Greatest Hits [2020]

by Roy Clark

Overview

Roy Clark compilations were curiously sparse during the CD era, which is what makes Craft's 2020 collection Greatest Hits so notable. Varese Vintage released one in 1995 and Time/Life put one out a decade later, so there was a need in the marketplace to get Clark's hits back in circulation. Craft's compilation covers the same ground as its two predecessors. Everything from the Varese disc is here, generally in the same sequence, and those are the same songs that filled out the Time/Life comp (the 1969 single "Love Is Just a State of Mind" and "Roy's Guitar Boogie" are missing in action), and in its CD incarnation, this runs a generous 18 tracks, so there's space for more hits here. This means Greatest Hits runs all the way into 1980, when his Kenny Rogers soundalike "Chain Gang of Love" closed out his streak of Billboard Country Top 40 hits by peaking at 21. Having this closure is welcome but the compilation rightly focuses on Clark's big hits of the late '60s and '70s, when he was one of the biggest stars in country music thanks to his starring role on Hee Haw. Perhaps this downplays Clark's prodigious gifts as a guitarist, but it does tell a full tale of his country-pop crooning, which was so smooth it could slide onto easy listening airwaves with ease. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Product Details

Release Date:	09/18/2020
Label:	Craft Records
UPC:	0888072181687

Tracks

1. Tips of My Fingers
2. Yesterday, When I Was Young
3. Right or Left at Oak Street
4. Then She's a Lover
5. I Never Picked Cotton
6. Thank God and Greyhound
7. Magnificent Sanctuary Band
8. The Lawrence Welk-Hee Haw Counter-Revolution Polka
9. Come Live With Me
10. Riders in the Sky
11. Somewhere Between Love and Tomorrow
12. Honeymoon Feelin'
13. The Great Divide
14. Heart to Heart
15. If I Had to Do It All Over Again
16. Think Summer
17. I Have a Dream, I Have a Dream
18. Chain Gang of Love

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Roy Clark   Primary Artist,Guitar,Vocals
The Jordanaires   Vocals (Background)
The Nashville Sounds   Vocals (Background)
Hank Levine   Conductor
Bill Walker   Conductor

Technical Credits

Bobby Russell   Composer
Bobby George   Composer
Boudleaux Bryant   Composer
Charlie Wilson   Composer
Larry Kingston   Composer
Jimmy Hole   Package Design
Joe Allison   Arranger,Producer,Recording Producer
Laurence Zwisohn   Liner Notes
Gary S. Paxton   Composer
George "Bud" Reneau   Composer
Dorsey Burnette   Composer
Cary E. Mansfield   Compilation Producer
Ron Hellard   Composer
Roger Bowling   Composer
Jim Foglesong   Producer,Recording Producer
Vaughn Horton   Composer
Roy Clark   Liner Notes
Harold Bradley   Arranger
Herbert Kretzmer   Composer
Thomas Lazaros   Composer
Hank Levine   Arranger
Billy Edd Wheeler   Composer
Larry Butler   Producer,Recording Producer
Felice Bryant   Composer
Gary Paxton   Composer
Charles Aznavour   Composer
David Gillon   Composer
Ronald Hellard   Composer
Tom Lazaros   Composer
Chas Ferry   Mastering
Charlie Williams   Composer
Bill Walker   Arranger,String Arrangements
Paul Parnes   Composer
Joe Nixon   Composer
Bill McElhiney   String Arrangements
Earl Nix   Composer
George Reneau   Composer
Malcolm Wiseman   Executive Producer
Bobby Springfield   Composer
Stan Jones   Composer
Paul Evans   Composer
Bill Anderson   Composer