Search - Davis Sisters, Marvin Rainwater, Ned Miller :: Classic Country: Hard to Find Hits

Fine, but Change That Title!

Mcgivern Owen L | NY, NY USA | 03/12/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Much like previous reviewer Mr. Reynolds, this reviewer bought HTFH for 1 track--"Lonesome 7-7203". The object was to get a version with full backup, chorus and all. To do so was worth every penny! The release spent 25 weeks on the charts, including 4 as # 1. Isn't it sad that Hawkshaw Hawkins was killed in that fateful plane crash on March 5, 1963 just 3 days after its' release? His fellow victim, Cowboy Copas, is here with "Alabam" but Patsy is absent. As far as the other tracks are concerned, all are perfectly respectable. In fact, EACH made the Billboard charts! This listener was familiar with all except "You're the Reason" by Bobby Edwards and "The Old Lamplighter" by the Browns. (Didn't Jim Ed do better with a woman by his side be they his sisters or Helen Cornelius?). There are no complaints about this album but as Mr. Reynolds already asked: Are these to be seriously considered "Hard to Find"? Time Life has produced a solid collection here, as they often do. If the suits could only muster up a less misleading title! To close on a positive note, buyers are urged to read the inserted jacket. Where else would one learn that Hawkshaw's wife, Jeanie Shepard, recorded "Lonesome" first? Now THAT would be a "hard to find" hit!"

Not-So-Hard To Find ... But Still A Nice Collection

Mcgivern Owen L | 08/10/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"There are numerous "theme" volumes in this series from TimeLife/ BMG and all are excellent compilations with superb sound quality and detailed liner notes. But this one, while no less delightful as a collection of some of the best of oldies Country, hardly fits the sub-title "Hard To Find Hits."



Ranging from 1953 [I Forgot More Than You'll Ever Know) to 1971 [Easy Lovin'], perhaps two of the 20 selections can remotely be described as "hard-to-find" - It's Such A Pretty World Today and You're The Reason - and even those sre to be found in several other locations [see Volume 3 of the series Hey Look What I Found for example].



The liner notes by Charles McCardell take the form of track-by-track comments [including label details and chart performances - both Country and pop] and, as such, offer some fascinating insight into either the song itself [Lonesome 7-7203] or the artist. For example, that Ned Miller suffered from such stage-fright that he often hired impersonators to take his place at live appearances.



Not a bad gathering of essential and major Country hits - just not all that difficult to locate. Not like, say, the original of No Help Wanted by The Carlisles, That Do Make It Nice by Eddy Arnold, I Let The Stars Get In My Eyes by Goldie Hill, Hootchie Kootchie Henry (From Hawaii) by Mitchell Torok, I Can Still Hear The Music In The Restroom - Jerry Lee Lewis (and try and find THAT anywhere), That's My Paw - Sheb Wooley (the ORIGINAL), and Rockin' Rollin' Ocean by Hank Snow. Now THEY are hard to find."