The Complete Columbia Album Collection | ||||
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Box set by | ||||
Released | December 4, 2012 | |||
Recorded | 1956–2003 | |||
Genre | Country | |||
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Johnny Cash chronology | ||||
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The Complete Columbia Album Collection is a box set by country singer Johnny Cash, released posthumously in 2012 on Columbia Records and Legacy Recordings.
The set consists of 63 CDs, the majority of which are reissues of 59 albums released by Cash during his 1958–1986 tenure with Columbia. Each CD is packaged in a replica of the original LP cover, with any albums originally issued as two-LP set condensed onto one disc with the exception of The Gospel Road which remains in a two-CD configuration. Bonus material includes a two-CD set titled The Singles, Plus, compiling non-album tracks and duets taken from other albums; a Carter Family album on which Cash provided guest vocals; the two albums Cash recorded for Columbia as a member of the supergroup The Highwaymen; and an extended edition of the Sun Records album With His Hot and Blue Guitar with additional tracks from the Sun era (including the complete contents of his second Sun album, Sings the Songs That Made Him Famous ). Hot and Blue Guitar is the only album to be presented in an extended edition; all other albums are featured with their original contents, without augmentation. As such this is not a complete survey of everything Cash recorded for Columbia; for example, additional performances from the At Folsom Prison and At San Quentin live shows, included on separate reissues of the two albums, are not included. Also omitted is the 1975 album Destination Victoria Station which had featured new performances of previously released recordings, the 1961 Andre Kostelanetz orchestral album The Lure of the Grand Canyon which had been narrated by Cash, the 1980 gospel album A Believer Sings the Truth (recorded for Columbia but released on another label), as well as most of the tracks issued on Columbia's Bootleg series of 2011–2012. [1] [2] Compilation albums that had originally featured previously unreleased tracks (i.e. Heart of Cash ) are also skipped in favor of putting most of those tracks in the Singles, Plus set. Out Among the Stars , a complete album recorded by Cash in the early 1980s but not released at that time, is also omitted as it would not be released officially until 2014.
Many of the albums featured in the set make their CD debut in the collection. According to country historian Rich Kienzle's liner notes (part of a 200-page book included in the set), one album Koncert V Praze (In Prague–Live) received its first North American release in the set. [3]
No. | Title | Original Release | Length |
---|---|---|---|
1. | "All Over Again" | Single A-side | |
2. | "You Dreamer You" | "Frankie's Man Johnny" B-side | |
3. | "I Got Stripes" | Single A-side | |
4. | "I'll Remember You" | "Little Drummer Boy" B-side | |
5. | "Lorena" | The Rebel – Johnny Yuma EP | |
6. | "Smiling Bill McCall" | "Seasons of My Heart" B-side | |
7. | "Second Honeymoon" | "Honky Tonk Girl" B-side | |
8. | "Girl in Saskatoon" | Single A-side | |
9. | "Locomotive Man" | "Girl in Saskatoon" B-side | |
10. | "Tall Man" | "Tennessee Flat-Top Box" B-side | |
11. | "A Little at a Time" | "In the Jailhouse Now" B-side | |
12. | "Pick a Bale o' Cotton" | "Bonanza" B-side | |
13. | "Send a Picture of Mother" | "Busted" B-side | |
14. | "The Matador" | Single A-side | |
15. | "Dark as a Dungeon" | "Understand Your Man" B-side | |
16. | "Hammers and Nails" (with The Statler Brothers) | Single A-side | |
17. | "Time and Time Again" | "It Ain't Me Babe" B-side | |
18. | "The Sons of Katie Elder" | Single A-side | |
19. | "A Certain Kinda Hurtin'" | "The Sons of Katie Elder" B-side | |
20. | "Cotton Pickin' Hands" | "The One On The Right Is On The Left" B-side | |
21. | "Bottom of a Mountain" | "Boa Constrictor" B-side | |
22. | "You Beat All I Ever Saw" | Single A-side | |
23. | "Put the Sugar to Bed" | "You Beat All I Ever Saw" B-side | |
24. | "The Wind Changes" | Single A-side | |
25. | "Red Velvet" | "The Wind Changes" B-side | |
26. | "Rosanna's Going Wild" | Single A-side | |
27. | "Roll Call" | "Rosanna's Going Wild" B-side | |
28. | "The Folk Singer" | "Folsom Prison Blues" B-side | |
29. | "Girl from the North Country" (with Bob Dylan) | Nashville Skyline | |
30. | "What Is Truth" | Single A-side | |
31. | "Little Bit of Yesterday" | "Man in Black" B-side | |
32. | "A Song to Mama" (with The Carter Family) | Travelin' Minstrel Band |
No. | Title | Original Release | Length |
