country musicsee all
Willie Nelson
Essential: 2cd
- £11.99
- free uk delivery
list price £18.99 - Your saving £7.00
Release date: 28-4-2003
Format: CD
Number of Discs: 2
Catalogue Number: 5121172
Label: SONY
reviews & product details
Don't be shy! Be the first to review this title. Share your thoughts now...
Apr 2003
On April 30, 2003, Willie Nelson will turn 70. 'The Essential Willie Nelson', is a 2CD career-spanning anthology - starting in 1961 with his original versions of the classics he wrote, like "Crazy" and "Funny How Time Slips Away" through his 'outlaw' songs with pal Waylon Jennings to his hugely popular duets with the likes of Ray Charles and Julio Iglesias, all the way to 2002's "Mendocino County Line" with Leann Womack, also check out Willie's newest collaboration - "One Time Too Many" with Aerosmith. Happy 70th birthday Willie!
- Dirty Linen (8/03, p.64) - "...The double disc, 41-track offering lives up to its marquee billing as the collection to end all Willie collections..."
The catalogue of Willie Nelson is so vast and rich that assembling an "essential" collection of only one or two discs seems nearly impossible. RCA's single-disc 1995 attempt was admirable and worthy, but doomed by space limitations. With a bit more room to move, Legacy's roomier two-disc collection is about close as anyone could hope to come. We get the full view of the great singer/songwriter's artistic journey.
"Hello Walls" and the evergreen "Crazy" hail from the days when Nelson was tooling around Nashville as a songwriter for hire but mystifyingly unable to connect as a solo artist. His transformation into a counterculture icon via the '70s "outlaw country" movement is marked by the likes of "Me and Paul" and "Bloody Mary Morning". His tremendous skill as in interpreter can be heard in such standards as "Blue Skies" and "Georgia on Mind", which helped make him a crossover success in the STARDUST era. Latter-day collaborations with everyone from Aerosmith ("One Time Too Many") to U2 ("Slow Dancing") show Willie's mercurial, eclectic nature. Add it all up and a portrait comes together of a man whose artistic vision has carried him across decades and stylistic shifts aplenty and seen him through in style.
This CD commemorates Willie Nelson's 70th Birthday (April 30, 2003).
Personnel includes: Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Ray Charles, Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson, Emmylou Harris, Ray Price, Leann Womack, Julio Iglesias, Leon Russell, Merle Haggard, Aerosmith.
Producers include: Felton Jarvis, Arif Mardin, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Booker T. Jones.
Compilation producers: Nich Shaffman, Al Quaglieri.
Recorded between 1961 & 2002.
The catalog of Willie Nelson is so vast and rich that assembling an "essential" collection of only one or two discs seems nearly impossible. RCA's single-disc 1995 attempt was admirable and worthy, but doomed by space limitations. With a bit more room to move, Legacy's roomier two-disc collection is about close as anyone could hope to come. We get the full view of the great singer/songwriter's artistic journey.
"Hello Walls" and the evergreen "Crazy" hail from the days when Nelson was tooling around Nashville as a songwriter for hire but mystifyingly unable to connect as a solo artist. His transformation into a counterculture icon via the '70s "outlaw country" movement is marked by the likes of "Me and Paul" and "Bloody Mary Morning." His tremendous skill as in interpreter can be heard in such standards as "Blue Skies" and "Georgia on Mind," which helped make him a crossover success in the STARDUST era. Latter-day collaborations with everyone from Aerosmith ("One Time Too Many") to U2 ("Slow Dancing") show Willie's mercurial, eclectic nature. Add it all up and a portrait comes together of a man whose artistic vision has carried him across decades and stylistic shifts aplenty and seen him through in style.
Willie Nelson began working in a conventional Nashville style and had great success as the songwriter of Faron Young's hit "Hello Walls" and others, but he was initially unable to make it as a performer. In the 1970s, he and Waylon Jennings made history with their outlaw country sound and image, growing their hair long and utilizing a raw, rock-influenced sound that endeared them to millions of country fans and rockers alike. Subsequently, Nelson ventured into Sinatra territory with STARDUST, an album of standards that became a huge success and established him as a singer who transcended genre boundaries. Throughout the '80s, '90s, and into the 21st century, he crossed over into pop and back again continually, even releasing an album of reggae covers, working with artists as diverse as Julio Iglesias and Ryan Adams.
track listing
- Listen 1. Night Life
- Listen 2. Hello Walls
- Listen 3. Crazy
- Listen 4. Funny How Time Slips Away
- Listen 5. I Never Cared For You
- Listen 6. Party's Over
- Listen 7. Good Times
- Listen 8. Me And Paul
- Listen 9. Shotgun Willie
- Listen 10. Bloody Mary Morning
- Listen 11. Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain
- Listen 12. Gold Hearted Woman - Willie Nelson & Waylon Jennings
- Listen 13. If You've Got The Money I've Got The Time
- Listen 14. Uncloudy Day
- Listen 15. Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys - Willie Nelson & Waylon Jennings
- Listen 16. Georgia On My Mind
- Listen 17. Blue Skies
- Listen 18. All Of Me
- Listen 19. Heartbreak Hotel - Willie Nelson & Leon Russell
- Listen 20. Help Me Make It Through The Night
- Listen 21. Whiskey River
- Listen 22. Stay A Little Longer
- Listen 1. My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys
- Listen 2. Faded Love - Willie Nelson & Ray Price
- Listen 3. On The Road Again
- Listen 4. Angel Flying Too Close To The Ground
- Listen 5. Always On My Mind
- Listen 6. Last Thing I Needed First Thing This Morning
- Listen 7. Pancho And Lefty - Willie Nelson & Merle Haggard
- Listen 8. To All The Girls I've Loved Before - Willie Nelson & Julio Iglesias
- Listen 9. City Of New Orleans
- Listen 10. Seven Spanish Angels - Willie Nelson & Ray Charles
- Listen 11. Forgiving You Was Easy
- Listen 12. Highwayman - Willie Nelson & Waylon Jennings/Johnny Cash/Kris Kristofferson
- Listen 13. Living In The Promiseland
- Listen 14. Nothing I Can Do About It Now
- Listen 15. Graceland
- Listen 16. Everywhere I Go - Willie Nelson & Emmylou Harris
- Listen 17. Slow Dancing - Willie Nelson & U2/Mickey Raphael
- Listen 18. Mendocino County Line - Willie Nelson & Lee Ann Womack
- Listen 19. One Time Too Many [previously unreleased] - Willie Nelson & Steven Tyler
disc 1
disc 2
similar artists
like this, try these…
The prices displayed are for web site purchases only, and may differ to the prices in HMV Stores.









