The Essential Willie Nelson | ||||
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Greatest hits album by | ||||
Released | April 1, 2003 | |||
Recorded | 1961–2003 | |||
Genre | Country | |||
Length | 120:00 | |||
Label | Sony BMG | |||
Producer | Nick Shaffran, Al Quaglieri | |||
Willie Nelson chronology | ||||
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The Essential Willie Nelson is a two-disc compilation of Willie Nelson songs. This digitally remastered compilation covers five decades of Nelson's recording career, and is part of Sony's Essential series of compilation albums. A 2009 release in limited Essential 3.0 series came with a bonus disc of eight fan-favourites and rarities. The album was re-released with an updated track listing on October 16, 2015.
Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [1] |
Q | [2] |
David Quantick of Q wrote, "[T]he songs here sound fresh and almost youthful. The arrangements are sparky, too... All the sheer scope of Nelson's writing is displayed." [2] In a retrospective review, AllMusic editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine said that "The Essential Willie Nelson gets about as close as a set could to providing the basics". [1]
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Originally from | Length |
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1. | "Remember Me" | Scotty Wiseman | Red Headed Stranger (1975) | 2:52 |
2. | "I Love You a Thousand Ways" | Lefty Frizzell, Jim Beck | To Lefty from Willie (1977) | 2:59 |
3. | "Love Me Tender" | George R. Poulton, Ken Darby | Porky's Revenge! (1985) | 2:32 |
4. | "Midnight Rider" | Gregg Allman, Robert Kim Payne | The Electric Horseman (1979) | 2:57 |
5. | "Philadelphia Lawyer" | Woody Guthrie | Folkways: A Vision Shared (1988) | 2:59 |
6. | "Why Do I Have to Choose" (with Waylon Jennings) | Willie Nelson | Take It to the Limit (1983) | 3:12 |
7. | "Let It Be Me" | Gilbert Bécaud, Manny Curtis, Pierre Delanoë | Always on My Mind (1982) | 3:33 |
8. | "Still Is Still Moving to Me" | Willie Nelson | Across the Borderline (1993) | 3:29 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Originally from | Length |
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1. | "On the Road Again" (Live) | Willie Nelson | Honeysuckle Rose (1980) | 2:33 |
2. | "Always on My Mind" | Johnny Christopher, Mark James, Wayne Carson | Always on My Mind (1982) | 3:32 |
3. | "Pancho and Lefty" (with Merle Haggard) | Townes Van Zandt | Pancho & Lefty (1983) | 4:48 |
4. | "To All the Girls I've Loved Before" (with Julio Iglesias) | Hal David, Albert Hammond | 1100 Bel Air Place (1984) | 3:34 |
5. | "City of New Orleans" | Steve Goodman | City of New Orleans (1984) | 4:52 |
6. | "Seven Spanish Angels" (with Ray Charles) | Troy Seals, Eddie Setser | Friendship (1984) | 3:52 |
7. | "Forgiving You Was Easy" | Willie Nelson | Me & Paul (1985) | 2:49 |
8. | "Highwayman" (with Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash & Kris Kristofferson) | Jimmy Webb | Highwayman (1985) | 3:04 |
9. | "Living in the Promiseland" | David Lynn Jones | The Promiseland (1986) | 3:22 |
10. | "The End of Understanding" (with Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash & Kris Kristofferson) | Willie Nelson | The Road Goes On Forever (1995) | 2:41 |
11. | "Across the Borderline" | Ry Cooder, John Hiatt, Jim Dickinson | Across the Borderline (1993) | 4:40 |
12. | "Still Is Still Moving to Me" | Willie Nelson | Across the Borderline (1993) | 3:29 |
13. | "I Never Cared For You" | Willie Nelson | Teatro (1998) | 2:18 |
14. | "Just Breathe" (with Lukas Nelson) | Eddie Vedder | Heroes (2012) | 4:02 |
15. | "I Wish I Didn’t Love You So" | Frank Loesser | Let's Face the Music and Dance (2013) | 4:18 |
16. | "From Here to the Moon and Back" (with Dolly Parton) | Dolly Parton | To All the Girls... (2013) | 4:01 |
17. | "The Wall" | Willie Nelson, Buddy Cannon | Band of Brothers (2014) | 3:29 |
18. | "Band of Brothers" | Willie Nelson, Buddy Cannon | Band of Brothers (2014) | 2:51 |
19. | "Who'll Buy My Memories?" (with Bobbie Nelson) | Willie Nelson | December Day: Willie’s Stash, Vol. 1 (2014) | 2:47 |
20. | "Unfair Weather Friend" (with Merle Haggard) | Marla Cannon-Goodman, Ward Davis | Django and Jimmie (2015) | 4:14 |
21. | "It's All Going to Pot" (with Merle Haggard and Jamey Johnson) | Buddy Cannon, Jamey Johnson, Larry Shell | Django and Jimmie (2015) | 2:56 |
22. | "Roll Me Up" (with Snoop Dogg, Kris Kristofferson and Jamey Johnson) | Willie Nelson, Buddy Cannon, Rich Alves, John Colgin, Mike McQuerry | Heroes (2012) | 3:25 |
