As Rhino's excellent 16 Tons of Boogie compilation went out of print once Capitol was no longer their distributor, this 1997 40-track, two-disc collection takes its place and picks up the slack admirably. Covering the prime years of
Ford's recording tenure with Capitol (1949-1965), it contains all of his biggest hits, including "Sixteen Tons," "Hicktown," "Tennessee Border," "Mule Train," and "Shotgun Boogie." Keeping things in a fairly chronological order (with the lone exception of a 1975 duet with
Glen Campbell), it begins with a nice cross section of his early hillbilly boogie hits, including "Smokey Mountain Boogie" and "Blues Stay Away From Me," a duet with
Merle Travis.
Ford was also one of the first
country artists to be mated with
pop performers for
country-crossover duet work, and his pairings with the brassy
Kay Starr ("I'll Never Be Free" and "Ain't Nobody's Business but My Own"),
the Dinning Sisters ("Rock City Boogie"), movie star
Betty Hutton ("This Must Be the Place"),
ragtime pianist
Joe "Fingers" Carr ("Tailor Made Woman"), and
big band singer
Helen O'Connell ("Hey Good Lookin'") are largely successful for what he brings to the proceedings. The
pop crossover years, starting with the 1950s success of "Sixteen Tons," is well-represented by tracks like "You Don't Have to Be a Baby to Cry" (later a
pop hit for
the Caravelles), and his many fine
gospel recordings from the early '60s also come in for a fine selection, with
the Jordanaires featured on most tracks. Until a multi-disc box-set retrospective of
Ford's complete Capitol recordings gets issued (and with 83 LPs and a pile of singles, this would be bordering on unwieldy), this is the best -- and most digestible -- cross section of his work available, accessible to both fans and historians alike. ~ Cub Koda, All Music Guide
