Definitive Collection in Bloomington, MN

Merle Haggard
has been affiliated with several different major and independent labels in a recording career dating back to 1963, and his catalog resides in the archives of such competing companies as
EMI
,
Universal
, and
Sony BMG
. His longest and most successful stint was on
's
Capitol
subsidiary, 1966-1977, so if any one firm were to attempt a multi-label compilation,
would seem the most likely candidate. Instead, this single-disc best-of comes from
Hip-O
, the reissue division of
, which owns only the recordings
Haggard
made for
MCA Records
from 1977 to 1981.
is known for its willingness to license tracks from others, and it has outdone itself on this edition of the
Definitive Collection
series; only nine of the 22 tracks come from inside the company (which is something of an over-representation as it is), with six from
, five from
Epic
label (where
recorded from 1981 to 1989), and two from the independent
ANTI Records
label (for which he made two albums in 2000-2001). Having addressed the problem of
's catalog diffusion, however, compilation producer
Andy McKaie
still faced the impossibility of encompassing that enormous body of work on a single 71-minute CD. There is no way to do anything more than sample the bounty, which is what
McKaie
does.
's first number one
country
hit,
"The Fugitive,"
leads things off, beginning a run of six number ones (the
tracks) that include such signature songs as
"Mama Tried,"
"Okie from Muskogee,"
and
"If We Make It Through December"
(but not
"The Bottle Let Me Down,"
"Branded Man,"
or
"The Fightin' Side of Me"
). The
MCA
tracks are
's biggest hits for the label, only one of them,
"I Think I'll Just Stay Here and Drink,"
was a chart topper, but there's a live version of one of the missing
hits,
"Sing Me Back Home."
Many of
's biggest hits on
were duets, which is recognized by the inclusion of
"Yesterday's Wine,"
sung with
George Jones
"Pancho and Lefty,"
on which
is really just a guest of
Willie Nelson
, who sings the lion's share of the song. The
period concludes with
's final
number one,
"Twinkle, Twinkle Lucky Star,"
and the disc ends with the
ANTI
tracks, remakes of songs by
Red Foley
Lefty Frizzell
. The selection is a reasonable attempt to span a river that's really just too wide to cross in one jump. The album might have been closer to "definitive" with more of the
hits and fewer from
, but it does present some of the better performances from the breadth of
's career. ~ William Ruhlmann