Audio CD review:
Conway Twitty - 20th Century Masters: The Best Of Conway Twitty (Millennium Collection)

Conway Twitty - 20th Century Masters: The Best Of Conway Twitty (Millennium Collection)

Band: Conway Twitty Title: 20th Century Masters: The Best Of Conway Twitty (Millennium Collection) Rating: Release Date: 1999-09-21 Media: Audio CD Tracks: 1: It's Only Make Believe - Conway Twitty, Nance, Jack 2: Hello Darlin' - Conway Twitty, Twitty, Conway 3: After the Fire Is Gone - Conway Twitty, White, L.E. 4: I Can't Stop Loving You - Conway Twitty, Gibson, Don 5: You've Never Been This Far Before - Conway Twitty, Twitty, Conway 6: There's a Honky Tonk Angel (Who Will Take Me Back In) - Conway Twitty, Seals, Troy 7: Linda on My Mind - Conway Twitty, Twitty, Conway 8: Touch the Hand - Conway Twitty, Twitty, Conway 9: After All the Good Is Gone - Conway Twitty, Cramer, Floyd 10: Tight Fittin' Jeans - Conway Twitty, Huffman, Mike 11: Rest Your Love on Me - Conway Twitty, Gibb, Barry 12: Crazy in Love - Conway Twitty, Stevens, Even

Conway Twitty's career (1958-1991) in 12 songs Twitty is a man that needs 14-25 song retrospectives to really appreciate him, and 12 songs just doesn't cut it. While I give UMG and the '20th Century Masters' series a ton of credit for trying to assemble a 12-song career retrospective of Conway Twitty, it simply cannot be done. What's here is 11 solo songs, including one track from his legendary duets with Loretta Lynn. Twitty's career highlights that are included here include his first hit, 'It's Only Make Believe,' from 1958, and several hits in between, like his '80s hit 'Tight Fittin' Jeans,' which won over fans of more modern country like John Anderson and George Strait. Also here are 'Hello Darlin,' his take on the legendary song 'I Can't Stop Loving You' and his final hit from 1991, 'Crazy In Love. ' Also, MCA Nashville gets extra points for remastering this. The sound quality is phenomenal! But, where is his legendary duet with Loretta Lynn, 'Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man,' or his cover of Charley Pride's hit 'Kiss An Angel Good Morning'? Both would fit like a charm on this set. Now, I would understand if this was originally released on vinyl in the '70s, but this came out in 1999! They could fit 80 minutes of material here, and yet, just a skimpy 12 songs. MCA could do better. Bottom line: If you are a budget minded Conway Twitty fan who wants to collect the hits and nothing but the hits, '20th Century Masters' might be exactly what you are looking for. I also strongly recommend this to Twitty fans who are just starting their collection. Overall, I recommend that unless you are a new, budget minded or casual fan of Twitty, you go buy 'Love Songs,' 'Greatest Hits' or '#1s. ' All would fit perfectly if you are a casual Twitty fan just looking for 1 or 2 of his compilations. Recommended for only the casual fan or budget minded fan. There is far more to Conway Twitty's legacy than just 12 songs. 12 #1 hits Amazingly, Colin Escott did the liner notes for THIS album too! he's the guy i had a bad review for in the earlier review about the ULTIMATE COLLECTION project. "It's Only Make Believe" hit #1 pop in 1958; the next 10 songs all hit #1 in Billboard; the last song hit #1 in Cashbox in 1990. Escott is determined to continue to claim Conway left MCA in 1980. . . he left them in 1981 after the Mr. T album. i love all the songs. a little refreshing is seeing "Crazy in Love" because for whatever reason, compilation projects tend to focus on music during 1968-1981 and ignore everything from 1982 forward. "Crazy in Love" is one of my favorites. The version of "It's Only Make Believe" is the 1958 original. The odd thing, if you want to call it that, is the musical gap between the #9 and #10 song and the #11 and #12 song. It's weird for me to hear him sing "After All the Good Is Gone" from 1976 and then jump five years later to "Tight Fittin' Jeans"; the same holds true for "Rest Your Love On Me", an early 1981 hit and then jump NINE years to "Crazy in Love" in 1990. Two totally different music styles back-to-back! The man shown a LOT of diversity!! There was a small problem with the CD's sequence: "Rest Your Love On Me" hit in early 1981 while "Tight Fittin' Jeans" hit in the summer of 1981, not the other way around. The CD has the songs in reverse order as you'll see in when you buy it. In other words, tracks #10 and #11 should be flip-flopped. The CD cover opens up like a booklet. the cover picture was used during the opening season of Twitty-City in 1982 as a promo. open up the booklet and you'll see a full shot of Conway in his stage clothes from 1978. across from that picture is the album cover of the 1980 album REST YOUR LOVE ON ME. the back of the booklet shows a picture taken during the photo session for the 1990 album CRAZY IN LOVE. the back of the CD shows a picture of Conway from 1973. Just like the music, the pictures ALSO highlight the different styles of Conway. also, a hidden picture is located behind the CD. it's a very rare picture of him with his curly hair but he still had his side-burns. . . that means that the picture was taken sometime in mid 1979 because that's the year he shaved them off. . . late 1978 was the year he changed his hairstyle from pompadour to curly although he didn't go public with it until 1979. Only one song is with Loretta, 1971's "After The Fire Is Gone". This is a great collection of songs pulled at random by MCA. However, unless you're a music collector and want to own mostly all the country CDs with the Millennium Collection banner, i'd by-pass this because all of these songs are on the 1994 box set. If you don't want to spend the money on the box set, seek out all of his Greatest Hits albums for MCA and Warner Brothers here on Amazon and that way you get TONS of songs that paint a more complete picture of Conway instead of just a 12-song sampling. . . although this sampling on Millennium Collection is top-notch and will satisfy casual fans wanting some of his signature hits on one inexpensive collection. You can see a complete list of all Conway Twitty discography, or go back to the Conway Twitty tabs