[.ca] All Time Greatest Hits

Put a smile upon your face as if there's nothing wrong.:
After the last few single disc compilations on Roger Miller, it's great to have one that has over a dozen songs! It's almost a shame to see "Golden Hits" go out of print because it holds such sentimental value for me. I've owned it on 8-track, cassette, CD, as well as two different vinyl issues. That familiar blue, white and gold cover is something I'll never forget. But at least this current release sports the excellent photo from the cover of Miller's 1969 self-titled album (the one with "Me and Bobby McGee"). It's a beautiful package with a booklet containing several more photos and nice liner notes by Robyn Flans. The disc was produced by the meticulous Andy McKaie who compiled the 20 track set with Cary Mansfield. It's a solid collection that contains most of Miller's best known hits. Now, a lot of these songs are very short and there was certainly room to expand this set to 25 or even 30 tracks. However, after the 12 track "Golden Hits" and "Millenium Collection" discs and the 1997 11 track "The Hits", this is certainly a big improvement, quantity-wise. And since the two 1992 "best-of's" are out of print ("Country Tunesmith"/"King Of The Road"), this is your best bet for a single disc retrospective of classic Roger Miller. Some further selling points for the collection is that while the "King Of The Road" box set contains mono versions of most of the singles, the same songs are in stereo on this disc. While I'm a definite fan of mono, I believe Roger Miller's recordings sound much better in stereo. And while "Golden Hits" also contains his hits in stereo, this is definitely a considerable upgrade in mastering, resulting in greatly improved sound quality. Miller's 1967 hit "Walkin' In The Sunshine" is my all-time favorite song and up until now, I've only had the mono version on the box set. The stereo version is sonically superior and greatly enhances my enjoyment of the song. Another nice thing about this disc is the inclusion of two tracks that were not on the box set: Bobby Russell's "South" and Kenny Price's "Tomorrow Night In Baltimore". All the songs on this disc were either pop or country hits (most of them both) with the exception of "In The Summertime" (a 1964 re-recording of his RCA hit) and "The Last Word In Lonesome Is Me" which is one of his most revered compositions and was a gigantic hit for Eddy Arnold. All in all, 12 of Miller's 15 Billboard Hot 100 pop hits are on this set. Unfortunately, the three that didn't make it are also among his very best: "Heartbreak Hotel", "My Uncle Used To Love Me But She Died", and "Vance". Still, whether you're a longtime fan of Roger Miller who owns all of his stuff, or just looking for a solid overview of his career highlights, you won't be disappointed with this CD. I highly recommend it.

First-rate collection of a '60s country clown:
Man, talk about being in the right place at the right time! Roger Miller's hitmaking heyday came in 1964-65, when the Beatles ruled the world, and Nashville was once again struggling not to lose its audience to an unstoppable rock'n'roll craze. While Buck Owens strapped on a Fender and injected a teenybopper bounce into his work, Miller tapped into the new Pop mindset by crafting several of the goofiest, perkiest, and most memorable novelty tunes ever recorded. "Dang Me," "Chug-A-Lug," and "You Can't Rollerskate In A Buffalo Herd" are all classics, and they swept the charts... As a Midwesterner, I'm also fond of "Kansas City Star," and, of course, the latter-day hobo anthem, "King Of The Road" is quite simply one of the most mindlessly addictive pop songs on the 'Sixties. The thing that's striking about Miller's early hits is how stripped-down they are -- the band is basically limited to rhythm, with little of the instrumental zip (or orchestral excess) that you heard in other contemporary country tunes. Miller came up with this punk-ish approach after nearly a decade kicking around the margins of Nashville, where he succeeded as a songwriter, but bombed as a performer. (Although, personally, I rather like his late '50s recordings for the Starday label...) Anyway, Miller came up with a great formula -- his songs were fun, and funny, the sparse arrangements left plenty of room for his "nutty" personality to come through, and he definitely stood out from the pack. The trouble came later, when, as a chart-topping singer-songwriter, he felt compelled to write and record more serious material, and his records became sluggish and mistakenly highbrow. It happens. This is probably the best collection of Miller's stuff on the Smash and Mercury labels you're likely to find, and will give you ample opportunity to judge for yourself the merits of the Miller ouvre. Recommended.

