Crystal Gayle: The Hits

We get to hear the evolution of one of country music's premier crossover artists through 25 great songs. It begins with her first hit, "I've Cried the Blues..." (written by sister Loretta) and ends with a gospel tune from her post-hit days (though this is apparently a version from a previous album and not the gospel album). Though some songs are stronger than others, this is not a hit-or-miss collection. Even the songs that weren't as well known ("Your Old Cold Shoulder," "River Road," "Beyond You") are excellent tracks. We do miss a few songs that might have been included instead of the lesser-knowns, but these songs help demonstrate to us what a wonderful artist she is.

Her most significant and popular songs are included: "I'll Do It All Over Again" (a personal favorite), "Wrong Road Again," "Don't It Make my Brown Eyes Blue" (wonderful piano work and arrangement that never gets old), and "Ready for the Times to Get Better" from her days as an emerging artist; and songs from her final years of success: "Half the Way," "Sound of Goodbye," and "Cry" (she put her stamp on that remake, and what wonderful saxophone is included).

Another treat is the duet with Eddie Rabbitt, her last pop top 10, "You and I." They sound great together. Eddie wanted her to do background vocals, but Crystal heard more . . . and the rest is history! The version of "When I Dream" is an older one than the better-known single release. I happen to like this one better--not quite as slow and with a little more country feel to it--but just don't expect it to be the one you heard on the radio.

I bought this is a birthday present for my mother, but I've listened just as much as she has. If you appreciate good music, you will enjoy, no matter what age. One part country, one part jazz, one part easy listening--and all Crystal! If you don't have these songs on CD, you need this collection.

To have all Crystal's big hits on one CD is an impossible task.
This compilation of greatest hits, however, is very near that
purpose. It holds 13 of her 18 #1 hits and the songs cover the
period from 1970 till 1986. The first song I had never heard of
before, is clearly an ode to Patsy Cline and a wonderful interpre-
tation. Since I received the CD, I have been playing it every day.
Besides the mentioned number one hits, the rest are also big hits
and this CD deserves at least the 5 stars I've given it because
Amazon's classification doesn't go any further.

This is a great cd of country music that unfortunately doesn't get airplay on radio stations anymore, due to alot of the so called "new country" that sounds more like soft rock....brings back some good memories of what country music used to sound like...

I finally broke down and bought an iPod a few months ago, and then began the laborious task of converting my extensive CD collection to mp3 files to play on it. I've always been a big Crystal Gayle fan and have most of the songs on this collection on other CDs. Unfortunately, the CDs of her 70s and early 80s work at United Artists and Columbia have very poor sound quality by today's standards. For that reason, I haven't listened to them in a very long time, and resisted copying them to my iPod, where the poor quality is even more apparent.

After reading reviews here of The Hits, I decided to download the collection from Amazon. I am literally blown away by the quality of the digitally remastered recordings! They are crystal clear (no pun intended!) and are of similar quality to recordings made today. This is how Crystal's music was meant to be heard. I was a little hesitant to shell out $8.99 for a collection of songs, most of which I already had, but the improved quality makes it well worth the price. It's also nice to finally get most of Crystal's big hits in one collection. She changed record labels often during her career, so it's been difficult to get a decent anthology until now. There are a few gems here that I'd never heard before, such as Beyond You, and a rare, stripped-down version of When I Dream, which, unlike another reviewer here, I really liked.

It would have been nice to have more recordings from her Warner Brothers years included, but now I'm getting greedy because 24 songs is about all that can fit on a single disk. I know that I'll be playing this collection a lot!

P.S. After writing this review and listening to the album again, I realized that the mp3 version contains one less track than the CD version. "I've Cried The Blue Right Out Of My Eyes" is not available for download. Not a huge deal to me (I have the song on another CD), but it's something to bear in mind for those who are completists.

I recently decided that I wanted to explore some of the older country artists that I missed when I was growing up, so I started with this one. It has all of the songs on there that I knew and loved, and then some other great ones! If you are looking for something different and familiar, this is a great buy and a good listen. Enjoy!