George Jones She Thinks I Still Care, 1962-1964 (5-CD Deluxe Box Set)

5-CD boxed set (LP-size) with 48-page book, 150 tracks. Total playing time approx. 368 mns.

The complete George Jones United Artists recordings from 1962 to '64, 150 songs compiled in one package for the first time ever.
Compiles every surviving title including six previously unissued tracks and his geatest hits from the era: She Thinks I Still Care, You Comb Her Hair, A Girl I Used To Know, She Once Lived Here and The Race Is On along with lesser-known George Jones gems including Open Pit Mine and Jones's overlooked original composition In The Shadow Of A Lie.
Features his highly regarded tribute albums to Little Jimmy Dickens, Hank Williams, Bob Wills along with 'George Jones Sings The Hits Of His Country Cousins' the gospel package 'Homecoming In Heaven' and 'The Best Of George Jones'.
Includes his complete UA duet recordings with Melba Montgomery including their admired 'Bluegrass Hootenanny' album,
Plus a full bio covering the UA years and rare photos.

George Jones was coming off a successful Mercury Records contract when his producer Pappy Daily took him to United Artists Records in 1962. Instantly, he became UA's top country star and got off to a powerful start with Dickey Lee's ballad She Thinks I Still Care, an award-winning performance at the time, a country music standard today. Over the next two and a half years, Jones recorded originals along with songs written by some of Nashville's greatest, among them Jack Clement (Not What I Had In Mind), Justin Tubb (Big Fool Of The Year), Hank Cochran and Harlan Howard (You Comb Her Hair) and
Freddie Hart (My Tears Are Overdue).

Even then, George Jones' peers began embracing his still-evolving singing style, rooted in his admiration for both Roy Acuff and Hank Williams, as a vocal Gold Standard. At UA, that style continued developing while at the same time he expanded his scope by teaming with the truly great female duet partner: Melba Montgomery. Together, they created an amazing, even hypnotic traditional vocal synergy on hits including We Must Have Been Out Of Our Minds and to this day, Jones considers his work with Melba his best work with a female singer. On tour, his antics still centered around his legendary boozing and hell-raising yet George Jones's studio output for UA was amazingly consistent, the accompaniment traditional though the Jordanaires frequently appeared on various UA sessions.

Along with revealing the complete scope of George Jones's two and a half years, the collection also includes rare photos and extensive, detailed liner notes by Rich Kienzle including comments from
George Jones, Montgomery and the late Buck Owens.

George Jones

12.9. 1931  Saratoga - Texas / 26. 04. 2013

Record Labels: Starday, Mercury, Longhorn, Power Pak, Hillside, United Artists, Musicor, RCA, Intercord, Ace, Rounder, Epic.
First Top Ten Hit: Why Baby, Why (1955)
First No. 1 Hit: White Lightning (1959)

In November, 1953, he was fresh out of the Marines, having joined two years earlier in the wake of an unraveling marriage. Before taking the oath, he'd been a denizen of honky tonk stages in and around Beaumont, Texas. Born in a rough-cut log house near Saratoga in East Texas' mysterious, often violent Big Thicket region on September 12, 1931, hillbilly music surrounded him as a kid; his singing voice turned heads even when he was an adolescent.

Jones wasn't back long when he heard about Starday, a new record company. Lefty Frizzell's ex-manager Jack Starnes and hard-bitten Houston area railroader-turned-juke box and slot machine impresario-turned record label owner, distributor and retailer Harold 'Pappy' Daily co-founded it in 1952. George's buddy, aspiring local singer Sonny Burns, had dealings with them, so Jones returned to playing the dives around the area, expanding his profile in 1954 as a disc jockey over KTRM. He soon found Starday interested in auditioning him.

His audition and first session took place in Jack Starnes' living room-turned-improvised recording studio. With an amateur's passion for the era's great singers, he tried to emulate the best of all of them as he sang--until Daily asked with great sincerity, "George, you've sung like Roy Acuff, Lefty Frizzell, Hank Williams and Bill Monroe. Can you sing like George Jones?"

No Money In This Deal, the first single, came from that session. It didn't take. Neither did the next five singles.

