Search - Charley Pride :: Anthology

A very strong compilation

Peter Durward Harris | Leicester England | 01/12/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"It is not possible to do full justice to Charley's career in forty tracks but this anthology is easily the best compilation of his music yet released in America. Whether it is better than the Australian compilation Legendary (released in Britain with different packaging titled Legends) is a good debating point. Certainly, this compilation has superior sound quality but there are significant differences in track selection that mean but all true Charley Pride fans will want both despite substantial duplication - thirty songs appear on both sets.



As befits an American compilation, this set focuses on the songs that established and maintained his career in his homeland from the mid-sixties to the mid-eighties, featuring many of his high-charting hits on the country charts. There were far more than forty of these so inevitably some have been left out but most of the songs that Americans regard as essential are here including Kiss an angel good morning and Is anybody going to San Antone. Charley's popularity in America was at its height between 1969 and 1973, represented here by All I have to offer you is me and the subsequent tracks on the first CD.



As the years went boy, Charley's popularity at home gradually slipped although he continued to have plenty of big country hits well into the eighties. The second CD includes twenty of these later tracks. Meanwhile, Charley toured extensively abroad, performing in Britain, Australia and other countries where he found a ready market for his brand of traditional country music. Outside America Crystal chandeliers, never released as a single in America, became his signature song.



As this is an American compilation, you won't find Crystal chandeliers here but you can find on the Legendary/Legends compilation I mentioned earlier, together with other tracks that are also omitted from this set (some of which were big American country hits) including Burgers and fries, You're my Jamaica, Snakes crawl at night, A whole lotta things to sing about, Mountain of love, Missing you, Does my ring hurt your finger and My eyes can only see as far as you. Among the ten songs here but not on the other collection are Before I met you, Did you think to pray, Don't fight the feelings of love and We could.



If you don't want the duplication involved in buying both collections and aren't worried about the differences in track selection, go for this one for the re-mastered sound quality and superior packaging. If song selection is to be the criteria (remembering the sound quality on the other set is perfectly good enough for most people), my guess is that Americans will prefer this set while Brits and Aussies (who regard Crystal chandeliers as essential) will choose the other collection."

Best Pride Collection Available

James E. Bagley | Sanatoga, PA USA | 09/03/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Charley Pride - country music's lone black superstar - ranks behind only Elvis Presley in all-time sales figures for RCA artists. Yet his deep RCA catalog has never been properly exploited. This forty-track remastered Anthology - the first multi-disc Pride retrospective available domestically in stores - is a step in the right direction. Pride created his own vocal style by melding the smooth delivery of Jim Reeves with a natural twang that recalled Lefty Frizzell and Ernest Tubb. The early singles (1966-68) that lead off disc one, like "Just Between You And Me" and "The Easy Part's Over," are all ballads sung in a lower key. With the 1969 live recording of Hank Williams' "Kaw-Liga," Pride added an uptempo hit to his repertoire that finally captured his warm baritone in its natural register (which he used on all recordings thereafter). "Kaw-Liga's" follow-up, the ballad "All I Have To Offer You (Is Me)" gave Pride the first of twenty-nine number one country hits at RCA. Aside from a gospel number "Did You Think To Pray," the tracks that make up the rest of disc one - covering 1970 through 1973 - also hit number one and are among Pride's most enduring recordings, including the uptempo "Wonder Could I Live There Anymore," "Is Anybody Going To San Antone" and his signature tune "Kiss An Angel Good Mornin'," as well as his common man odes "I'm Just Me" and "All His Children."

Disc two is dominated by relationship tunes - mostly ballads - such as "Then Who Am I" and "She's Just An Old Love Turned Memory." This disc also denotes a change in producers (from Jack Clement to Jerry Bradley). While not reflected in their first collaboration - 1974's seemingly biographical "Mississippi Cotton Pickin' Delta Town" - Bradley's production approach eventually altered Pride's sound dramatically. Adding layers of strings and supersweet background vocals that created a lushness more typical of Ronnie Milsap (particularly on "More To Me" and "When I Stop Leaving"), Pride's voice - which had grown more expressive over the years - is often rendered indistinctive on these mid-70s through mid-80s singles.While most of Pride's hits are here, Anthology omits some key tracks: his first single "Snakes Crawl At Night," his last big RCA hit "Every Heart Should Have One," the haunting "Missin' You," and the nostalgic "Burgers And Fries," among others. It's too bad that BMG didn't include the ten additional tracks that it easily had room for in order to get this overview absolutely right. Incidentally, there is a fifty-track Pride collection (Legendary) that is available as an import from RCA-Australia, but Anthology is still the superior set due to its chronological track sequencing and far better track selection and booklet/packaging."

40 Originals from RCA

Darrin Warren | Osburn, Idaho | 08/03/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This is a must have for Pride fans. You will hear many hard to find hits on this set, which is what made me buy it in the first place. The only tiny disappointment was that a few of his big hits were "not" on here, such as "Burgers and Fries" "Missin' You" "Mountain of Love" and some others were not on here that should of been. It's still worth it though and I highly recommend it. I hope BMG Heritage keeps putting out more sets from the RCA vaults."