Young & Country / Writes You A Record / I Love You Because / Don't LetMe Cross Over

The item was in perfect shape and arrived in a timely manner.However, the sound quality of the "digital remastering" is just awful. Very muddy. One of the worst I've run across on a CD. I am a big fan of Jim Reeves and I was extremely disappointed by this CD.

Excellent item. Would advise anyone to buy this item.

Very good

A great collection of Jim Reeves songs... the only problem is there were one or two songs that were duplicated about a few times on this four LP combo. Two of my Favorite Jim Reeve's LP's were included here... the "I Love You Because" LP and the "Don't Let me Cross Over" LP. On side 1 of the latter, the five songs are duets with up and coming Deborah Allen.

The four albums collected here were released in 1971 (Young and Country; Writes You A Record), 1976 (I Love You Because), and 1979 (Don't Let Me Cross Over). None had ever been issued on CD until now."Young and Country" was an RCA Camden budget release. Recordings that Jim Reeves made in the early to mid 1950s were overdubbed. Having heard the original undubbed performances that were released on CD in more recent years, it sounds like the original performances on the 1971 Camden record (buried under the overdubbing) were second generation copies. The remastering on this CD improves that somewhat, but Jim's vocals still sound a little muffled. There are some good songs here: "Spanish Violins", "Darling Did You", "Hillbilly Waltz", and several others. Again, the original LP was a budget release and that certainly was in part due to the fact the original recordings were of lesser quality than what Jim later achieved. It's a shame that the original demo tracks which have much better clarity could not have been swapped into the mix when this album was remastered.I never thought the title "Jim Reeves Writes You A Record" made sense, even with the explanation for the title. It suggests Jim Reeves wrote all the songs on the record, but in fact, he is co-author of just two songs here. I also never thought that the choice of songs fit together all that well. Still, there are a lot of outstanding songs included like "Angels Don't Lie", "Nobody's Fool", "Wild Rose", and "After Loving You". And some throwaways. Compliments to BGO for the remastering of "Nobody's Fool" as it's never sounded this good. They managed to somewhat reduce the echo of the original demo track and improve the clarity.All of the songs on the "Don't Let Me Cross Over" album were overdubbed with new background music. The first side of the original LP presented 5 "duets" with a then-unknown new country singer, Deborah Allen. Some people liked the duets, others hated them and felt Deborah Allen's voice was thin and not a good match for Jim Reeves' full-bodied voice. However, three of the duets were released as singles and made the Country Top 10. In the title song, it seemed a little odd to hear her singing "but your eyes keep sayin' that you love me too" to Jim Reeves, who died when Deborah Allen was 10 years old, 15 years earlier. It would have been better to create the "duets" with other female country singers who recorded in the 1960's, such as Dottie West, Loretta Lynn, Tammy Wynette and Dolly Parton, but most were contracted to other record companies. The second side of the original LP had five solo tracks and each was quite good. I came to like the updated sound of "Guilty" more than the original recording. The overdubbed "I'm A Fool To Care" was completed earlier in the 1970s, and includes a lush string section, with the strings alternating from one speaker to the other.The "I Love You Because" album being released on CD is the real gem here. New instrumental and vocal backgrounds on the ten tracks are excellent, and a good selection of songs chosen to fashion a very pleasant new, modern-sounding country album. This is one of the best Jim Reeves albums released in the 1970s. I thought this overdub of "When Two Worlds Collide" was an improvement over the original recording. The title song "I Love You Because" was nicely updated and still sounds good 40+ years later. "The Shifting, Whispering Sands" is another highlight of the album, with good vocal sections by the male background singers. The overdub of "I Won't Come In While He's There" has been a favorite track since I first heard it, and the remastering is so good that for the first time I noticed the acoustic guitar strumming. I previously thought that was brushes (percussion). "From A Jack To A King" is nicely enhanced by the overdubbed instruments, but still has a volume increase during the recording which could have been corrected when remastering. Last, I wish BGO would have considered including the 1976 overdub of "You're Slipping Away From Me" as a bonus track at the end of this album.I do think the remastering of the tracks was very well done here, the sound quality is improved. Having bought all these LPs in the 1970s, I am very happy with how good the tracks sound on these CDs. The price of the CD set is also a bargain for 40 Jim Reeves performances. This is a good release.Now, I hope that BGO will continue forward and issue "The Best of Jim Reeves' Sacred Songs", "My Friend", "There's Always Me", "Missing You", "I'd Fight The World" and "Am I That Easy To Forget" for future releases - soon.

Great sound

arrived in perfect condition.