Greatest Country Hits Of 1960 (Various Artists)

• Track Listing

This release continues the series of 4-CD sets which comprises selected annual collections of the biggest US country hits of each year, and fills in a gap in the series at the start of the 1960s. This great-value 114-track collection covers the year of 1960, during which time Billboard published a country Top 30 called Hot C&W Sides, and it comprises every record which peaked in the top 25 places in that chart during the year, excluding a few records which are unavailable for copyright reasons. Despite the fact that the pop landscape had been transformed over the preceding years by rock 'n' roll and it's aftermath, and with the new decade the British Invasion was only two or three years away, the charts still had a familiar look about them for country fans, with many traditional established country stars well-represented, like Ernest Tubb, Webb Pierce, Hank Snow, Hank Thompson, Kitty Wells and Ray Price, although the smoother Nashville sound certainly characterised many of the hits, especially from artists like Jim Reeves, Marty Robbins, Hank Locklin, Don Gibson, and Faron Young. There were also some hot new kids on the block like Buck Owens, Roy Drusky, and Jimmy Dean, along with some highly collectable obscurities among the many one-hit wonders. It's a fascinating and entertaining musical snapshot of the country scene as it entered a new decade, and with an in-depth 12,000+ word booklet with background notes on every record, it gives a solid overview of the most popular country music of the year.