Weekly charts
| Year-end charts
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Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
---|---|---|
United States (RIAA) [6] | Platinum | 944,700 [7] |
Willie Hugh Nelson is an American country singer, guitarist and songwriter. He was one of the main figures of the outlaw country subgenre that developed in the late 1960s as a reaction to the conservative restrictions of the Nashville sound. The critical success of his album Shotgun Willie (1973), combined with the critical and commercial success of Red Headed Stranger (1975) and Stardust (1978), made Nelson one of the most recognized artists in country music. Nelson has acted in over 30 films, co-authored several books, and has been involved in activism for the use of biofuels and the legalization of marijuana.
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Stardust is the 22nd studio album by Willie Nelson, released in April 1978. Its ten songs consist entirely of pop standards that Nelson picked from among his favorites. Nelson asked Booker T. Jones, who was his neighbor in Malibu at the time, to arrange a version of "Moonlight in Vermont". Impressed with Jones's work, Nelson asked him to produce the entire album. Nelson's decision to record such well-known tracks was controversial among Columbia executives because he had distinguished himself in the outlaw country genre. Recording the album took only ten days.
The Essential Johnny Cash is a double-compact disc compilation by Johnny Cash released as part of Sony BMG's Essential series. It was compiled to commemorate Cash's 70th birthday. It is not to be confused with the three-CD box set of the same name released by Columbia Records in 1992.
"Paninaro" is a song by English synth-pop duo Pet Shop Boys, originally a B-side to the 1986 single "Suburbia". In 1995, a re-recording titled "Paninaro '95" was released to a wider market, to promote the duo's B-side compilation album Alternative, though only the original version was included on the compilation.
Greatest Hits is the first compilation album by American country music artist Lee Ann Womack, released on May 4, 2004 by MCA Nashville. It was Womack's first release issued on both the DualDisc and Super Audio CD formats, both of which were issued the following year. The compilation includes eleven of Womack's previous songs, including her sole number one on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart "I Hope You Dance" with Sons of the Desert. One of those, "Does My Ring Burn Your Finger", was re-worked for this compilation. Also included is her duet with Willie Nelson, "Mendocino County Line", which was included on Nelson's 50th studio album The Great Divide (2002), but had only been included on the UK edition of Womack's fourth studio album Something Worth Leaving Behind (2002).
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The following is a detailed discography of all albums released by country music singer Willie Nelson, since his professional debut in 1962. Nelson's discography includes 101 studio albums, 14 live albums, 51 compilation albums and 41 video albums as well as the soundtracks of The Electric Horseman and Honeysuckle Rose. According to Courier Journal, Nelson's 2024 album The Border was his 152nd album.
The following is a detailed discography of all singles released by American singer-songwriter Willie Nelson. A total of 25 Nelson singles have reached number one on music charts in the US.
Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real, sometimes referred to as POTR, is an American country rock band formed in Los Angeles in 2008 by Lukas Nelson. The band consists of Lukas Nelson , Anthony LoGerfo, Corey McCormick, Logan Metz, and Tato Melgar (percussion). They have released eight studio albums. two live albums, numerous singles and extended plays (EP).
To All the Girls... is the 62nd studio album by country music singer-songwriter Willie Nelson, which was released on October 15, 2013, by Legacy Recordings. The tracks consist of duets recorded by Nelson with female singers, mostly from the country music genre. The album is named after the song "To All the Girls I've Loved Before", which had been a hit for Nelson and Julio Iglesias when they recorded it in 1985.
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All the Best! is the second official compilation album of Paul McCartney's music, after 1978's Wings Greatest. It was released in 1987 on Capitol Records and Parlophone Records.
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