The Very Best of Sue Thompson [Original recording remastered]

Product Description:
16 track collection features all of her biggest pop & country chart hits, including her duets with Don Gibson. All of the tracks have been digitally remastered. Varese Sarabande. 2003.

The Very Best of Sue Thompson,Sue Thompson,Varese Records,Country,Nashville Sound/Countrypolitan,Pop,Popular Music,Vocal Pop

Average customer rating:

I love the solo songs

Best Sue Thompson collection so far...

Fun Nashville girl-group

+3/4 -- Thorough collection of 60s/70 Nashville songbird

A message from the compilation producer

The Very Best of Sue Thompson
Sue Thompson
Manufacturer: Varese Sarabande
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Country | Styles | Music
Nashville Sound | Traditional Country | Country | Styles | Music
General | Pop | Styles | Music
General | Vocal Pop | Pop | Styles | Music
Classic | Vocal Pop | Pop | Styles | Music
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ASIN: B0000ALFXK
Release Date: 2003-08-12

Tracks:

Norman
My Hero
Sad Movies (Make Me Cry)
Angel, Angel
If The Boy Only Knew
James (Hold The Ladder Steady)
Have A Good Time
Two Of A Kind
Bad Boy
Paper Tiger
Language Of Love
The Two Of Us Together
I Think They Call It Love
Big Mable Murphy
Good Old Fashioned Country Love
Oh, How Love Changes

Album Description

16 track collection features all of her biggest pop & country chart hits, including her duets with Don Gibson. All of the tracks have been digitally remastered. Varese Sarabande. 2003.

Customer Reviews:

I love the solo songs.......2006-06-02

Sue Thompson has an interesting voice, that varies from sounding naive, to seductive, to very young, to jaded, to madly in love, to very worldly. This collection gives you twelve great solo songs and four duets with Don Gibson. I much prefer the solos, as Ms. Thompson's voice is fine in quality, but seems to get drown out by Mr. Gibson's, generally. I will now comment on the individual songs.

1. Norman - This song is my father's favorite and the one who made him aware of Sue Thompson. I learned of her from him. It talks about young, totally dedicated love, in a tone that is sweet but a bit outdated now.

2. My Hero - This, for me, is one of the less memorable ones in the collection, for me. It is a song of admiration, by a girl for her true love.

3. Sad Movies (Make Me Cry) - Ah, here we have a lament for love betrayed by infidelity. It is not the sad movie that makes to girl cry, but what she sees at the theater besides the movie.

4. Angel, Angel - This is another pleasant, but not memorable, song of love, very similar, in theme, to "My Hero."

5. If The Boy Only Knew - Another good song to fill in the gaps between the really good songs.

6. James (Hold The Ladder Steady) - Daddy better take his daughter more seriously, as she and James are quite determined. A song of young love, intent upon matrimony.

7. Have A Good Time - Here we hear the jilted lover singing to her unfaithful beau, wishing him luck, on the surface.

8. Two Of A Kind - Another tribute to young love, but somewhat better than "My Hero" or "Angel, Angel."

9. Bad Boy - What to do when one falls in love with the wrong guy? She knows the danger, and the likely outcome, but can't stop herself.

10. Paper Tiger - This one makes me laugh, as it is sung by a young-sounding woman, but the words hit the mark, quite hard, but with a smile.

11. Language Of Love - A very silly song, that wouldn't make it today, but it's fun to listen to.

12. The Two Of Us Together - The first of the duets. Ms. Thompson and Mr. Gibson both sound good, when they alternate, but she disappears, when they sing together.

13. I Think They Call It Love - The same comment as Number 12.

14. Big Mable Murphy - I love this song! Oh, the absurd imagery! Full of humor and strange melancholy.

15. Good Old Fashioned Country Love - Another duet where Ms. Thompson almost disappears.

16. Oh, How Love Changes - Okay, this duet is better. Thompson's and Gibson's voices blend to create a third sound altogether. Very melodic and easy to listen to.

These songs all have a Western and/or Country and/or folk tone to them. The duets especially sound more Country-Western.

Best Sue Thompson collection so far..........2004-03-13

Listening to her recordings now or when they first became top-10 charting singles, the audience may think of her as a cutesy, bubbly teenage girl, a sort of Brenda Lee without the grit. This may contribute to why her music has been somewhat sidestepped in the CD reissue market. Ms Thompson was, in fact, a married woman with a decade of performing and recording behind her before she finally hit the pop charts big time after pairing up with songwriter John D. Loudermilk. Thompson went on to see seven of her tunes make the top-100, the four most successful being written by Loudermilk. Her last pop charting entry was the infectious, quirky, stomping "Paper Tiger", a tune that surprisingly only reached into the top 25. After several years off the charts, Thompson re-emerged and made some noise on the country music charts solo and with duets with Don Gibson during the early and mid-70's. This collection of her pop and country hits gathers up most of her charted singles and is vastly superior to the existing domestic Sue Thompson collections. If fault is to be found here, it is the somewhat surprising omission of one of her pop hits in favor of a b-side. Otherwise, this is an excellent compilation boasting superior sound quality (all tracks in stereo) and an informative liner notes booklet with photos and illustrations. A welcome addition to the reissue marketplace.

