40 Greatest Hits

by

Hank Williams

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Hank was a fine singer who ensured his place in popular music history by the exceptional quality of his songwriting. His songs were often recorded by pop singers of the time and this practice has continued ever since. He rarely recorded covers - so rarely that the ones he did record are often thought of as his own songs anyway.

This compilation was originally released on vinyl and later re-issued on CD. As far as song selection goes, this is the ultimate double CD of his music. The sound quality is plenty good enough for me, though it might be interesting to hear it digitally re-mastered with the latest technology.

Virtually every famous song associated with Hank can be found here, including all his own hits on the American country and pop charts. You can also find all the songs that have become popular via cover versions, some of which were only B-sides for Hank. The most significant omission (and it took me a while to notice that it was missing) is Honky tonkin', a great song but not absolutely essential.

Tribute albums and other cover versions continue to be recorded, not just in country and pop music, but also Cajun, jazz, rock and other genres, so each new generation gets reminded of Hank's legacy.

There have been many compilations of Hank's music but this is the only one that contains all the essentials and no more. As such, it is the ideal compilation for most people. I thought that the more recent British 4 CD budget box (Hillbilly hero) might include all the songs from this set but it does not cover his whole career and therefore omits several obvious songs including Jambalaya, You win again, Kaw-liga, Your cheating heart and Take these chains from my heart although it does include Honky tonkin'.

So if you only want one collection of Hank's music, make it this one.

For most of the songs the CD is good, but I found one song where it is clear that the remastering has wiped something in the original. - about the time that I ordered this CD, I also bought in a shop another CD named "the legendary Hank Williams" and a few songs are on both the one I bought earlier and on this one, the "40 greatest". One of these at least has a very fine high pitched wander on the pedal steel guitar on the "legendary.. " CD, but this beautiful wander is gone in the remastered version. Sure the sound appears crisper but also harsher on the remastered CD, but I find it a terrible shame that some of the most beautiful things in the music is just wiped in the aim of having "no noise", while that only makes the total sound more gritty and gruff.

But if I didn't have a copy of the unmastered song, I mightn't have known what was missing, And even if the sound on this one is harsher, than on the "legendary one", it is still quite listenable. My estimate of Hank Williams would not have been as great as it is, because his music has been downgraded by the remastering so that I couldn't hear fully what he created.

I'd rather have the 78 noise than all fresh treble and harsher sound with things lost between it. Such a shame for that beautiful wander of that pedal steel guitar. Where else has it happened? What other beautiful parts to this clever music have they wiped? Country Music is not just voice and guitar, if it is real music with many many parts, and Hank Williams did it right, made it real. Sometimes it feels as if much has been lost in the remastering.

Get off the knobs and leave well alone when you re record things. A frequency cannot be wiped without wiping good stuff as well.