The Golden Age Of American Popular Music: The Country Hits

With so many tunes that climbed both the country and pop charts during the "golden age" of American rock 'n' roll, it wasn't unexpected that Ace Records of the U.K. would follow up their "Special Country Edition" with another volume of crossover hits. This new installment gathers up 28 more tunes that, with two exceptions, were top-ten country hits and landed in the top-100 pop chart as well. And true to fashion, Ace did not merely rebundle recordings that have been compiled ad nauseam, but dug deeper to compile a refreshingly diverse group of big sellers yet mostly seldom-found-on-CD songs. Of interest to the hard-core collectors are even a few true rarities on legit CD such as Claude Gray's "I'll Have Another Cup of Coffee" and Roy Drusky's "Three Hearts in a Tangle".Ace has lived up to its reputation in the production department here with top-notch sound quality and most of the tracks presented in stereo, the exceptions (1-3,6-13) being mostly the pre-1958 recordings. The accompanying detailed, illustrated and photo-filled 24-page liner notes booklet makes the read as satisfing as the listen. Mediocre country compilations are a dime-a-dozen but Ace has taken the genre to a higher plane with this extraordinary effort. Casual fans and hard-core collectors alike can find much to appreciate here.

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Another great CD

Excellent.

If you already have The Golden Age of American Rock 'n' Roll: Special Country Music Edition, this is a useful sequel, although whereas many of the songs in the other volume were major hits in the American pop charts, very few of the tracks here were more than minor pop hits, even though they were huge country hits. Don't worry (Marty Robbins) was a huge American pop hit, peaking at #3, but only one of the others made the top 10.Perhaps more interesting than how they performed at the time is how well some of these songs have stood the test of time. I can't stop loving you (Don Gibson) became an international pop hit for Ray Charles Don't take your guns to town (Johnny Cash) remains popular in its original form as his legend is as strong as it has ever been. She's got you (Patsy Cline) is one of her most popular song and her legendary status was secured long ago.This is a fine collection in its own way, but only really makes sense as a companion to The Golden Age of American Rock 'n' Roll: Special Country Music Edition.

This is yet another spinoff of the fantastic Ace of London Golden Age series of releases, covering some of those Country mega-hits that also impacted upon the Billboard Pop Hot 100 charts and, in four cases, the Adult Contemporary (Easy Listening) charts (referred to as AC below) that came into being in 1961. Two even drew interest on the R&B listings. As usual, the sound quality is perfect, and with the insert are page after page of informative liner notes, sprinkled with pictures and poster/record reproductions.Ten of the tracks here were # 1 Country (track 2 in 1957 - also # 36 Pop; track 4 in 1959 - also # 32 Pop; track 8 in 1958 - also # 51 Pop; track 11 in 1961 - also # 76 Pop; track 17 in 1961 - also # 3 Pop; track 20 in 1962 - also # 3 AC and # 14 Pop; track 24 in 1961 - also # 12 Pop; track 25 in 1964 - also # 85 Pop; track 26 in 1962 - also # 69 Pop; track 28 in 1962 - also # 68 Pop).As you can see, with two exceptions none were huge Pop crossovers. That also applied to most of the others here as well, although Floyd Cramer's San Antonio Rose did get to # 3 AC and # 8 Pop, as well as reaching # 8 Country. All this is chronicled in the liner notes. The two that also scored on the R&B charts were Jimmy Newman's A Fallen Star (# 7 R&B), which also made it to # 2 Country and # 23 Pop in 1957, and Caribbean by Mitchell Torok. However, that one comes with an asterisk since the Country charter went all the way back to 1953 when it reached # 1 on the Abbott label. Torok re-recorded it in 1959 for Guyden Records, and this one did not make the Country charts, although it did reach # 26 R&B and # 27 Pop.Some other points of interest/clarification: the actual title of track 18 on the Mercury 71732 45 rpm is I'll Just Have A Cup Of Coffee (Then I'll Go); Pop/R&B covers of some of the listed songs include Steve Lawrence on Fraulein (# 54 in 1957); I Can't Stop Loving You by the great Ray Charles (# 1 Pop for 5 weeks and # 1 R&B for TEN weeks in 1962) and Count Basie (# 73 Pop in 1963); A Fallen Star by Nick Noble (# 27 Pop) and The Hilltoppers (# 58 Pop) in 1957; My Last Date (With You) by both Floyd Cramer (# 2 Pop/# 3 R&B/# 11 Country) and Lawrence Welk (# 21 Pop) - both in 1962 and both released as Last Date, as well as Conway Twitty (# 1 Country in 1972) and Emmylou Harris (# 1 Country in 1983); Three Hearts In A Tangle by James Brown (# 18 R&B and # 93 Pop in 1962); and Mama Sang A Song by Stan Kenton (# 32 Pop) and Walter Brennan (# 38 Pop) in 1962.Just a great compilation, and worthy of a spot in your collection of the Golden Age series.

If you own the Special Edition on C&W of the Golden Age of AmericanRock & Roll series, this is a perfect follow-up release. Full withTop 10 Hits( 11 # 1 hits ) and some real highlights like Blue Boy byJim Reeves, The Comancheros by Claude King, Shame On Me by Bobby Bareand a #2 I'd never heard before called Three Hearts In A Tangle by RoyDrusky a real beautiful song. As always with ACE a complete 24 pagebooklet with the story behind each song. I normally give the ACE CD'sfive stars but for the first time I have a slight complaint about thenormally best feature they offer: the recording quality. This timesome songs seem to have been remastered at a very high level whichforces you to constantly adjusting the volume to avoid disturbances.Overall, though, a must for anyone who likes the real 60's country sound.