Tom T. Hall Album: “Ultimate Collection”

Tom wrote and recorded songs that told stories - little vignettes of everyday life. Other country singers did this too, but only as a part of what they did. For Tom, story songs were what mattered. You want typical love songs? Look elsewhere. Yes, Tom sometimes sang about love but, like everything else, he told it in a story.

This collection includes all his country top ten hits plus his own recording of Harper Valley PTA, a song that he wrote but which became a huge international hit for Jeannie C Riley. Her version, which sold over four million copies, topped the American charts but didn't quite make the top ten in the UK.

Among Tom's classics here are Old dogs children and watermelon wine (my favorite), Faster horses, I like beer, Ballad of forty dollars, I love, Country is, That song is driving me crazy and The year that Clayton Delaney died.

Conspicuous by their absence are Sneaky snake and One hundred children. They may not have reached the country top ten but they are among his best songs and certainly better known than some of the songs that are included here. Still, I've yet to see a compilation that includes all Tom's classic songs. Other compilations that include those two miss out other classics - and that includes the double CD boxed set, which (as I said in my review of it) could so easily have been a triple CD with no drop in quality. Dedicated fans can at least get all the classics by buying different compilations, though that means a lot of duplication. If you are such a fan, you may be better to start with the box, then add Greatest hits 2 and one of the RCA compilations, then see what else you want.

If you only want one CD of Tom's music, this is the one to buy despite the absence of two classics. If you enjoy it as much as I do, you can always buy more of his music another time.

The last of the traditional southern singer/songwriters to be massively successful in both arenas, Hall meekly remarked he had "won the lottery" when Alan Jackson recorded Hall's "Little Bitty," but Hall's own success has been well-deserved, understated, and long-running. This remarkable CD contains all of Hall's self-penned hits beginning with the hilarious "Ballad of Forty Dollars" (where a grave yard worker watches his friend's funeral and ruefully recalls that his friend owed him $40 before he died) and includes "The Year That Clayton Delaney Died," which is one of Hall's best - the heart-breaking, freeing story of a young man's sorrow over the death of his musical mentor. There is also a previously unreleased version of "Harper Valley P.T.A." which Hall wrote for Jeannie C. Riley while he was a staff songwriter. (The addition of this cut alone would be worth the price of the CD.)

Hall's convincing, sometimes whimsical first-person point-of-view vignettes can be heartbreaking, ("Country Is," "Old Dogs, Children, and Watermelon Wine") hilarious ("Fox On The Run") and socially critical ("Harper Valley PTA.") Hall's considerable writing and flatpicking ability spans the range of experiences of the common working man and successful entertainer in an autobiographical narrative wit like no other of his time (perhaps ever) and summarizes show business in a song about an entertainer who drives home to rest and has an emotional conversation with his dad in one of his finest moments, "Homecoming." For those who can't afford the 2-disc box set released by Mercury, (which contains some non-esential material) this CD has great liner notes, all of Hall's best tunes, and a budget price.

Tom T. Hall ranks as one of the greatest sorytellers in the history of country music. I remember growing up listening to such classics as "The Year Clayton Delaney Died" "Old Dogs and Children, and Watermelon Wine" and "Faster Horses".

He had as much success with others recording his songs, and an unreleased "Harper Valley, PTA" which was a huge hit for Jeannie C. Riley appears here, too.

The only thing that could have made it better would to have included "Sneaky Snake" and "Who's Gonna Feed Them Hogs?", two of my favorite more humorous Hall songs.

This is a good collection of many good hits by Tom T. Hall I liked the hits, but thats just how i feel. I see some good things on this collection, yet many of his most famous words were not on it. All in all you will like atleast 5 songs on this CD whatever taste you have.

This is an excellent choice of selection if you like the music of Tom T. Hall. The best of his hits are included in the album. I would reccoment this one for anyone liking his music!