Digs A Little Deeper:
This digs deeper into Roger Miller's hits than Golden Hits or the Millennium Collection. It covers his career from 1964-1986. And best of all, it has all but one song from both of those CD's. Neither of those CD's has his Country hits of "Little Green Apples" or "Me and Bobby McGee", as well as his last Country Top 40, 1986's "River In The Rain" from the Broadway musical, Big River. Throw in updated liner notes, and at 20 tracks, you've got a great introduction to an original Country Music genius.

Best Single Disc of Miller's Classic Recordings:
All Time Greatest Hits nicely captures Roger Miller's evolution as an artist during his years on the Smash/Mercury label. It begins with his silly novelty hits "Dang Me," "Chug A Lug," and "Do Wacka Do" from 1964. Miller's 1965 follow-ups added wit to normally somber subjects like destitution ("King Of The Road") and abandonment ("Engine Engine #9"). He then played it straight with the painful observations "Last Word In Lonesome Is Me" and "Husbands And Wives" as well as the joyous "Walking In The Sunshine." By 1968, Miller was no longer writing his hits. Instead, he gave exposure to new songwriters, being the first to chart with Kris Kristofferson's "Me And Bobby McGee" and Bobby Russell's "Little Green Apples." Miller left Mercuy in the early '70s and, except for some side projects not included here (scoring Disney's Robin Hood, recording "Old Friends" with Willie Nelson and Ray Price), experienced little success over the next decade. A final creative burst came in 1985, when he wrote the music for the Tony Award winning Big River (Miller's top 40 single "River In The Rain" from Big River serves as a collection-ending bonus track). This twenty-track retrospective is easily the best single disc of Roger Miller's classic recordings. To get a more comprehensive look at his peak years (including the Christmas classic "Old Toy Trains"), you would need to get the three-disc King Of The Road box set.

An Underrated Outstanding, Unique Songwriter And Performer:
I am a modest fan of country music, but a big fan of novelty tunes. Roger Miller's strengths were as a creative song writer, an outstanding interpreter of songs, a distinctive voice, excellent vocal control, a natural satirist/comedian, and exuberance, all of which are portrayed in most of his recordings. I consider him to be the best of all novelty song writers and performers. You Can't Rollerskate In A Buffalo Herd is a creative song characterized by ridiculous lyrics, a catchy melody, and exuberant vocals. One Dying And A Burying and My Uncle Used To Love Me But He Died are vintage, novelty songs, which should put a smile on your face. Chug-A-Lug has ridiculous lyrics, but is one of my favorite Roger Miller tunes. If you didn't know the meaning of the words, it would sound like a serious song because of Roger's interpretative ability and dead pan humor. The classic Dang Me has a bouncy melody and wacky lyrics which actually make sense. Engine Engine Number 9 is another favorite of mine. Do-Wacka-Do is a nonsense song with Roger's unique vocal gyrations. He was a versatile song writer/performer who wrote several classics. England Swings is one of my all time favorite songs; a great, infectious, upbeat song with outstanding lyrics, which was covered by several artists, but none approach the quality of Roger's recording. I have listened to this song a few hundred times and enjoy it as much today as when I first heard it. Little Green Apples is another classic which was covered by many artists. I consider King Of The Road to be one of the best country songs of all time. This is an outstanding moderately priced CD for fans of country music or novelty songs.

• Dang Me
• Chug-A-Lug
• Do-Wacka-Do
• In the Summertime
• King of the Road
• You Can't Roller Skate in a Buffalo Herd
• Engine, Engine #9
• One Dyin' and a Buryin'
• Last Word in Lonesome Is Me
• Kansas City Star
• England Swings
• Husbands and Wives
• I've Been a Long Time Leavin'
• Walkin' in the Sunshine
• Little Green Apples
• Me and Bobby McGee
• Where Have All the Average People Gone
• South
• Tomorrow Night in Baltimore
• River in the Rain