Search - Various Artists :: Classic Country: Golden 50's

Good Personal Associations

Thomas A. Holmes | Johnson City, TN USA | 09/13/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This entry in the Time Life CLASSIC COUNTRY series just has loads of good personal associations--I remember hearing these songs on the car radio as a boy while travelling with my parents. How was I to know then the way these songs define a period of country music? This disc includes George Jones' "White Lightning," Webb Pierce's "There Stands the Glass," Hank Williams' "Your Cheatin' Heart," Elvis Presley's "Heartbreak Hotel," the Everly Brothers' "Bye Bye Love," Don Gibson's "Oh Lonesome Me," Stonewall Jackson's "Waterloo," Ray Price's "Heartaches by the Number," Kitty Wells' "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky-Tonk Angels," Marty Robbins' "A White Sport Coat (And a Pink Carnation)," Patti Page's "Tennessee Waltz," Eddy Arnold's "Cattle Call," Ferlin Huskey's "Gone," Jim Reeves' "Four Walls," and Hank Locklin's "Send Me the Pillow You Dream On." While a few of these tunes seem more HIT PARADE than country (particularly the Eddy Arnold, Patti Page, and Elvis tracks--maybe Marty Robbins and the Everly Brothers), the remaining ten show how the major country acts of the time defined the genre, blending honky-tonk and torch, and casting a flailing loneliness into some of the hottest country licks ever recorded. Discs like this one justify buying a jukebox, and I doubt anyone buying it would be disappointed."