Fun Nashville girl-group.......2004-02-11

Even though she was nominally a "country" artist, the squeeky-voiced Sue Thompson was really much more in a teen pop and girl group singer, whose work in the early 1960s skirted the edges of rock'n'roll and pop, very much modeled after Brenda Lee and her highly successful crossover formula. For fans of the style, Thompson's early singles offer a swell "new" set of teenpop tunes outside the usual Brill Building standards by Carole King and her pals. John D. Loudermilk wrote most of these tunes, which were recorded for the independent Hickory label, and they are actually pretty fun to listen to, highlighting Thompson at her poppy, chirpy best. It's not very country, but it's lots of fun. This collection is a much-welcome update of an earlier Varese release, giving a full sense of Thompson's career, including a handful of her '70s duets with crooner Don Gibson. This may be better suited for folks more into girl group pop than actual country music, but the Nashville influence is there as well. Recommended!

+3/4 -- Thorough collection of 60s/70 Nashville songbird.......2003-10-14

Varese's latest treasure hunt from Nashville's Hickory Records catalog spotlights a vocalist who found chart success in the early '60s with sweet, Brenda Lee styled pop, and again in the '70s, with light country fare that paired her with the legendary Don Gibson. Perhaps the most surprising aspect of her hits are the heavyweight songwriters who supplied the songs: John D. Loudermilk, Felice & Boudleaux Bryant, Roy Orbison and Dallas Frazier.

All sixteen of these sides were produced by Hickory head-honcho, Wesley Rose, using Nashville studio pickers and orchestration to create a poppier version of the Nashville Sound. Thompson's vocals were surprising youthful, given her mid-30s age in the early '60s, not to mention the decade of experience that preceded her tenure at Hickory. In addition to live work in talent shows, and on radio and television, Thompson recorded a number of country and western swing tunes as part of Dude Martin's entourage in the '50s.

Her earlier work at Mercury (not anthologized here) found her moving in a pop direction, with several sides backed by the label's house orchestra, under the direction of David Carroll. It was a direction that would pay dividends, especially when matched up with the teen-oriented material of John D. Loudermilk. Thompson's first hit, "Sad Movies (Make Me Cry)," is a keenly produced story of teenage infidelity, with a twangy bass played against swirling strings and a '50s-styled saxophone. She followed up with the cute, march-tempo, "Norman," featuring an insidious title hook and a pep-band horn arrangement. Her 1962 hit, "James (Hold the Ladder)," has a similar, showtune-styled step to it.

Ballads, such as "Two of a Kind," lean back to the country side of the Nashville Sound, with Floyd Cramer's laconic slip-key piano and the Anita Kerr singers setting the mood. Thompson also sang torch tunes, like the Bryants' "Have a Good Time," though they don't match her young-sounding voice as well as the more treacly teenage material. Similarly, "Bad Boy" sounds more like an Elvis movie tossoff than a song from the pen of Roy Orbison. Thompson closed out her pop-hit career in 1965 with Loudermilk's "Paper Tiger," combining a bluesy harmonica with a vocal that sounds like Haley Mills channeling Ann-Margret.

The early '70s found Thompson's commercial fortunes revived via a series of duets with Don Gibson. Gibson's own "The Two of Us Together" kicked off a short string of successes, setting his relaxed vocal against Thompson's still young sounding voice. Though there are pop touches (the electric sitar of "I Think They Call it Love"), these are more decidedly country productions than Thompson's earlier work on the label. Her solo single, "Big Mable Murphy," mixing Roaring 20s jazz with Dixieland-styled horns, rang up #50 on the country chart.

This is a nicely balanced collection of Thompson's Hickory years, pulling together her earlier pop singles with her later country successes. Now all we need is for someone to put together a collection of her pre-Hickory work!

A message from the compilation producer.......2003-09-17

Sue Thompson sounded like a perky teenager on her string of 1960s smashes for Nashville-based Hickory Records. Utilizing Nashville's top session pickers, Sue scored big in 1961 with "Sad Movies (Always Make Me Cry)" and the lighthearted "Norman," came back the next year with the novelty rocker "James (Hold The Ladder Steady)," and got downright sassy in '65 with "Paper Tiger." All four of them were penned by prolific Nashville songwriter John D. Loudermilk, and they're featured in this comprehensive overview of Sue Thompson's Hickory catalog, along with her 1975 country hit "Big Mable Murphy" and four duets she made with the legendary Don Gibson that climbed the Country charts during the early '70s. The only hits collection to feature all of her biggest Pop and Country chart hits, including her duets with Don Gibson. All of the tracks have been digitally remastered from newly found sources, making this the best sounding Sue Thompson CD available.

Music Album:

Music Album