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Genre:
Vocal Music
Release Date: 04/09/2002
The title presents a somewhat mixed message: If this album has his 25 all-time greatest hits, it wouldn't cover just his 1956-1961
Cadence years. And sure enough, this couldn't be considered
Williams' best greatest-hits collection, as it contains only material from those
Cadence years and none from his subsequent hit-filled decade at
Columbia. That carping done with, if you want a survey of his
Cadence output, this is the best collection for that purpose, though it's not significantly different from the 1996
Varese Sarabande compilation
The Best of the Cadence Years, other than dropping
"Beyond the Reef" and adding six other tracks.
Williams'
Columbia hits might be a little better known, but he was indeed successful at
Cadence. All of these 25 songs were released on singles (a handful after his early-'60s departure from the label), and about two-thirds made the charts, half a dozen making the Top Ten. Musically, it's lightweight and erratic, however, veering from good crooning
standard pop to some pretty dull
easy listening. Crooning is what he's known for, but actually some of the better cuts are those in which he swings to some degree, like
"Canadian Sunset," "Butterfly" (actually a cover of a superior
rockabilly hit by
Charlie Gracie), the giddy male-female duet of
"I Like Your Kind of Love," Lionel Bart's
"Do You Mind?," and the
mambo "House of Bamboo." On another trip altogether,
"I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" manages to drain all of the
country out of the
Hank Williams standard with its schmaltzy orchestration.
~Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide
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