Oak Ridge Boys: The Definitive Collection
WKHK in New York City featured a weekly concert special on Saturday nights called “The Silver Eagle Special.” I never was a faithful listener to the feature, but I suppose it was in 1978 when they featured The Oak Ridge Boys in concert. They sang all those great songs such as “Dig a Little Deeper in the Well,” “Crin’ Again,” “Elvira,” “Trying to Love Two Women,” “Y’all Come Back Saloon,” and more. I recorded that concert to cassette tape and listened to it over and over again.
Even after the tape had vanished from my possession, I went on to purchase every Oak Ridge Boys LP. Including Y’All Come Back Saloon, Room Service, 1979’s “The Oak Ridge Boys Have Arrived,” and “Greatest Hits,” Together, the 1980 “Greatest Hits” LP, Fancy Free, The Very Best, Bobby Sue, American Made, Deliver, Greatest Hits 2, Step on Out, and Seasons. I remember hearing “I Guess it Never Hurts to Hurt Sometimes” in Fort Benning’s 1st ITB’s PX.
As for being the greatest music group in the history of the entire universe, the case has long been closed: The Oak Ridge Boys are it! I don’t hear very much about The Oak Ridge Boys anymore. I guess they’re still around. I’ve even read that they released a couple all “Gospel” CD’s in recent years. I don’t really know if they get much air time on country radio, but I suspect they don’t.
What I like about The Definitive Collection is that it has all those great songs from decades ago that you just can’t find on any of the download sites. Songs like “Cryin’ Again,” “Dream On,” “Love Song,” and “Fancy Free” are classics that should be on every man’s playlist and they’re all together on this one CD. Forget about 10 songs: this CD includes 24 of the songs that have defined the Oak Ridge Boys as the phenoms that they are.
Now on the down side, they CD includes the song “Thank God for Kids,” which is one of the Oaks’ songs that I have always hated. Also on the down side, I would like to have heard some others of their great songs such as “Let me see you dance,” “Somewhere in the Night,” and “Holding on to you.” Actually, I agree with those critics who think that this album should have included two CD’s.
So, while Oak Ridge Boys fans have some reasons fo be disappointed with The Definitive Collection, there’s far more to love than to hate. If you have the chance to get this CD, GET IT!
