[.ca] Country Music Hall Of Fame Ser

Amazon.com essential recording:
Miss Kitty Wells, dressed demurely in gingham and uttering ne'er a cussword, was the role model for women in country music until Patsy Cline came along. "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky-Tonk Angels" is one of country music's defining moments. In it--as in most of her hits--Kitty was wronged and betrayed by a feckless man. Titles like "Will Your Lawyer Talk to God," "A Woman Half My Age," "Icicles Hanging From Your Heart," and "I'd Rather Stay Home," pretty much fill out the story. Kitty sings with patent honesty, only rarely venturing off the three-chord highway, and never to dance on the tabletops. --Colin Escott

Kitty Still The Queen:
This CD is absolute evidence that Kitty is still the queen of country music. In fact I don't think she even has a close rival for the title. She is the Hank Williams of female singers, the highest compliment I can pay her. Buy this CD and see what I mean

Undisputed Queen of C & W:
I'm a big fan of Patsy Cline's music but in all honesty her vocal sound was more in line with pop music than Country. It doesn't however take away from any of her greatness. But Kitty Wells was pure uncut Country all the way-The female Ernest Tubb if you will. Two of my all time faves are on this cd- The classic "Will your lawyer talk to God" and "Password"-- oh yeah "It wasn't God who..." is also a favorite. These are the original tracks and therefore make this cd worth buying. We love ya Kitty !

The Queen of Country!:
There must be a reason amazon posts this selection first among the Kitty choices. This one is a winner. Muriel Ellen Deason ("Kiity Wells") is a true to life native of Nashville. According to Billboard, she had 64 chart hits from 1952 to 1968. A representative 11 of them are included here and the other 5 fit right in. Kitty's plain and plaintive woman wronged no frills voice shines through. Highlights for this reviewer were "Will Your Lawyer Talk to God?","Password" and especially "A Woman Half My Age". That one just may be in the "Stand By Your Man" league of forgiving women songs! Those last 2 came late in Kitty's career and were composed in the (then) new "Nashville Sound". This woman is versatile! She handles those just as well as the traditional releases. This CD is absolutely recommended for no nonsense country sung by a real lady of the old school. As we know all too well, that school has been out of session for a tragically long time.

The Original Honky Tonk Angel:
Obviously the best bet for anyone seeking the hits of Kitty Wells would be that Bear Family box set - but then, not all of us can afford that item. So we scroll through the others currently listed and find that a great many are out of stock, most are quite minimal in the tracks offered \o10 to 12\c, and far too many present later remakes of her hit singles \oe.g., the Tee Vee compilation, Volumes 1 and 2 of Step One Records' Kitty Wells Greatest Hits, Curb's Greatest Songs, and King's Kitty Wells Greatest Hits\c. When you narrow it all down there are two single-CD releases which present original renditions of her many hits, the best of which by far would be God's Honky Tonk Angel: The First Queen Of Country Music from Edsel Records of the U.K. Which shouldn't be all that surprising since the best compilations of the hits of American Country stars of the past come from the U.K. or Continental Europe \oBear Family is in Germany\c, ridiculous as that may seem. The other decent compilation is this volume from MCA's The Country Music Hall Of Fame Series, but here their choice of selections is somewhat puzzling. I realize it doesn't claim to be her greatest or best, but when dealing with an artist who put 81 songs on the Country charts from 1952 to 1979, all but the last three with Decca - now MCA - you might think that an 18-selection volume would at least give us 18 bona-fide hits. It starts off well with her first and best hit ever, It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels, the 1952 "answer song" to Hank Thompson's Wild Side Of Life. Not as huge a hit as Thompson's \ohis stayed on the charts for 30 weeks, 15 of them at # 1\c, it nevertheless spent 18 weeks on the charts, 6 at # 1. That quickly set a pattern for Kitty whose next two hits were also in the "answer song" category - Paying For That Back Street Affair \oa # 6 response to Webb Pierce's Back Street Affair in 1953\c, and Hey Joe, the # 8 answer to Carl Smith's tune of the same name. But instead of giving us that hit side, they present the uncharted B-side here at track 4. They do the same with her first "non-answer" tune - Cheatin's A Sin - which reached # 9 in January 1954, giving us instead the uncharted B-side I Gave My Wedding Dress Away. You might have thought they would have at least included the only song she ever did that crossed over to the Billboard pop Hot 100 - Jealousy \o# 78 pop/# 7 Country in 1958\c - but no, for some reason the producers decided we, her fans, would prefer those two uncharted B-sides, one failed single \otrack 2\c and one previously unreleased track \o3\c, rather than hits like Jealousy, Left To Right \o# 5 in 1960\c, Unloved Unwanted \o# 5 in 1962\c, and You Don't Hear \o# 4 in 1965\c. They were wrong. All the others included are, however, hits. These range from Makin' Believe \o# 2 for 15 weeks in 1955 and kept from the top spot only by the spectacular success of Webb Pierce's In The Jailhouse Now which spent an incredible 21 weeks at # 1\c to A Woman Half My Age, # 15 in 1966, and includes her only other solo # 1, Heartbreak U.S.A., which spent 4 weeks at that position in 1961. Four pages of liner notes by Ronnie Pugh of The Country Music Foundation are quite informative, and are followed by a partial discography of the contents, omitting only chart details. The AAD sound quality is excellent. Married \oin 1937\c to Johnny Wright of Johnny & Jack fame, and the mother of Country stars Bobby and Ruby Wright, Kitty was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1976, and in 1991 was awarded Grammy's Lifetime Achievement Award. She deserves to have her career honoured with a series of single CD releases containing all her hits.

Paints a good picture:
I give this 4 stars not because this is the definite Kitty Wells collection, because it isn't. I give it four stars because it is one of the few collections that offer a good sampling of her ORIGINAL recordings. Now, let me tell you about an ideal Kitty Wells set. Take all of her top 10's and some of her lesser known songs and there you go, it's not that hard to figure out. By listening to the songs here, you imagine that Kitty bacically played the housewife who was fighting for a say in what went on. True, but there was much more to her than that. She was a masterful honky tonk singer, an excellent gospel singer, and when the "Nashville Sound" hit in the 1960's she mastered that also. In fact, Kitty was probably one of the most versatile performers in country music history. To summerize, this is a great set, all the songs are original recordings, and the notes are awesome. But, you need to hear a lot more of her songs to understand what she was all about. And also, avoid her Step One recordings as well as anything that in on Deluxe, Compass, or anything that doesn't say "Decca," "MCA," or "Bear Family" somewhere on the package. Pray that Bear Family will release a 28 or 30 song cd of her hits.

• It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels
• I Heard the Jukebox Playing
• Icicles Hanging from Your Heart \o#\c
• My Cold, Cold Heart Is Melted Now
• I Gave My Wedding Dress Away
• Release Me
• Making Believe
• I'd Rather Stay at Home
• Searching (For Someone Like You)
• I Can't Stop Loving You
• Mommy for a Day
• Amigo's Guitar
• Heartbreak U.S.A.
• Will Your Lawyer Talk to God?
• Password
• Woman Half My Age