Conway Twitty was a phenomenal country and Rockabilly singer that we lost far too early in life at the age of 59, he was still out on the road and releasing new music for all of us to hear, sadly on June 5, 1993 we would lose Conway in the early morning hours of that day to an an abdominal aortic aneurysm. Luckily for the music fans of this legend who was in the right lace at the right time when rock and roll were just getting started with Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, Elvisw Presley, & Roy Orbison he would come out with all of those greats from Sam Phillip's Sun Records label, and as the saying goes the rest is history, we now 26 years later have some new material after his passing to hear courtesy of Country Rewind Records label.
The new release from CRR entitled "Timeless" contains 14 newley digitally remastered tracks that haven't been heard since the day they were performed in various radio stations, and thanks to CRR who was able to save quite a bit of material from various artists they have been able to release gems like this one for the fans of the artists, they've released so far Carl Smith, Jeannie C. Riley, Johnny Russell, The Blueridge Mountain Bluegrass Band and of course now Conway Twitty,,
We'll start off with the single that CRR has released to country radio which is "Hello Darling" a number one hit for four weeks in 1970 and there are some good aspects and some bad with this version, for those who've read my last right up on the four releases CRR did you'll know that they add some backing vocals and some backing musicians, which is good as long as you don't make the recording sound too current, and that's something they didn't do musically, but vocally it sounds as though Conway's voice is set a little too far back in the mix when the back up singers are harmonizing on the parts that are necessary, i'm thinking that when this particular version of "Hello Darling" was recorded at whatever studio he was in promoting the song at the time that he didn't have back up singers on this live version, as we know throughout the years we've seen in the rock and roll world many albums come out from the BBC radio and television performances including The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, and Cream to just name a few and when they were released the only thing done was digitally remastering which doesn't take away from the original vibe or sound to the music, other than the back up singers it sounds true to the original styling of the piece. "Lost Her Love On Our Last Date" it's nice to finally hear words to the classic instrumental by Floyd Cramer's "Last Date", it's a sad song with lyrics but has a poignent touch to it with Conway's voice, this went to the top of the country charts in 1972 from his "I Can't Stop Loving You" album which generally cover songs do good for most artists. "Fifteen Years Ago" another sad break up song in a sense where someone stirred up some old memories of a ove that either went bad or just moved on it's also got a Marty Robbins feel in the track transcending through, a number 1 for Conway from the same titled album in 1970 what I find interesting is with country artists of that time it seems as though as much as they might have been touring they seemed to have a lot of time to record albums as it seems that Conway was able to release two albums per year from the looks of it which kept him busy but at least you never got a shortage of music from him. "Crazy Arms" a country music standard, most of these tracks if not all of these rom conway are from either the sixties or seventies
as Conway didn't transition in to the country music genre until the late 1960s, i'm not sure of the year of this particular performance, but no matter who sings this country standard it always sounds beauticul. "Dim Lights, Thick Smoke & Loud Loud Music" this is the type of tune that you call a cheating song and this one can go towards either gender in this version it's a woman being sung about but you can picture plenty of female artists of the country genre doing this as well including Patsy Cline, Tammy Wynette, Loretta Lynn, and possibly even Dolly Parton in her early career. "Honky Tonk Man" yes that's right here I thought all of these years hearing the tune that Bakersfield, California's own Dwight
Yoakam was the original performer of this great, Dwight keeps the traditional classic country sound to his version where as Conways has that Roy Orbison "(Oh) Pretty Woman" drum beat through the whole thing but that's what makes it unique in this case and who knows maybe
that's the way the original is supposed to sound. "How Much More Can She Stand" another fine cheating tune from the perspective of the guy this time, he knows he's cheating on her and he also knows that eventually he's gonna break that last straw and she'll be gone, but he is just wondering how much more will she let it go on fo, this looks to be the first single I have seen that just made it in to the top 100 and that's where it peaked for him in 1971. "I Can't See Me Without You" this is what is great about the country music genre, all the songs are mini stories or movies whichever you prefer to to think of them as, but in this story we're hearing about a man who's trying to visualize what it would be like if his love left or heaven forbid die, it's hard to think of what life would be like without our loved ones isn't it? a number 4 on the country charts in 1971 seems to be a good chart number for a single wouldn't you say. "I Love You More TOday" written in the style of a classic George Jones piece and again the story is now in this case watching our love we once had with another guy or girl pendeing on your gender reading this, and of course he now sees what he's missing and realizes he can't get her back, this did reach number 1 on the country charts for Conway, the country music industry sure did embrace him considering he came from the rock and roll side of music but he did start in rockabilly which is technically a combination of rock and country so that may have made the transition easier for him and his fans. "If You Were Mine To Lose" funny how stories go in country music we go from falling in love to losing someone we love to now we're visualizing a way to lose someone which seems a little odd as I wouldn't think you'd want to try and lose someone but then hey as one of the lyrics says in the song "If You were mine to lose i'd at least have a memory" "Next In Line" we're pining for a girl who's just gone through a break-up, and sitting at the bar alone tearing the label from the beer she just drank and this guy in our story wants to be the next in line to date her, we should let her take a break and get over the last guy first correct?? Conway must have been doing something right in 1968 as this did reach the number 1 spot and also came from the album titled same as the single. "Proud Mary" yes the John Fogerty and CCR classic hit, there's definitely no shortage of covers of this classic that's for sure
and definitely no one does the same way as CCR this version is so countryfied that until you hear Conway singing the lyrics you wouldn't know it was Proud Mary that's for sure, John Fogerty get a load of this version and lett us know what you think man....as this version has good vibes to it, and just a fun song to cover. "The Image Of Me" another tear jerker of a song about the opposite sex thinking about drinking and crying it's a sad one folks but in today's newer country i'll say newer not brand new but newer Ricky Van Shelton from the late eighties and nineties could have done justice to the track, it did however reach number 5 on the country charts in 1968 from his "Here's Conway" album release. "working Girl" just kind of a rockin' country classic sound that will get up up dancing and possibly singing singing to close out this great round of CRR label's classic trend they've got going on.
the one song missing of Conway's and last I knew it was a signature song of his besides "HEllo Darling" the one missing is the one that started it all for him in the fifties and it was recut by Conways to give it a little country flavor even though it already had that sound in it and the song is "It's Only Make Believe" other than that this is a good way to start out your Conway Twitty Country collection and work your way back from here to get more if you like what you hear. I would have to give this collection on the scale of a 1-10 where 10 is perfect and 1 being not worth buying i'd have to give this collection an 8 for the reason of "Hello Darling's" mix is not one of the better versions of the song i've heard and of course as I said it's missing the one big hit "It's Only Make Believe" but it's worth adding to the collection if you're just starting a classic country collection or if you're just getting into Conway Twitty's musical stylings this should be in the collection one way or another.
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