Honky Tonk Girl: The Loretta Lynn Collection

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Loretta Lynn

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Loretta Lynn was the first woman selected Entertainer of the Year by the Country Music Association and was one of the first women to be elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame. To many, she is the Queen of Country Music, yet until this box set was released in 1994, a 20 track greatest hits cd was the most in-depth retrospective available on Lynn's career. Honky Tonk Girl goes a long way towards revealing why Lynn is so special. It contains 70 recordings over three discs. Many of its tracks were appearing on cd for the first time with their enclosure here.

Disc one covers Lynn's formative years (1960 - 1966). Leading off its Lynn's first single (and hit) on the Zero label "Honky Tonk Girl" as well as its B-side "Whispering Sea." Neither had been in print in over 20 years when included here and it is easy to see why. Lynn's voice is so wobbly throughout that you'd never guess a stellar career lay ahead at Decca Records under the guidance of top producer Owen Bradley.

Lynn's early records at Decca were very much in the traditional female country vein. "Success," "The Other Woman," and "Blue Kentucky Girl" were the first big hits and all have a subservient theme. 1965's "You Ain't Woman Enough" and 1966's "Don't Come Home A Drinkin'" changed that mentality. These feisty declarations were also the first hits Lynn wrote at Decca. Suddenly, Lynn was a voice and role model for women everywhere. Not coincidentally, her singing became a lot stronger as well.

The second disc showcases Lynn at her commercial and artistic peak (1967 - 1971). Lynn wrote most of her hits during this period and no subject appears to have been off-limits. "Fist City" finds Lynn willing to get physical to keep her man while "Rated X" discusses the stigma placed on divorced on women. "One's On The Way" humorously poked at the drudgeries of being a housewife with a lot of kids. Country pride also played a prominent role in Lynn's music during this era with "You're Looking At Country" and "Coal Miner's Daughter" which has become Lynn's signature song and spawned an autobiographical book and film.

Disc three covers Lynn's later years with Decca and its parent company MCA. With 1972's controversial "The Pill", Lynn stopped writing her own material. Her musical stylings expanded as well, with "Trouble In Paradise" finding Lynn experimenting with rock (and sounding extremely ill at ease). Pop-flavored ballads like "When The Tingle Becomes A Chill" also became more common as Lynn's distinctive sound became watered down during the mid-to-late 1970s. In the 1980s, Lynn's recording career went into severe decline, and the box set wisely limits the representation from this time period to the sumptuous ballad "I Lie" (her last top 10 hit) and her final MCA single "Who Was That Stranger."

In addition to Lynn's solo recordings, duet hits with Ernest Tubb and Conway Twitty are sprinkled throughout the set. The major hits with Twitty missing here ("Louisian Woman Mississippi Man" and "Feelings") can be found on Twitty's equally well-done four-disc companion set. There are a few major singles by Lynn that weren't included ("Home," "You've Come A Long Way Baby," and my personal fave "Red, White, and Blue"), but it is undeniably one of the best done box sets on a country artist.

Folks,

Loretta Lynn is a 5 star Legend. I bought the boxset, and enjoyed it, BUT I give it 3 stars because:

1. Loretta has sang for decades (Is that all the songs you could come up with?).

2. Not Enough duet songs with conway Twitty.

3. Packaging is lousy and not showing enough respect to our beloved Legend.

It is shameful to know that the Great German company "Bear Family Records" continues to show more respect to Amercian Country music. Buying their box sets is truly a joy. Music sounds great, large number of songs, and the packaging is worth the price on it own.

Thanks,

Nawaf