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1. | "No Need to Worry" (with June Carter Cash) | Single A-side | |
2. | "I'll Be Loving You" (with June Carter Cash) | "No Need to Worry" B-side | |
3. | "A Front Row Seat to Hear Ole Johnny Sing" (with Shel Silverstein) | Single A-side | |
4. | "The World Needs a Melody" (with The Carter Family) | Travelin' Minstrel Band | |
5. | "Help Me Make It Through the Night" (with June Carter Cash) | "The Loving Gift" B-side | |
6. | "Praise the Lord and Pass the Soup" (with The Carter Family and The Oak Ridge Boys) | Single A-side | |
7. | "The Ballad of Barbara" (with The Carter Family) | "Praise the Lord and Pass the Soup" B-side | |
8. | "Pick the Wildwood Flower" (with Maybelle Carter) | Single A-side | |
9. | "Diamonds in the Rough" (with Maybelle Carter) | "Pick the Wildwood Flower" B-side | |
10. | "Song to Woody" (with Earl Scruggs) | Anniversary Special Vol. 1 | |
11. | "Hey Porter" (with Earl Scruggs) | Anniversary Special Vol. 1 | |
12. | "I Still Miss Someone" (with Earl Scruggs) | Anniversary Special Vol. 2 | |
13. | "My Ship Will Sail" (with Earl Scruggs) | Anniversary Special Vol. 2 | |
14. | "It's All Over" | Single A-side | |
15. | "Old Time Feeling" (with June Carter Cash) | Single A-side | |
16. | "Song of the Patriot" (with Marty Robbins) | Single A-side | |
17. | "I Will Dance with You" | "The Baron" B-side | |
18. | "The General Lee" | The Dukes of Hazzard TV episode | |
19. | "Crazy Old Soldier" (with Ray Charles) | Friendship | |
20. | "The Chicken in Black" | Single A-side | |
21. | "Battle of Nashville" | "The Chicken in Black" B-side | |
22. | "They Killed Him" | Single A-side | |
23. | "The Three Bells" | "They Killed Him" B-side | |
24. | "The Human Condition" (with Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson and Willie Nelson) | "The Highwayman" B-side |
Highwayman is the first studio album released by country supergroup The Highwaymen, comprising Kris Kristofferson, Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson. Highwayman, released through Columbia Records in 1985, was the group's first and most successful album.
The Highwaymen were an American country music supergroup, composed of four of country music's biggest artists who pioneered the outlaw country subgenre: Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, and Kris Kristofferson. Between 1985 and 1995, the group recorded three major label albums as The Highwaymen: two on Columbia Records and one for Liberty Records. Their Columbia works produced three chart singles, including the number one "Highwayman" in 1985.
Highwayman 2 is the second studio album released by American country supergroup The Highwaymen. This album was released in 1990 on the Columbia Records label. Johnny Cash had left Columbia several years earlier, making this a "homecoming", and ultimately his final work for Columbia as the next Highwaymen album would be issued on another label.
Rainbow is the 70th album by American country singer Johnny Cash, his last for Columbia Records, released in 1985. "I'm Leaving Now", which was re-recorded 15 years later for Cash's American III: Solitary Man, was released as a single rather unsuccessfully, but the album's signature song is a cover of Kris Kristofferson's "Here Comes That Rainbow Again", which also appeared on Cash's 1995 collaboration with Kristofferson, Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings - known as The Highwaymen - entitled The Road Goes on Forever, though it was sung solo by Kristofferson on the latter. Also included is a cover of Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Have You Ever Seen the Rain?," from Pendulum. The album also includes the song "Love Me Like You Used To," which was later recorded by fellow country singer Tanya Tucker, and became a country hit for her. Following the release of this album and a duet album with Jennings in 1986, Cash moved to Mercury Records as a result of Columbia's fading interest in his music, though he later returned to Columbia for the second Highwaymen album.
Rockabilly Blues is an album by American country singer Johnny Cash, released on Columbia Records in 1980. Highlights include "Cold Lonesome Morning," which had some minor chart success, "Without Love," by his son-in-law, Nick Lowe, and a cover of the witty "The Twentieth Century Is Almost Over." The first two of the aforementioned songs were the only singles from the album, though "Without Love" hardly enjoyed any chart success, peaking at No. 78. "The Twentieth Century is Almost Over" was re-recorded five years later by Cash and Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson, collectively known as The Highwaymen, on their first album entitled Highwayman, though it was, in essence, a duet with Nelson.
