[.ca] Honky Tonk Girl: Collection

the best way to get the best of loretta!!!!!!!!!:
This collection is really great. Its an awesome way to get lots of loretta songs without having to buy all of her cds and have songs overlap. I also liked reading the little facts on each songs, like which ones she wrote and why and where. Plus the old pictures from her childhood and stuff are amazing!

Strong collection of Loretta's music:
At the start of the sixties, female singers had a really hard tine getting noticed, except Patsy Cline. Loretta (along with Dolly and Tammy) helped to change this forever, by recording songs that appealed to women as well as men. While men (including myself) can be satisfied with women singing love songs, Loretta recorded some hard-hitting songs about life and it's struggles. Examples of her diverse themes include her heritage (Coal miners' daughter), fending off other women (You ain't woman enough), everyday life (One's on the way), anti-Vietnam protest (Uncle Sam), the evil of drinking too much (Don't come home a-drinking), gospel (Who says God is dead?), birth control (The pill) and the occasional humorous song (You're the reason our kids are so ugly) - although my favorite humorous song of Loretta's (Mad Mrs Jesse Brown) is not included. All the others mentioned can be found on this collection. Of course, she sings love songs too and plenty of those are included on this set, although these are not what Loretta is best remembered for. In this collection, you will also find covers of Blueberry hill (a song associated with Fatso Domino but first recorded by Glenn Miller), These boots are made for walking (Nancy Sinatra), There goes my everything (successful on the country charts for Jack Greene, but later covered by Engelbert Humperdinck and Elvis Presley, both of whom had pop hits with the song) and She's got you (a Patsy Cline song which Loretta also had a huge country hit with), plus duets with Ernest Tubb and Conway Twitty. 70 tracks cannot due full justice to Loretta, but this is by far the most comprehensive collection so far released. We all have our favorite tracks among those omitted, but all the essentials are here, despite some charted singles being excluded.

Queen Loretta:
Loretta Lynn set the country bar so high she makes it darn near impossbile for other "girl singers" (as they call them) to make a mark. And to complicate matters further, if she weren't such a great singer, people might truly appreciate her brilliance as a songwriter. Loretta Lynn is so good that you have to pinch yourself when you listen to make sure you're not dreaming. Her voice is like country ham, biscuits and gravy served on the family china. And her sound is so rich and convincing, you wanna have a word with the two-timing characters that dare to cross her in her songs. Loretta will never be surpassed in country music. She and George Jones outpace the best of them and leave pretenders to the throne (just turn on any country station in 2003) eating their dust. It's not their fault. It's just that God is very discriminating about who gets this kind of talent. Which just leaves us all begging for more.

Great Collection:
I bought this collection as my birthday gift to myself this year and am so glad I did. I love this box set. Especially the songs, "Rated X," "As Soon As I Hang Up the Phone," and "You're the Reason Our Kids Are Ugly." Shows how much emotional depth Loretta has in her singing (her voice is absolutely heartbreaking in "As Soon As I Hang Up the Phone") and also her lighter side as far as casual bantering in some songs (the funny, light-hearted bickering with Conway Twitty at the end of "You're the Reason Our Kids Are Ugly"). Some real gems here, some that I knew well and some that I had forgotten about. All in all, well worth the price.

