The Definitive Collection (CD - 2005)

Liner Note Author: Bud Scoppa.

Recording information: 02/26/1964-02/03/1978.

Photographer: Les Leverett.

MCA's 2005 release The Definitive Collection expands upon its 2002 collection, All Time Greatest Hits. The 2002 disc contained 22 tracks, including all 16 of Loretta Lynn's Billboard number one country hits (including her duets with Conway Twitty). This collection contains every one of those 22 tracks, adding three iconic songs that weren't on All Time Greatest Hits: "Blue Kentucky Girl," "You're Lookin' at Country," and "The Pill." For those who own the 2002 disc, that may not be enough to warrant the purchase of this new collection, but it does make The Definitive Collection a stronger overview and the best single-disc Loretta retrospective yet assembled. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

If you've never heard Loretta Lynn, you are missing out on one of the finest singers and songwriters the genre has ever known. If that's the case, THE DEFINITIVE COLLECTION is the ideal place to start. Even if you have Lynn's tough-minded, irresistibly catchy tunes and her distinctive, textured-but-sweet-as-honey voice represented by a few assorted albums, it is hard to better this perfectly selected and sequenced 25-track compilation. In fact, with its generous playing time, impeccable sound, and beautiful accompanying booklet packed with notes, THE DEFINITIVE is, quite literally, just that.

1964's "Wine, Women, and Song" leads off the set, one of a series of Lynn's justly famous "ain't-gonna-take-it" songs. Following the floozy-bashing anthem "You Ain't Woman Enough (To Take My Man), come a seemingly endless stream of number one hits, including "Don't Come Home A-Drinkin' (with Lovin' on Your Mind," "Fist City" (arguably the greatest tough guy song ever sung by a woman), and "One's on the Way," one of several duets with Conway Twitty. Lynn's witty, progressive take on social issues ("The Pill") and her nakedly autobiographical writing ("Coal Miner's Daughter") are also here; but every track sparkles. This is an indispensable cornerstone of any country music collection. minimize