Glen Campbell Collection (1962-1989) - 2 CD

Glen Campbell not only had an enormous number of hit singles, he was also a staple of pop culture, appearing in films and hosting a TV show during the late '60s and early '70s. Before that, he was a respected studio musician and performer in search of a hit in the early '60s, cutting great singles that nobody heard. All this makes his career difficult to compile, even on a double-disc set with 40 songs, so it shouldn't be a huge surprise that Razor & Tie's 1997 compilation The Glen Campbell Collection (1962-1989), for all its attributes, is heavily flawed. Its biggest problem is its scope; by extending its reach to the end of the '80s, when Campbell was still having hits out of sheer inertia and was far past his peak, the listenability of the second disc nosedives about halfway through. Conversely, there's not enough of his earlier singles, such as his debut, "Universal Soldier," and, most egregiously, the Brian Wilson-written "Guess I'm Dumb," an achingly gorgeous song that is easily as good as any of the classic Pet Sounds-era Beach Boys singles. Of course, the heart of this -- or any -- Glen Campbell collection is the hits he had in the late '60s and early '70s on Capitol Records, when he was a fixture in the country and pop Top Ten with singles like "Wichita Lineman," "Galveston," and "By the Time I Get to Phoenix." They're all here, along with "I Wanna Live," "Dreams of the Everyday Housewife," "Gentle on My Mind," "True Grit," "Where's the Playground Susie," and, on the second disc, "Rhinestone Cowboy," "Country Boy (You Got Your Feet in LA)," "Southern Nights," and "Sunflower." At the time of its release in 1997, it was more hits than any other Campbell collection, and it still is a very good cross section of basics.

Classic hits 2 CD 40 Songs Country