Willie Nelson The Best of Willie Nelson

Includes liner notes by Ed Ward.

Illustrator: Peter Palombi.

Photographers: Jim Marshall ; John Van Hamersveld.

After several frustrating years trying to get a hit record of his own, C&W songwriter Willie Nelson signed with the Los Angeles-based Liberty record label in 1965. It was the failure of this last-ditch attempt at suit-and-tie slickness that eventually led him to chuck it all and go "outlaw" on the great FACE OF A FIGHTER, recorded some years later. Still, Nelson is one of the greatest of all country singers, and the smooth Nashville production (complete with the Anita Kerr Singers) serves as a pleasingly effective backdrop for his gentle yet tough Texas vocal style.

In 1961 Jimmy Elledge yodeled his way to a hit with Nelson's "Funny How Time Slips Away." Willie's understated version is infinitely preferable to both Elledge's and Kris Kristofferson's later rendition. Compare also Nelson's "Crazy" with Patsy Cline's hit version. (The arrangement is almost identical); again, Nelson's characteristic dryness underscores the limits of Cline's emotive delivery. Far from being some failed attempt at selling out, these sessions are a must for Willie Nelson fans and students of American singing alike.