By the time that George Jones left Mercury and signed with United Artists in 1962 for his chart-topping “She Thinks I Still Care,†he’d been steadily minting hits since his 1955 debut, “Why Baby Why.†His two-and-a-half year run on UA produced sixteen singles, which the label managed to stretch over nearly five years of releases. All thirty-two sides – sixteen A’s and their flips – are included here in their original mono. Jones continued to be a steady hit maker (sometimes charting both sides of a single), but he also had his share of misses and obscure B-sides. This set includes favorites like “You Comb Her Hair†and “The Race is On,†but with so many singles over so many years, it’s easy to have lost track of superb A-sides like the rockabilly-tinged “Beacon in the Night,†the murder-suicide “Open Pit Mine,†the up-tempo “Your Heart Turned Left (And I Was on the Right)†and the fiddle-and-twang shuffle “What’s Money.â€
Haggard’s original 1960s Capitol singles – A’s and B’s
As with their collections of singles on Wanda Jackson and George Jones, Ominvore’s anthology of twenty-eight Merle Haggard sides – fourteen A’s and their respective B’s – shows off a perspective not covered by greatest hits collections or original album reissues. In addition to Haggard’s thirteen charting 1960s Capitol A-sides (eight of which topped the charts), the set includes the non-charting “Shade Tree Fix-it-Man.†Haggard wrote all but one of the A-sides (“The Fugitive,†penned by Liz Anderson), and most of the flips, but his first Capitol single was backed by a lush-stringed arrangement of Ralph Mooney’s “Falling for You,†and he later covered Anderson’s sorrowful “This Town’s Not Big Enough.â€
Haggard’s B-sides are far from the filler many producers used to force DJ’s onto the plug side; the productions were carefully crafted, and the instrumental backings are often highlighted by Ralph Mooney’s piercing steel and Roy Nichols’ sharply picked electric and resophonic guitars. It’s hard to imagine how DJs kept themselves from flipping “The Legend of Bonnie and Clyde†to play the equally attractive “I Started Loving You Again.†There are a few lighter sides, like “The Girl Turned Ripe,†but the lyrics are most often of afflicted love – relationships bound to end, ending, or receding too slowly in the rear view mirror. Haggard’s jazzier inclinations come out on Hank Cochran’s “Loneliness is Eating Me Alive†and the original “Good Times,†and his love of Jimmie Rodgers is heard in a cover of “California Blues.â€
Recent collections of singles from Roy Orbison, Carl Perkins, Ray Charles and others have shed new light on much-loved performers. In addition to well-known hits, these anthologies highlight the valiant misses and B-sides that faded from an artist’s repertoire as their catalog was reduced to greatest hits collections. Wanda Jackson’s rockabilly and country recordings have been well-served in reissue, with both original albums and anthologies in print, but Omnivore’s 29-track collection provides an expanded view of her career as a singles artist. In addition to her well-loved A-sides “Hot Dog! That Made Him Made,†“Cool Love,†“Fujiyama Mama,†“Honey Bop,†“Mean Mean Man,†“Rock Your Baby,†“Let’s Have a Party,†“Riot in Cell Block Number Nine,†“Right or Wrong,†and “In the Middle of a Heartache,†the set is stocked with ace chart-misses and B-sides.
As early as 1956 Jackson was backing up her incendiary rockabilly singles with country flips that included “Half a Good a Girl†and the maiden recording of Jack Rhodes and Dick Reynolds’ “Silver Threads and Golden Needles.†She added a rockabilly croon to the Cadillacs’ bluesy doo-wop B-side “Let Me Explain†and shined brightly on Boudleaux Bryant’s calypso novelty “Don’a Wan’a.†Her ballads were often backed by Jordanaires-styled male harmonies and hard-twanging guitars (courtesy of A-list players Joe Maphis and Buck Owens) that keep her rock ‘n’ roll roots simmering. Even more straightforward country weepers like “No Wedding Bells for Joe†and “Sinful Heart†have downbeats that are more insistent than their Nashville contemporaries.
Jackson’s original “Little Charm Bracelet†didn’t make the charts, but it’s a cleverly written story of a relationship’s hopeful start and interrupted ending. Fans may be surprised to find that the favorite “Funnel of Love†was actually a B-side (to the country hit “Right or Wrongâ€), as the release signaled the beginnings of Jackson’s transition to the country charts. Still, even as the A-sides turned country, the B-sides held onto their sass with originals “I’d Be Ashamed†and “You Bug Me Bad,†and a bouncy version of Bobby Bare’s “Sympathy.†The productions are split between Los Angeles (tracks 1-17) and Nashville (tracks 18-29), and while the latter show countrypolitan touches, several of Jackson’s hottest rock ‘n’ roll records were recorded with Roy Clark and other Music City luminaries.
The Otis Redding album that could have been
