Tennessee Ernie Ford - Tennessee Ernie Ford - Greatest Hits
Buy this Music CD at online store in your country
Canadian Music Store Free Music Notes for Tennessee Ernie Ford - Greatest HitsFree Music Review: A nice but incomplete collection of Ern's secular hits!
I bought my cassette of this album for $1.96 (plus tax) from Books-a-Million. In hindsight, I should have bought more of the tapes and CDs they had for that price. The tape probably didn't originally sell for more than $4. It's a good album with a mid-priced feel. In another review I noted that Mr. Ford was often better known for his Gospel recordings. But this album shows well that he started out as a country singer. His son Buck noted in his book River of No Return that his dad could sing all kinds of music. Many songs here charted on both the country and pop charts. We have his signature song, Sixteen Tons. I really enjoyed another Merle Travis song featured here, That's All. Several songs on this collection were also hits for other artists. In many instances the songs are more associated with them. Frankie Laine first did Mule Trail and Cry of the Wild Goose. Bing Crosby also sang Mule Train. Bill Hayes, along with Fess Parker, did Ballad of Davy Crockett. Patti Page sang Mister and Mississippi. Tony Bennett would have probably let ol' Ern have In The Middle of An Island. According to his autobiography, he hated the song and recorded it very reluctantly. He never performed it in concert. This album's biggest problem is its short length. You only get 10 songs! Other Curb budget albums had more. We get Ford's own Shot Gun Boogie. But he recorded other songs in that genre. The Roving Gambler is a fun song too. We get The Honeymoon's Over, a duet with Betty Hutton. Where is his classic duet with Kay Starr, I'll Never Be Free? Other omissions include: Anticipation Blues, First Born, Shoe Shoe Thompson, and Hick Town? These are featured on the more comprehensive Vintage Collection. It also includes some of the songs on this album. We get some liner notes by Don Ovens. They're short but informative. He repeated some of this material in the notes for another Curb album. The cover states that these are Ford's original Capitol recordings. That's good to know. It's unlikely that he never recut some of these songs. But the album Ford Favorites, also on Capitol, did feature some remakes. Consider this album a good starting point for hearing Ford's secular hits. I still enjoy his Gospel songs. |
||||