Search - Don Williams :: 20th Century Masters: Millennium Collection 2

Among The Best Of The 20th Century Series

08/08/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"One thing you can say about Don Williams - after he left the folk/country trio The Pozo Seco Singers as their lead vocalist [along with Susan Taylor and Lofton Kline] following their last Billboard Pop Hot 100 in 1967 [Louisiana Man - # 97 - none of their cuts ever made the Country charts], he demonstrated that he was pure Country.



With 56 hit singles from 1973 to 1992 he never changed his style to pander to the pop charts, whether recording for JMI [6 hits in 1973/74], Dot [1 in 1974], ABC/Dot [8 from 1975 to 1977], ABC [3 in 1978], Phono [1 in 1980], Warner [1 in 1981 - a duet with EmmyLou Harris], MCA [18 from 1979 to 1985], Capitol [9 from 1986 to 1988], and RCA [9 from 1989 to 1992].



In that span he registered 17 # 1 hits, 22 more that were Top 5, and saw all but 4 make the Top 40. But his only Pop crossovers were 1980's I Believe In You, which reached # 8 Adult Contemporary (AC)/# 20 Hot 100 (included here), and from 1981 Falling Again (# 39 AC) and Miracles (# 32 AC). Four others made the Hot 100 "bubble under" charts. So he was, in every respect, pure Country in that span.



All but 1 of the 12 tracks included here were # 1s and the exception is 1980's Good Old Boys Like Me which reached # 2 that spring. Evidently, then, this volume is merely a sampler of this talented artist's work, albeit a very good one with excellent sound quality, a discography of the contents, and three pages of liner notes written by Robyn Flans in February 2000. There are also a few more nice colour shots of Don."