While it is true that the late country songstress
Tammy Wynette
recorded during her later years with husband
George Richey
as her producer, that material never touched what she did in the 1960s and '70s with
Billy Sherrill
.
Stand by Your Man: The Best of Tammy Wynette
is easily the best single-disc collection of
Wynette
's work as a solo artist and in duet with her then-husband
George Jones
. There are 20 whopping tracks here, and all of them were hits. There are many obvious choices, like the title cut,
"Your Good Girl's Gonna Go Bad"
and
"D-I-V-O-R-C-E,"
"Golden Ring,"
"We're Gonna Hold On,"
"Kids Say The Darndest Things,"
"The Ways to Love a Man."
But there are some tracks that are less obvious choices, such as
"Singing My Song,"
"Near You,"
with
Jones
,
"Woman to Woman,"
"Good Lovin' (Makes It Right)"
(both written by
Sherrill
), and
"Run, Woman, Run."
There is a surprise in the batch as well, with the
KLF Communication
team's electronic remake -- with
's participation -- of
"Justified and Ancient"
from 1992, which was an international club hit. This is a solid and flawless collection for novices or longtime fans. And it's cheap to boot! ~ Thom Jurek