Customer Reviews

The Essential Willie Nelson (Rm) (2CD)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I only have one Willie Nelson CD. This is it. I have always enjoyed his music, but never had the cash to buy it. So glad I got this one. It has a wide range of songs. Each time I listen to it I say a little prayer for Willie Nelson and thank him for sharing his gift with the rest of us.

if you like Willie, this is the CD for you and Amazon is the best place to purchase it. They had the best price, I thought I was ordering used but I got brand new, sealed, 2CD's and at the best price ever. I will order from here again, it was shipped out the next day and 2 days later it was on my CD player.

I disagree with those who said that the duet with Steven Tyler wasn't good. I thought it was great! Maybe Steven did sing a little louder than Willie, but if Willie didn't like it, he didn't have to put it on his CD. With all the mechanical stuff they have now, he could easily have fixed that. Anyway, I like the cd, especially "One Time too Many."

Willie Nelson did not make any real impact as a singer until the mid seventies (and it was the eighties before Britain took him seriously) but this compilation attempts to cover the whole of his career to date. Inevitably, this means that a lot of great songs are omitted but if this is your first Willie Nelson album and you want to explore further, you will find plenty to choose from.

The set opens with Willie's versions of the four songs that established Willie as a songwriter in the sixties, these being Night life, Hello walls, Crazy and Funny how time slips away. Six further tracks cover the sixties and early seventies, a period during which Willie recorded plenty of interesting music but with only limited success.

In 1975, Willie recorded a cover of Blue eyes crying in the rain, an old Roy Acuff song, which became a major country and pop hit in America. Other hits followed including a lot of duets -so many that you could fill a boxed set with them. Just a few are included here, among them being Good hearted woman, Mamas don't let your babies grow up to be cowboys (both with Waylon Jennings), Faded love (with Ray Price - and Crystal Gayle singing backup harmony), To all the girls I've loved before (with Julio Iglesias) and Seven Spanish angels (with Ray Charles). Willie's classic solo country hits (some covers, some originals) are represented by If you've got the money I've got the time, Uncloudy day, Help me make it through the night, My heroes have always been cowboys, On the road again, Always on my mind, City of New Orleans and a few others.

Another aspect of Willie's career was the series of albums he recorded featuring songs from the Great American Songbook. The first and most famous of these albums was Stardust. It is the only songbook album from which tracks are taken and is represented here by Blue skies, Georgia on my mind and All of me. A very different double CD of Willie's music titled All the songs I've loved before was released in Britain and Australia, which was dominated by this aspect of Willie's music and which I've already reviewed.

If you only want one collection of music by Willie Nelson, this is a good one to choose.

this is the one to have. Let's face it, all compilations have their weaknesses, but the 2 disc "The Essential Willie Nelson" (2003) is the first to cover all the labels Willie has recorded for and all the big hits in one set! Disc one kicks off with 7 early 60s recordings including "Night life", "Hello Walls", and "Crazy" (which Willie wrote & Patsy Cline made famous). Track 8, "Me and Paul" starts Willie's 70s recordings including "Blue eyes crying in the rain" and of course his classic duets with Waylon: "Good Hearted Woman" & "Mama's don't let your babies...". 3 songs are included from the 1978 album "Stardust": "Blue Skies", "Georgia on my mind", & "All of Me" and disc one closes with two live tracks: "Whiskey River" & "Stay a little longer" both from the '78 album "Willie & Family Live".

Disc 2 continues with late 70s and early 80s hits like "My Heroes have always been Cowboys", "Always on my mind", and of course "On the road again". More classic duets follow with "Pancho & Lefty" (a personal favorite) with Merle Haggard, "To all the girls..." with Julio Iglesias, and "Seven Spanish Angels" with Ray Charles. The 1984 gem "Highwayman" featuring Kristofferson, Waylon, and Cash is also here. The second disc is wrapped up with more duets: "Slow Dancing" with U2 (which surprisingly works because Bono is either MIA or extremely toned down), "Mendocino County Line" with Lee Ann Womack, and "One Time too Many" with Aerosmith. One review stated that these last three songs left a "sour taste" considering that they are part of an "essential" collection. I have to agree, but only greatly in terms of the Aerosmith song. It starts off well enough with acoustic guitar and Willie and Steven Tyler trading verses, but when the rest of Aerosmith kicks in and Tyler does his thing, Willie is drowned out and that's not cool on a Willie Nelson compilation. If one wants to hear Aerosmith, there are many ways to do so. So with the minor exception of the final track of the set, this compilation is indispensable. A great way to get Willie's biggest hits on one reasonably priced set!

*It should be noted that 14 of the 20 tracks from the 1981 compilation "Greatest Hits & some that will be" are included here not to mention 22 of the 30 tracks on 1999's "The Very Best of Willie" as well. So if you have either of these, 2003's "Essential" may not be essential. However, if you don't have any Willie compilations yet, this is the one to go with.