I Would Like to See You Again is an album by American country singer Johnny Cash, released on Columbia Records in 1978. The title track peaked at #12 on the singles chart, while "There Ain't No Good Chain Gang" reached #2; the album itself peaked at #23. The album features a pair of duets with Waylon Jennings, one of which was the "There Ain't No Good Chain Gang" single; it was one of Cash's first collaborations with Jennings, and the two recorded songs together throughout the 1980s, including a separate album entitled Heroes. Cash and Jennings would also work together as The Highwaymen with Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson.
One Piece at a Time is the 54th album by American country singer Johnny Cash, released in 1976 on Columbia Records. "One Piece at a Time," which was a #1 hit, is a humorous tale of an auto worker on the Detroit assembly line who puts together a car out of parts he swipes from the plant. "Sold Out of Flag Poles" also charted as a single, reaching #29 on the country singles charts. "Committed to Parkview", a Cash original, would be re-recorded in 1985 by Cash, Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson and Willie Nelson, collectively known as The Highwaymen, on their first album, Highwayman; it is one of the few country songs sung from the perspective of a patient at a mental hospital.
Heroes is a duet studio by American country music singers Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings, released on Columbia Records in 1986.
A Believer Sings the Truth is a gospel double album by American country musician Johnny Cash. The tracks for the double-length album were recorded in 1979.
Repossessed is an album by Kris Kristofferson, released on Mercury Records in 1986. It was Kristofferson's first full-length solo album since 1981's To the Bone, although the singer did collaborate with other artists in the meantime, most notably on Highwayman with Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson.
Lonesome, On'ry and Mean is a studio album by American country music artist Waylon Jennings, released on RCA Victor in 1973. It was, after Good Hearted Woman and Ladies Love Outlaws, the third in a series of albums which were to establish Jennings as one of the most prominent representatives of the outlaw country movement. Photographer Mick Rock shot the album's cover.
Waylon Live is a live album by Waylon Jennings, released on RCA Victor in 1976.
Nashville Rebel is a box set by Waylon Jennings, released on RCA Nashville through Legacy Recordings in 2006. According to AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine, it is "the first comprehensive, multi-label Waylon Jennings retrospective ever assembled," comprising ninety-two songs recorded between [1958 and 1994, with selections from the majority of the singer's recording career. The first track of the box set is the Buddy Holly-produced "Jole Blon," released in 1958, while the last is "I Do Believe," a song produced by Don Was that was included on The Highwaymen's 1995 release, The Road Goes On Forever. The other material on the box set covers Jennings' career chronologically, with songs ranging from his years on RCA's roster to later compositions from his short-lived stay at Epic Records; it ignores, however, the tracks from Jennings albums released on independent labels. The majority of the singer's charting singles are included in the package, as are collaborations such as "Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys" with Willie Nelson and "Highwayman" with The Highwaymen. A notable addition is the previously unreleased "The Greatest Cowboy of Them All," a 1978 duet with Johnny Cash which was later recorded by Cash alone for A Believer Sings the Truth (1979) and The Mystery of Life (1991); two others, "It's Sure Been Fun" and "People in Dallas Got Hair," had never been released in the United States. Nashville Rebel was released on four CDs, with a 140-page booklet and liner notes by Rich Kienzle and Lenny Kaye.
"Highwayman" is a song written by American singer-songwriter Jimmy Webb about a soul with incarnations in four different places in time and history: as a highwayman, a sailor, a construction worker on the Hoover Dam, and finally as a captain of a starship. The song was influenced by the real-life hanged highwayman Jonathan Wild. Webb first recorded the song on his album El Mirage, released in May 1977. The following year, Glen Campbell recorded his version on his 1979 album Highwayman.
"Big River" is a song written and originally recorded by Johnny Cash. Released as a single by Sun Records in 1958, it went as high as #4 on the Billboard country music charts and stayed on the charts for 14 weeks. The song tells a story of the chase of a lost love along the course of Mississippi River from Saint Paul, Minnesota to New Orleans, Louisiana.
Koncert v Praze (1983) is an album by American country singer Johnny Cash.
"Silver Stallion" is a song written by Lee Clayton and originally released by him on his 1978 album Border Affair.
"Born and Raised in Black and White" is a song written by Don Cook and John Barlow Jarvis, and originally recorded by The Highwaymen on their 1990 album Highwaymen 2. Mark Collie covered it for his 1991 album Born and Raised in Black & White, and Brooks & Dunn on their 1998 album If You See Her.
"American Remains" is a song written by Rivers Rutherford and originally recorded by the Highwaymen for their 1990 album Highwaymen 2. The song follows the stories of 4 historically fictional men in a similar vein to their cover of "Highwayman". Unlike in Highwayman, however, none of the characters are implied dead; their legacies are instead emphasized.