The Best of Jerry Wallace Varese Sarabande by Jerry Wallace @ ARTISTdirect.com

Jerry Wallace scored his earliest hits on the pop charts in the late '50s, and crossed over to country radio in the '60s without having to change his style much at all; Wallace's early hits were clean, well-behaved stuff that rarely nodded toward rock & roll, and his country & western hits were countrypolitan at its most polished, built around Wallace's well-burnished baritone and arrangements that avoided fiddles and banjos in favor of clean acoustic guitar lines and rich vocal choruses. If Wallace's music wasn't especially bold or innovative, his craft was splendid, and The Best of Jerry Wallace is one of the few collections of his recordings that makes an effort to cover the full spectrum of his career, featuring tunes from his sessions for Challenge, Decca, MCA, and 4 Star. There are still a number of gaps here -- several noted hits, including "Shutters and Boards," are missing, and his recordings for Mercury and MGM have been ignored altogether -- but what's here is music that walks the fine line between country and easy listening with grace and charm, and "Even the Bad Times Are Good," "If You Leave Me Tonight I'll Cry," "My Wife's House," and "What's He Doin' in My World" are Nashville-centric romance delivered with real heart and a showman's touch. The definitive Jerry Wallace collection still waits to be compiled, but this disc is a more than adequate substitute until the real thing comes along. ~ Mark Deming, All Music Guide

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Red Tunic Troll

posted on Mon, 24 Dec 2007 13:52:56

Smooth pop and country vocalist gets some CD love

For an artist with such a deep catalog of charting singles, Jerry Wallace has gotten very little love on CD. Previous anthologies were larded with B-sides and album tracks, and at least one collection remastered critical sides at the wrong speed. So while Varese's 16-track CD only scratches the surface of Wallace's catalog, it finally delivers many of his seminal sides. Focused primarily on country hits from 1971 through 1974, this set only provides a cursory view of Wallace's earlier pop sides. A broader view awaits a double-CD or box set, but what's here is terrific, covering work for Challenge, Decca, MCA and 4-Star.

Opening the disc is a pair of sides that Wallace recorded for Challenge. The lightly orchestrated, mid-tempo rendition of Cindy Walker's "In the Misty Moonlight" (#19 pop, 1964) features a romantic lead vocal with a winning spoken interlude and cooing background chorus. The pining B-side "Even the Bad Times Are Good," was good enough to be re-released as Wallace's next single! Both tunes find Wallace adding country inflections to easy listening pop; it wasn't yet countrypolitan, but the piano, string arrangements and backing chorus were heading that direction.

By the early '70s Wallace had moved from Challenge to Decca and began finding success on the country charts. Interestingly, he didn't really have to change his music much. 1971's "After You," again featuring light orchestration and a smooth ballad vocal, pulls country to pop, rather than the other way around. The following year's "The Morning After" finally moved more towards country, with a shuffle beat and rolling acoustic guitar. Wallace's biggest commercial success came with the 1972 chart topper, "If You Leave Me Tonight I'll Cry." As with all his '70s work, Wallace croons smoothly, sounding a bit like Nat "King" Cole, with only a hint of twang to be heard in the guitar.

Wallace continued to find success on Decca with arrangements from Bill Justis; this set hits most of the commercial highlights. His 1972 #2 "Do You Know What It's Like to Be Loneseome" sounds like it might have been written for the latter-day Elvis, and the Mexicali-influenced "The Song That Nobody Sings" bears influences of Marty Robbins. All four of Wallace's top-10 country hits are here, including 1973's "Don't Give Up On Me" and 1974's sentimental "My Wife's House." Also included are several lower-charting singles and a 1973 remake of his early hit "Primrose Lane."

The selections provide a good helping of Wallace's most recognizable sides. Missing are his earliest singles for Allied, Vogue, Tops, Class and Wing, early hits "How The Time Flies" and the original version of "Primrose Lane," the transitional "Shutters and Boards," and sides waxed for Liberty, MGM and Mercury. One could imagine dropping the album tracks "The Greatest Love" (which is superb and unlike versions recorded by Joe South, Aaron Neville and others) and "What's He Doin' in My World" (which doesn't improve upon Eddy Arnold's original) in lieu of additional singles, but given how poorly Wallace's '70s hits have been represented on CD, this is a minor complaint. Fans will treasure the chance to hear these seminal sides together, remastered by Steve Massie. [©2007 redtunictroll at hotmail dot com]

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