Best overview available of the Queen of Country:
Loretta Lynn was the first woman selected Entertainer of the Year by the Country Music Association and was one of the first women to be elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame. To many, she is the Queen of Country Music, yet until this box set was released in 1994, a 20 track greatest hits cd was the most in-depth retrospective available on Lynn's career. Honky Tonk Girl goes a long way towards revealing why Lynn is so special. It contains 70 recordings over three discs. Many of its tracks were appearing on cd for the first time with their enclosure here. Disc one covers Lynn's formative years (1960 - 1966). Leading off its Lynn's first single (and hit) on the Zero label "Honky Tonk Girl" as well as its B-side "Whispering Sea." Neither had been in print in over 20 years when included here and it is easy to see why. Lynn's voice is so wobbly throughout that you'd never guess a stellar career lay ahead at Decca Records under the guidance of top producer Owen Bradley. Lynn's early records at Decca were very much in the traditional female country vein. "Success," "The Other Woman," and "Blue Kentucky Girl" were the first big hits and all have a subservient theme. 1965's "You Ain't Woman Enough" and 1966's "Don't Come Home A Drinkin'" changed that mentality. These feisty declarations were also the first hits Lynn wrote at Decca. Suddenly, Lynn was a voice and role model for women everywhere. Not coincidentally, her singing became a lot stronger as well. The second disc showcases Lynn at her commercial and artistic peak (1967 - 1971). Lynn wrote most of her hits during this period and no subject appears to have been off-limits. "Fist City" finds Lynn willing to get physical to keep her man while "Rated X" discusses the stigma placed on divorced on women. "One's On The Way" humorously poked at the drudgeries of being a housewife with a lot of kids. Country pride also played a prominent role in Lynn's music during this era with "You're Looking At Country" and "Coal Miner's Daughter" which has become Lynn's signature song and spawned an autobiographical book and film. Disc three covers Lynn's later years with Decca and its parent company MCA. With 1972's controversial "The Pill", Lynn stopped writing her own material. Her musical stylings expanded as well, with "Trouble In Paradise" finding Lynn experimenting with rock (and sounding extremely ill at ease). Pop-flavored ballads like "When The Tingle Becomes A Chill" also became more common as Lynn's distinctive sound became watered down during the mid-to-late 1970s. In the 1980s, Lynn's recording career went into severe decline, and the box set wisely limits the representation from this time period to the sumptuous ballad "I Lie" (her last top 10 hit) and her final MCA single "Who Was That Stranger." In addition to Lynn's solo recordings, duet hits with Ernest Tubb and Conway Twitty are sprinkled throughout the set. The major hits with Twitty missing here ("Louisian Woman Mississippi Man" and "Feelings") can be found on Twitty's equally well-done four-disc companion set. There are a few major singles by Lynn that weren't included ("Home," "You've Come A Long Way Baby," and my personal fave "Red, White, and Blue"), but it is undeniably one of the best done box sets on a country artist.

• I'm a Honky Tonk Girl
• Whispering Sea
• Success
• Before I'm over You
• Other Woman
• This Haunted House
• Wine, Women and Song
• Mr. & Mrs. Used to Be - Loretta Lynn, Ernest Tubb
• Happy Birthday
• Blue Kentucky Girl
• Our Hearts Are Holding Hands - Loretta Lynn, Ernest Tubb
• Home You're Tearin' Down
• Dear Uncle Sam
• You Ain't Woman Enough (To Take My Man)
• Man I Hardly Know
• Talking to the Wall
• These Boots Are Made for Walkin'
• Darkest Day
• Devil Gets His Due
• Shoe Goes on the Other Foot Tonight
• Tommorow Never Comes
• If Loneliness Can Kill Me
• Don't Come Home a Drinkin' (With Lovin' on Your Mind)
• There Goes My Everything
• If You're Not Gone Too Long
• What Kind of Girl (Do You Think I Am?)
• Who Says God Is Dead!
• Fist City
• You've Just Stepped In
• Your Squaw Is on the Warpath
• Woman of the World (Leave My World Alone)
• Love L-O-V-E
• Who's Gonna Take the Garbage Out - Loretta Lynn, Ernest Tubb
• Coal Miner's Daughter
• You Wanna Give Me a Lift
• Wings Upon Your Horns
• One You Need
• Deep as Your Pocket
• Crazy Out of My Mind
• I Know How
• After the Fire Is Gone - Loretta Lynn, Conway Twitty
• Lead Me On - Loretta Lynn, Conway Twitty
• I Wanna Be Free
• You're Lookin' at Country
• One's on the Way
• Rated X
• Back Street Affair - Loretta Lynn, Conway Twitty
• Blueberry Hill
• Morning After Baby Let Me Down
• It'll Feel Good When It Quits Hurtin'
• Here I Am Again
• Pill
• Ain't It Funny
• Love Is the Foundation
• As Soon as I Hang Up the Phone - Loretta Lynn, Conway Twitty
• What Sundown Does to You
• Hey Loretta
• Trouble in Paradise
• They Don't Make 'Em Like My Daddy Anymore
• When the Tingle Becomes a Chill
• Letter - Loretta Lynn, Conway Twitty
• Out of My Head and Back in My Bed
• Somebody Somewhere (Don't Know What He's Missing Tonight)
• She's Got You
• Why Can't He Be You
• I Can't Feel You Anymore
• You're the Reason Our Kids Are Ugly
• I've Got a Picture of Us on My Mind
• I Lie
• Who Was That Stranger