Audio CD review:
Conway Twitty - #1's: The Warner Brothers Years

Conway Twitty - #1's: The Warner Brothers Years

Band: Conway Twitty Title: #1's: The Warner Brothers Years Rating: Release Date: 1990-10-25 Media: Audio CD Tracks: 1: Don't Call Him a Cowboy - Conway Twitty, Hupp, Debbie 2: We Did But Now You Don't - Conway Twitty, Bomar, Woody 3: I Don't Know a Thing About Love (The Moon Song) - Conway Twitty, Howard, Harlan 4: Fallin' for You for Years - Conway Twitty, Reid, Mike 5: The Rose - Conway Twitty, McBroom, Amanda 6: Desperado Love - Conway Twitty, Garvin, Michael 7: Lost in the Feeling - Conway Twitty, Anderson, Lewis 8: Somebody's Needin' Somebody - Conway Twitty, Chera, Len 9: Slow Hand - Conway Twitty, Bettis, John 10: The Clown - Conway Twitty, Barnett, Brenda

The man who put a voice to a song! I will tell you that I played this cassette to death and I will do the same to the CD. Its great to have this collection available again. All the songs are good. Conway doesnt get all the recognition that many of the other greats got but if you wanted to step outside of the typical Conway collection, this is it. There are hits on this CD that represent the 80's crossover surge that he shared with artist like The Oakridge Boys and Kenny Rogers. Essential for Conway fans This collection contains his number one country hits from that period. Conway spent many years recording for MCA but spent a few year recording for Warner in the eighties. Two of these songs are covers - The rose (Bette Midler) and Slow hand (Pointer sisters). He also had big country hits during this time with covers of Three times a lady (Commodores) and Heartache tonight (Eagles) but they didn't make number one so are excluded. More surprising is the omission of Ain't she something else, his first country number one hit for Warner. Perhaps one day a complete collection of his Warner hits will be made available including those three tracks. The eight original songs here are wonderful although none are likely to be remembered as Conway classics in the way that (for example) we remember Hello Darlin' and It's only make believe. I particularly like Don't call him a cowboy (about a man who dresses up as a cowboy), I don't know a thing about love (in which he talks to the man in the moon), Lost in the feeling (a lovely romantic song ending in a steel guitar solo) and The clown (a very sad song). Ultimately, though, my favorite track here is his cover of The rose - it was never meant to be a country song, but a great song can be adapted to any style while retaining its essence, as Conway proves. the over-looked chart-toppers... I think such statements are baloney after you hear this album. Throughout Conway's long career it has often been stated {narrow mindedly i might add} that his 1982-1986 stint with Warner Brothers wasn't any good compared to his MCA run during 1966-1981 and again from 1987 until his death in 1993. The fact that Conway recorded remakes of "The Rose", "Slow Hand" (the two that appear on this compilation) and two others, "Heartache Tonight" and "Three Times a Lady", both from 1983, but they didn't reach #1 and of course they're not on this album. . . the fact that those four remakes of pop singles could over shadow the original songs during his Warner Brothers era is a shame. The album kicks off with his 50th #1 single from 1985, "Don't Call Him a Cowboy", about a girl who's in love with a guy simply based on his appearance. It's also a sly put-down on the Urban Cowboy trend. "I Don't Know a Thing About Love" is about a guy who ponders the origins of love to the man in the moon but the moon quickly offers some advice: that he doesn't know a thing about love. "Desperado Love" is a bouncy sing-a-long with an infectious background harmony from Vince Gill. The shouter "Fallin' For You For Years" is amazing with it's upbeat and twinkling musical arrangement and his vocal delivery is outstanding. "The Clown" is another gem from an era in his career that is popularly known as terrible!? What set Conway Twitty apart from other country singers was his ability to find strong songs that had fresh and new ways of saying the same old things you hear in all country songs (love, hate, death, divorce, cheating, drinking, etc. ). John Hughey is the steel guitar player on most of the songs and due to his long solo at the end of "Lost In The Feeling", some radio stations at the time it was released was calling it a "duet". In an effort to remain a 10 song collection, Warner Brothers left off his 49th #1 from early 1985 entitled "Ain't She Somethin' Else?". This album is a must for anyone wanting his rare Warner Bros. hits that aren't on the market in CD or cassette format anywhere else. You can see a complete list of all Conway Twitty discography, or go back to the Conway Twitty tabs