****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
A friend of mind showed up at my house a couple of years ago all excited about this CD. To say the least I was very skeptical but I decided to humor him and listen to this for myself. Guess what? I ordered this 2 CD set the very next day. Based on my limited exposure to the music of Charlie Rich I had absolutely no idea what a talent he was. Let me be clear here....this is not a "Greatest Hits" package. There are several of those available. Rather, after his untimely death in 1995, Epic Records decided to showcase the considerable talents of this man in one 2 disc package. This retrospective covers his entire career from the early years at Sun Records until his final album in 1992.Over the years, Charlie Rich recorded for five different record labels. For most of his career no one seemed to know just what to do with him. His earliest recordings at Sam Phillips legendary Sun Records were mainly rockabilly, but one can sample an early country ballad "Who Will The Next Fool Be" from 1961. Charlie Rich loved and recorded all kinds of music. Although his recordings could most often be found on the Billboard Top Country Singles chart, he recorded a lot of R&B, soul, pop standards and even a little jazz. And the remarkable thing that you will discover when listening to this collection is that it is all great stuff!!! Listen and enjoy Charlie's unique interpetations of Roy Hamiltons "You Can Have Her", Sinatra's "Nice'n Easy" and Lenny Welch's great standard "Since I Fell For You". Charlie Rich was also a tremendous piano player and a prolific song writer. There are a dozen or so of this own compositions on this collection including familiar favorites like "Lonely Weekends" and the awesome "Mohair Sam" from 1965. And you cannot help but be moved by the amazing "Feel Like Going Home". There are 2 different versions presented here, his original 1973 demo and the version from his 1992 album "Pictures and Paintings". Two other tracks deserving of mention are "When Something Is Wrong With my Baby" and of course the title song of his final album "Pictures and Paintings." So take my advice and pick up this CD. Then decide whether Charlie Rich was a country singer, a crooner or a soul singer. Like so many others along the way, you probably will be unable to make up your mind.
