. Go buy all three volumes of his MCA 'Greatest Hits' albums, and buy '#1s: The Warner Brothers Years' for his #1 hits (and he had 10) from 1982 to 1986. But avoid this album like the plague. Conway Twitty is an amazing artist -- he deserves MUCH better than this. Shame on you, MCA, for milking this legendary artist for every cent he's worth like this.

NOT RECOMMENDED

following behind Volume One, this Volume Two offers 12 more smash hits of Conway Twitty. his first country #1 from 1968, "Next in Line", opens things up. Conway's hits were so popular that i'll bet it was tough for MCA to choose which 12 made the final cut. the years for the songs on this CD in chronological order are: 1968 (track 1), 1970 (track 2), 1973 (track 3), 1974 (track 4), 1977 (track 5), 1979 (tracks 6 and 7), 1980 (track 8), 1981 (track 9), 1987 (tracks 10 and 11), and 1989 (track 12). you'll notice the gap between 1981 and 1987. MCA isn't highlighting his Warner Brothers era, of course (1982-1986). MCA, if they so choose, could release at least four MORE volumes of 12-song CDs on Conway and still have massively popular singles to choose from! the guy had 78 Top-10 hits...55 of them hit #1! 18 other singles charted in the Top-40!! giving him 96 Top-40 hits MCA should use in future releases. On this CD, "Julia" is awesome. "A Bridge that Just Won't Burn", a 1980 #2 smash hit, was over-shadowed by his 1980 #1 "I'd Love to Lay You Down" {that extremely popular single has yet to surface on The Millennium Collection series!} but i love the lazy, jazzy piano/harmonica arrangement of "A Bridge That Just Won't Burn" anyway! the CD closes with his 54th #1 hit from 1989, "She's Got a Single Thing in Mind" which deals with divorce...on Volume One it showcased his 55th and final #1 "Crazy in Love" from 1990. After "I See The Want To In Your Eyes", his 1974 #1 hit, the CD jumps up to 1977...3 years worth of #1 smashes are left off!!! THERE HAS GOT TO BE MORE VOLUMES!!!!