Currently experiencing a career resurgence thanks to her Grammy-winning album Van Lear Rose, Loretta Lynn established herself as one of country music's greatest artists during her twenty-plus years on Decca/MCA. Universal (Decca/MCA's parent company) keeps whipping out collections of her music about once a year and they are slowly but surely getting better. This two-disc, 36-track set improves upon 2005's 25-track Definitive Collection which improved upon 2002's 22-track All-Time Greatest Hits.

This set includes such definitive Loretta Lynn recordings as her first hit "Honky Tonk Girl" (1960, for the Zero label), her first Decca hit "Success" (1962) and her last top-ten hit "I Lie" (1981) which were left off the other two aforementioned sets. Unfortunately, Universal continues to leave off such fan favorites as "To Make A Man (Feel Like A Man)," "Home," and "Red, White, and Blue" (none of which are on her three disc box set Honky Tonk Girl either). Meanwhile, "We've Come A Long Way Baby" is only available on 1987's nonremastered 20 Greatest Hits. So, the frustration continues.

People looking for a lot of Lynn's best recordings - and no filler - should probably purchase this Gold collection over the Honky Tonk Girl box set which contains a sizable sampling of nonhit material. Gold is also a lot less expensive (although Honky Tonk Girl has the nicer packaging, including lots of photos and extensive liner notes/recording session information). Gold also has two bonus tracks not included on previous Loretta Lynn sets: the 1993 single "Silver Threads And Golden Needles" with fellow country icons Tammy Wynette and Dolly Parton as well as "Country In My Genes," a solo single for the Audium label which nicked the charts in 2000.

Ultimately, it is a shame that Universal music didn't include the extra 12 hits that it had room for on this two-disc set (each disc is under 60 minutes long) in order to make this a worthwhile purchase for ALL of Lynn's fans. For the casual Loretta Lynn fan, this collection should suffice.

This is a good selection of Loretta Lynn music except I wish they included a WHO WAS THAT STRANGER from her 1988 release. However, it doesn't take any stars away. The music here is remastered and sounds great.

I used to have a couple of LL albums back in high school. I missed hearing those songs, so I searched for a CD to replace them. I am so glad that I did. Listening to her take on marriage, women, men, etc. brings a smile and often an outloud chuckle. "One's on the Way" and "Hey, Loretta" hits home for this married lady.