Trisha Yearwood Album: “Songbook: A Collection of Hits [Australia Bonus Tracks]”

If Linda Ronstadt had gotten started in the '90s instead of the '60s, she'd be Trisha Yearwood. Well not really, but we wouldn't need both of them. Besides their obviously similar sopranos, they share other vocal traits, be it a zestful exhuberance on a toe-tapper or an aching sensivity on a MOR ballad. And while neither write their own material, they both possess the impressive ability to regularly interpret a tune better than the originator.

For Yearwood, that also includes being able to select first-rate material. The hits assembled on (Songbook) are some of the most stimulating to emerge from Nashville in the '90s. "She's In Love With The Boy" is a light-hearted white-trash tale where young love conquers all while "XXX's and OOO's" cheerfully depicts a working woman trying to balance it all in a hectic modern world - with a little help from Aretha Franklin and Patsy Cline. Those romps are offset by some stunning ballads; in particular, the tragic teen saga "Walk Away Joe," with lovely harmonies from Don Henley, and the comparitive yet understanding "The Woman Before Me." Fast or slow, jovial or serious, all are deserved hits.

In addition to the prior hits, (Songbook) offers three new selections. The first single, "How Do I Live," from the film Con Air, is a delightfully inspirational ode of devotion. It is easy to see why Yearwood's womanly version has beaten LeAnn Rimes' rival girlish version on the country charts (age does wonders for believability when it comes to love songs). Yet even more high profile than that Con Air song battle is the second single, "In Another's Eyes," which presents the mega-event pairing of Yearwood with Garth Brooks. Too bad the song itself is so ordinary. Likewise, the uptempo third new track, "Perfect Love," with lines such as "yeah, this is a perfect love, we're doing nothing, but, what a perfect love does..." Yadda, yadda, yadda.

If Yearwood wanted another uptempo number to add some pep to this ballad-heavy collection, she should have gone with the raucous "That's What I Like About You" from her 1991 self-titled debut album. Still, all of the prior hits found here are just as good (if not quite as infectious). For those consumers of pop and adult contemporary who want to add a little country to their diet, (Songbook) is a great place to start.

This import version contains six more tracks than the American release. Of those, only "Believe Me Baby, I Lied" was a hit, and only it and "On A Bus To St. Cloud" are memorable. Do yourself a favor and buy the cheaper, domestic version instead. "Believe Me Baby, I Lied" will surely be on a second volume of Trisha hits in the next couple of years.

I bought this import version of Songbook a few years ago. It's the original album with the 12 songs, plus 6 other tracks. These tracks include "Believe Me Baby (I Lied)", "A Lover is Forever", "On A Bus To St. Cloud", "You Can Sleep While I Drive", and "The Flame" and "Save The Land". It's nice to see some of her non bigger hits represented here, as they can stand up to the others just as well. New tracks include "How Do I Live", a monster hit, as well as the duet with Garth Brooks "In Anothers Eyes", and the uptempo top 10 hit "Perfect Love". Overall a nice collection!

Trisha Yearwood, at her best, is the finest of all contemporary country singers. This compilation contains many of the songs that established her as a major star, beginning with She's in love the boy - a song that enabled Trisha to become one of the few ladies in the history of country music to top the American country chart with their first single.

Trisha's other country number one hits featured here include Thinking about you and An American girl (X's and O's). Many of the other songs were country top ten hits for Trisha. How do I live was a huge country hit for Trisha, but it was LeAnn Rimes who had the American pop hit (she also had a big UK pop hit with the song) - but Trisha's version was also a big hit in some other countries around the world, as well as being a minor UK hit. I love both versions of the song but I slightly prefer Trisha's version to LeAnn's. Really, there's not much to choose between them.

One of my particular favorites is The song remembers when - about how you remember particular events in your life when you hear a particular song. There are many other fine songs including Wrong side of Memphis, Walkaway Joe, The woman before me and a duet with Garth Brooks (In another's eyes).

The European edition (which I have) contains five bonus tracks not available on the American edition. These include two tracks from Trisha's album Everybody knows (Believe me baby I lied, A lover is forever) together with two tracks from her album Thinking about you (On a bus to St Cloud, You can sleep while I drive). More significantly, it includes The flame, which is not available on any of Trisha's standard albums. It was originally released on the Olympic album One voice and later reissued on the compilation Your love amazes me.

This Australian edition contains all the above tracks plus Save the land, a duet with Australia's own country star, Lee Kernaghan.

This is the import copy of Songbook A Collection of Hits, a much more complete version that the domestic. It contains the exact same 12 tracks as the US version, but it also contains 6 extra tracks that were not available on the US version. The US version missed a lot of her hits, like Believe Me Baby (I Lied), You Can Sleep While I Drive, On A Bus To St. Cloud, etc, and although this collection is still missing some of her hits (ex: Everybody Knows) it is more complete.

The three new songs did very well, How Do I Live, In Anothers Eyes and Perfect Love all hit #1. When this CD was released Trisha was one of the hottest things going in country, in my opinion she still is, but the industry tends to focus on newer acts and more popular ones, but I think Trisha is the best. The CD also contains her hits like The Song Remembers When, Wrong Side Of Memphis, The Woman Before Me, Thinkin About You, Down On My Knees, Shes In Love With The Boy, Walkaway Joe, XXX's and OOO's, Like we Never Had A Broken Heart, and the extra tracks are A Lover Is Forever, Believe Me Baby I Lied, On A Bus To St Cloud, You Can Sleep While I Drive, The Flame, and Save The Land. Its a pretty penny but its worth it if you want a more complete Trisha Yearwood collection.