It was single number seven, the Hankish Why Baby Why that landed in the Top Ten in 1955. More Starday hits followed. After a brief, abortive alliance between Starday and Mercury Records, Daily, who still co-owned Starday with his partner Don Pierce, (Jack Starnes had departed earlier) fell out with Pierce in 1958. When the smoke cleared, Pierce took Starday; George wound up contracted to Pappy and remained a Mercury artist. Pappy kept his hand in the regional market. He'd formed Houston-based D and Dart Records as a regional operation aimed at finding new talent, Gabe Tucker helping him run things. Glad Music, Daily's new publishing company, would handle that end of things.

Jones came up with some landmark hits on Mercury, among them Color Of The Blues and the Chuck Berry-influenced White Lightning, from the pen of Daily discovery and Jones buddy, KTRM disc jockey-singer-composer J. P. 'The Big Bopper' Richardson. He originally recorded his hard-driving rocker Chantilly Lace for D, until Mercury, who'd initially passed on it, re-released it nationally. That put it over the top and made the Bopper and fulltime rock star from later '58 until February 3, 1959, when the small private plane carrying him, Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens crashed killing everyone on board.

At Mercury, Jones's vocal style began evolving, his keening, edgy nasality morphed into a more distinctive type of phrasing. Overtones of Hank and Acuff remained, but Jones's voice moved into a lower register. He could wrench emotion out of a phrase or lyric by bearing down on it as he sang. The new maturity manifested itself in his final Mercury hits: The Window Up Above and especially the #1 single Tender Years, where the formerly twangy accompaniment replaced by muted Nashville Sound backing.

 

The new Jones style quickly began influencing others, Buck Owens among them. Interviewed in 1988, Buck confirmed that point. "I thought that George was the greatest thing since sliced bread. I could not help it and later on in the last years I've tried to make a concerted effort to not get into that, but if you listen on (my records in the) early years, you're sure gonna hear George because he was a big influence on me as far as the singers go," he said. As time passed, George began singing in lower registers that combined with his distinctive phrasing his singular sound brought more admiration among fans and his peers.

Pappy came to know Mercury executive Art Talmadge, who'd left to join United Artists Records. Daily and Jones followed him there. The label was only four years old. Originally created to distribute soundtracks from UA-produced films, it branched out, becoming a hip jazz label and then broadened into other areas. Their newly-created country division consisted mainly of Daily acts with Jones as the flagship, Pappy serving as UA's de facto country producer.

Jones's relationship with Daily was business only, and fostered deep resentment that hadn't abated in his 1996 autobiography 'I Lived To Tell It All,' where he wrote bitterly, "I made a lot of money for Pappy Daily, Starday and Mercury. Basically, I was a naïve guy who was overly trusting of some people who proved to be untrustworthy. I was never paid royalties on a regular basis. It became very frustrating to hear my songs on the radio, see them listed high on the charts and not have enough money to hire a band."

 

His two-year UA contract yielded exactly 151 recordings. Some singles and albums from that period stand among his most memorable. Every album was 'produced by Pappy Daily.' Or so it seemed. In 2001, Jones clarified their 16 year studio relationship, which continued through his 1965-1970 stint with Talmadge's Musicor Records. "A lot of people think (Pappy) was the producer, but he really wasn't. He timed the songs in the studio and he wrote out the paperwork. That was about all he did. I worked with the musicians myself and we worked out the arrangements. I basically left it up to the musicians after we run through the songs. I wanted them to be more a part of the production."

 

Jones created many great moments in the studio during his UA phase. Some were captured on tape, some not. His legendary reputation as a drinker and hellraiser already established, his stature continued to rise. Many Nashville insiders began hanging at George's sessions, both to marvel at the voice and to see what whiskey-fueled mischief he'd make this time. One frequent sideman explained that while Jones was usually well-lubed throughout a recording session, a certain sweet spot existed. Too few drinks didn't loosen him up sufficiently; too many washed out a session. An amount of alcohol in between those extremes unleashed every bit of his unrestrained, uninhibited power.

Excerpt from the book BCD16818 - George Jones - She Thinks I Sttill Care - Read more at:https://www.bear-family.com/jones-george-she-thinks-i-still-care-62-64-5-cd.html Copyright © Bear Family Records

Read more at: https://www.bear-family.com/jones-george/
Copyright © Bear Family Records