Also recommended:
RCA Legends: Waylon Jennings (2 disc, 40 track excellent compilation)

While Willie's 3 disc box-set Revolutions of Time is ultimately a more thorough and "essential" collection, this set definitely hits all of the high (and one or two low) points in Willie's career. Just about every mainstream hit from the late 70s and early 80s is here. While some of this might sound dated and overproduced ("Always On My Mind" would be perfect if it weren't for those backup singers), these songs are as much a part of pop music as any rock and roll collection. In my opinion, Willie is only nominally a country artist anymore, and much more a pop singer, so don't use your dislike of country music as an excuse to ignore Willie.

This set, unlike the 3 CD box-set, includes songs from various points in his career- his rendition of "Crazy" and "Hello Walls" are here. While they are more in the mold of traditional late 60s Nashville country (even more overproduced than the early 80s stuff), it's wonderful to hear Willie sing some of his songs that others turned into massive hits. A few of his duets are here, including two with Waylon, the wonderful and haunting "Pancho and Lefty" with Merle, the Highwayman title song, "Faded Love" with Ray Price, and my favorite, "Seven Spanish Angels" with Ray Charles. Again, the box-set includes an entire disc of duets, so this offers only a sample. What a fine sample it is, though.

Willie's late 70s to mid 80s material speaks for itself- a few songs from "Stardust" and his live album, "On the Road Again" (one of my all time favorite songs from any artist), "City of New Orleans"- all essential classics. The collections begins to trail off with his 90s and early 2000 material, and this stuff is hardly Willie's finest- the U2 song is ponderous and pretentious, and some of the duets from this period are just silly- Aerosmith? Willie's rendition of Paul Simon's "Graceland" is the best from this era, and holds up well against the fine original.

I tend to like singers with less traditional voices- Bruce, Dylan, Willie, Lyle Lovett, Jimmie Dale Gilmore. The most frequent complaint you'll hear about these people is that their voices are unpleasant. I just find that to be outright wrong- Willie's reedy, sweet voice is a thing of beauty, and the uniqueness that he brings to both his own songs and his covers is part of his appeal. He's a timeless artist who is both a fine songwriter and an even better interpreter of songs both standards and obscurities. He joins the ranks of a handful of true American musical greats- Louis Armstrong, Elvis, Frank, Dylan, Johnny Cash and Bruce Springsteen. I'm an enormous fan of The Boss, and placing Willie alongside him is my highest form of compliment.

This is potentially the most thourough collection of songs of Willie Nelson. These songs just characterize the old legend. I really enjoyed the first CD. "Blue Eyes Crying In the Rain" and "Georgia On My Mind" truly capture his sentimental side; while "All Of Me" and "Whiskey River" demonstrate his upbeat side. The second CD was really my favorite. Heartwarming ballads like "Always On My Mind" will remain in your minds forever; while classic duets such as "Pancho and Lefty" with Merle Haggard and "Seven Spanish Angels" with Ray Charles will make you keep on listening for endless years to come. This album is truly a must-have for Willie fans.

Willie Nelson is sort of like a favorite old piece of furniture which adorns your living room. You're glad it's there, but you don't give it a lot of thought -- except when you're sitting on it and appreciating how comfortable it is. A collection like this one reminds us of how good the man is and what a remarkable career he's had.

The more consistently successful of the two discs is the first one, full of classics and obscurities (the odd "I Never Cared for You," which sounds like something Dylan might have produced had he pursued a career in country music). The one clunker proves that any song Nelson does with the word "cowboys" in the title is one to pass on. (Not that there's anything wrong with cowboy songs. If you want to hear some good ones, hunt up Ian Tyson or Don Edwards. But "Mammas, Don't Let Your Babies Grow up to be Cowboys" or [the opener on #2] "My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys"? Puh-leeze....) The pickings on the second disc are slimmer, though there are some fine songs and performances here, too, one of which is not the execrable "To All the Girls I've Loved Before." Still, for its documentation of Nelson's willingness to explore musical styles beyond basic country, it's well worth a listen. Unlike most established artists, Nelson is unafraid to experiment and even to fail sometimes. But when he succeeds -- as in the lovely duet with Emmylou Harris, "Everywhere I Go," or the Nelson/Haggard take on Townes Van Zandt's faux-folk ballad "Pancho and Lefty" -- the results take one's breath away.

Thanks, Willie, for making the livingroom such a pleasant place to visit.

A Quality collection from a true legend. This collection covers all the bases and record labels that this legend has recorded for. This collection is a tad bit skimpy on the Liberty and RCA material, but it would take a 3 or 4 cd set to include all the good material. It would have been nice to include "Yesterday's Wine or "Mr. Record Man" or from the Columbia years, Willie's version of "Let it Be Me". No collection is perfect and this is the best Willie collection out there. This collection is filled with Number 1 hits and covers 5 decades, WOW This collection deserves 10 stars, it is that good!!! All the classics and quality duet material is included in this collection

Well What More Can Be Said About This Set...Its Willie As We All Have Known Willie To Be..Set Back..Grab Ya A Drink...And Listen To This Willie Style...