At least half the songs on this collection are among the finest country songs ever recorded, some because they are flat out great songs (She Thinks I Still Care, Wine Colored Roses), some slight but made much more by the seen-it-all, drunk-it-all, sung-it-all Jones voice. List 'em -- Why Baby Why, Just One More, She Thinks I Still Care, We Must Have Been Out of Our Minds, The Race is On, A Good Year for the Roses, The Grand Tour, Golden Ring, and the incredible streak of cuts 8-14 on disc two -- Two Story House (story in both senses of the word of course), He Stopped Loving Her Today, I'm Not Ready Yet, If Drinkin Don't Kill Me, Still Doin' Time, Same Ole Me, and Yesterday's Wine. You are talking over 30 years of material here, add another 15 to bring us up to 2003 (see his last two CDs and you will have no doubt that George's quality has stayed superb) and that's nearly half a century of song stories that ring as true, sad, and life strong as the first time heard.

This CD belongs in the collection of every person with the slightest interest in country music. Ol' George has peers, Johnny, Merle, Willie, but no one is his better.

Couple last random thoughts -- 1) God, I miss Tammy Wynette. 2)Let's be honest, it wouldn't be George if there weren't a couple of over the top, corny dregs -- The Ceremony and Her Name Is are my nominees. 3) I wish he'd written more in the 70's and 80's. Looking at the early songs, I have to think that his great material from those decades could have been even finer mixed with some of his own compositions.

this box set was released in 1994 during the middle of his 40th Anniversary as a recording artist. this box set is great and for a major record label like Epic/Sony to showcase George's other hits on other labels too, well, that in itself is amazing. i love the selections that are showcased BUT (here comes the "but" interjection once again)...i didn't like the liner notes in the mini-booklet dealing with George's signing with Epic in 1971. the guy who wrote the liner notes, Rich Kienzle, if you didn't know, is or was a critic for a magazine called "Country Music". Rich and several other critics for that magazine don't keep their hatred hidden for George's Epic material. Rich and Bob Allen are the two biggest complainers of the Epic days. well, anyway, Rich goes into detail about the "soap opera" that Billy Sherrill created with George and Tammy's songs. he then goes in for more detail after the break-up and the "no show" days. on top of this, in a box set supposedly to celebrate George Jones' incredible body of work, Rich feels it necessary to quote Billy Sherrill's odd statement which went something like: {i think that George oversang 'Bartenders Blues'; it was like George Jones trying to sound like George Jones...}. was there any need for such a comment like that to be included in this box set? i love Bartender's Blues and in reality it's James Taylor's soaring harmony that would make you think it's "oversung". the music itself is excellent and all original material. the box set was issued by Sony/Epic and therefore all of George's major Top-40 hits on Epic from 1972-1989 are on here (minus his wonderful 1977 Top-40 "If I Could Put Them All Together", his 1984 Top-10 "You've Still Got a Place In My Heart" and his two Top-20 duet hits with Brenda Lee on "Hallelujah, I Love You So" and Lacy J. Dalton on "Size Seven Round and Made of Gold" in early 1985 but that's about the only Epic material that made the Top-40 that ISN'T on here, though!). as a result, this box set totally wipes out the importance of having 1982's "Anniversary: Ten Years of Hits" unless you're a completist. near the end of this booklet, Rich talks about how "I'm a One Woman Man" was his last hit for Epic in early 1989. this is incorrect. "The King is Gone", which was originally known as "Ya Ba Da Ba Do", hit #26 in mid 1989 and "Writing On The Wall" would hit #31 in late 1989. so, technically, "Writing On The Wall" was George's final hit single. two of his 1990 Epic singles wouldn't chart and THEN he moved to MCA in 1991...but that's another story, maybe there's a volume two in the works to showcase his post 1991 material???! get this box set but be aware of the highly opinionated liner notes and some inaccuracies (like the one i just described about "One Woman Man" NOT being his last hit for Epic). you know, some people assume because an album contains no hit singles that it isn't worth talking about. well, i look at it with this view: i'd rather have an album that had NO hits because NOBODY would know about it and i'd have a RARE/little-known album and as a collector i know that completists like myself want the rare unknown albums as much as the well known titles. there is simply no excuse for critics and "historians" on George Jones to ignore 1983's "Shine On", 1983's "Jones Country", 1984's "You've Still Got a Place In My Heart", 1987's "Too Wild Too Long", and 1990's "You Oughta Be Here With Me" and act like they don't exist. once again, get this box set BUT throw away the booklet if you walk away thinking it's too negative for an "anniversary" project like this.

All I have to say is the only real legend that is still Alive, in my opinion, the greatest country music singer of all time, and that would be George Jones

Fans of country music and George Jones will consider this a must-have, but it's essential for the new generation which is unfortunately missing out in the real SOUL of C&W, thanks to the proliferation of artists who are churning out wannabe-pop-crossover pablum instead of real C&W. George's plaintive voice soars on the ever-immortal "He Stopped Loving Her Today" and evokes haunting images of his ill-fated, stormy romance with Tammy Wynette in "If The Drinkin' Don't Kill Me, Her Memory Will." George Jones was a national treasure. There aren't enough stars for this one

George Jones is the greatest real COUNTRY singer of all time. He sings real country music. He doesnt have to have a fancy stage, tight pants, tatoos, cowboy hats, I.E.-Kenny,Tim McGraw, George Jones has lived the life and walked the walk. The two-cd's here show George's durablity and longevity. White Lighting all the way to Golden Ring, George puts all his emotion into every song. Country music know is about $, the image, putting on a fancy show. George JUST sings the song with a voice like no other. This CD is a good starter for any George Jones collection. It is nearly impossbile to put all his songs in two cd's. I recently saw Randy Travis in concert, George's influence was evident in his singing. George Jones does not need an image or fancy videos to sell records. He is country music.