Following her early success on the Columbia label with country hits such as Delta Dawn, Would you lay with me in a field of stone, What's your mama's name and several other great songs, Tanya signed for MCA on her sixteenth birthday. She had a further string of country hits for that label but her career eventually hit problems and it seemed, at one point, that her career was finished.
Dropped by MCA in the early eighties, Tanya eventually recorded one album for Arista before reviving her career in the mid-eighties on the Capitol label, where she became more successful than ever before. This compilation focuses on her music for MCA, which often gets unfairly overlooked as most people focus on her early Columbia music and her later Capitol music.
Tanya's big country hits for MCA included San Antonio stroll, Here's some love, Lizzie and the rainman, Texas when I die, Don't believe my heart can stand another you, You've got me to hold on to, It's a cowboy loving night, Dancing the night away, Can I see you tonight and Pecos promenade - every one an outstanding song to match Tanya's great songs from other periods in her career.
During Tanya's time with MCA, she struck up a relationship with the much older Glen Campbell and recorded a few duets, one of which was Dream lover (a cover of the Bobby Darin pop classic). Unfortunately for Tanya and Glen, the dream didn't last.
This compilation contains the best of Tanya's MCA music and (as I write this) is the strongest such compilation. If you are a Tanya Tucker fan, do not ignore this part of her career. If you are new to Tanya's music, this is a great CD to begin with.
Most of the cuts on this album are standard fare, and it is not clear how this collection could be considered the "Essential" Tanya Tucker. However, this is the one and only album I have found with her cover of "I'm Not Lisa" on it, which is why I bought it. The version of this song that is out there in "file sharing" land is a terrible audio recording, evidently taken from an actual record player, and one of poor quality at that. If you want that song, this is the CD for you, but if you're that much of a Tanya Tucker fan, you undoubtedly have all the other songs from this CD in your collection already.
