John Michael Montgomery - Very Best of John Michael Montgomery (CD)

good

By Yahoo! Shopping User  Mar 5, 2006

Pros: none

Cons: none

a few good songs

Generous collection of commercial honky tonk and ballads

By Yahoo! Shopping User  Sep 9, 2003

The son of a Kentucky musician whose own Nashville dreams never came true, John Michael Montgomery kept a bit of his daddy's hometown grit, even as he put together an impressive string of Nashville-produced hit albums and singles. This generous c...ompilation offers twenty tracks, and collects nearly every significant hit single that Montgomery's had in his twelve year recording career.Montgomery's first hits, the ballads "Life's a Dance" and "I Love the Way You Love Me," had a middle-of-the-road sweetness that hit an emotional chord with both record buyers and award givers -- the second single was the ACM song-of-the-year for 1993. The love songs continued in 1994 with, "I Swear," as did the awards (ACM song-of-the-year and single-of-the-year). As with most of Montgomery's ballads, the country flavor is to be found almost entirely in his vocals. There's a hint of steel, but the drums-guitars-bass-keyboa
rd backing could just as easily host a pop vocalist (in fact, the song was covered by the R&B group All-4-One and netted a grammy). It's the slight edge in Montgomery's voice, the phrasings, and the down-home sentimentality of the lyrics that brings his slow songs into the country arena.Later in 1994 his singles began to capitalize on Montgomery's uptempo numbers, charting with the rowdy country-rocker "Be My Baby Tonight" and the mid-tempo "If You've Got Love." Both tracks kick up the twangy guitars and fiddle of a honky-tonk bred backing. His releases continued mix ballads and up-tempo tunes, including the lightning-quick auctioneer's cadence of "Sold (The Grundy Country Auction Incident)" and the contemplation of his father's death, "I Miss You a Little." The latter, unfortunately, is missing from this collection.By 1996 Montgomery was mostly charting ballads, variously edging more towards the center and bringing a bigger dose of his country sound down-tempo. "Angel in My Eyes" is more contemporary pop than country, but 1998's "Cover You in Kisses" has a superb melody anchored by a strong underline of steel and fiddle. Montgomery's last #1 single, 2000's "The Little Girl" features Alison Krauss and Dan Tyminski on harmony vocals.In addition to seven #1s (seventeen top-5s!), this collection adds "'Til Nothing Comes Between Us" from the "Pictures" album, and a pair of newly recorded tracks: the waltz-time generation gap tale "Cool," and the romantic "One Less Day." This is a terrific overview and introduction to Montgomery's hitmaking career. Though it's missing the top-5 "Cowboy Love" and top-10 "I Miss You a Little," it's probably the more complete pick over his 1997 "Greatest Hits" LP. Read more Less

This should be the ultimate

By Yahoo! Shopping User  Aug 20, 2003 | 1 out of 3 found this Very Best of John Michael Montgomery review helpful

He is my Favorite....since I first heard him the the 90's He has been my most fovorite country singing man. He can make me cry and smile.

only the best

By Yahoo! Shopping User  Aug 28, 2003 | 0 out of 1 found this Very Best of John Michael Montgomery review helpful

john is one of the most sultry country singers -if you love romance and fun time at the rodeo or the county fair , then you will enjoy this cd -all the hits are there-----

I have always lovedJMMs music

By Yahoo! Shopping User  Aug 26, 2003 | 0 out of 1 found this Very Best of John Michael Montgomery review helpful

JMMs music is what got me hooked on country and it just keeps getting better!!!