Bargain Audio CDs & Priceless Collection (series)

The Collection

by Johnny Cash

Product Description:

This pudding, Winston Churchill once famously declared, has no theme. Much the same could be said of this album. It's not really a greatest hits package; in fact, one should take the title literally - it's just a collection of various, unrelated songs Johnny Cash recorded for Columbia between 1963 (the wonderfully ominous mariachi-tinged "Ring of Fire") and 1979 (the cowboy classic "Ghost Riders in the Sky," which Cash renders with such sepulchural dread that you can imagine he's actually seeing the titular phantoms). In between there's the occasional patriotic ditty ("Ragged Old Flag,") a socially conscious protest song ("The Ballad of Ira Hayes") and familiar country hits like "Daddy Sang Bass." In other words, thematic incoherence notwithstanding, lots of terrific music.