The Essential Hank Snow

The Essential Hank Snow

ASIN: B000002WZF

Track Listings

1. Rhumba Boogie

2. I'm Movin' On

3. Golden Rocket

4. Unwanted Sign Upon Your Heart

5. Music Makin' Mamma from Memphis

6. Gold Rush Is Over

7. I Don't Hurt Anymore

8. (Now and Then There's) A Fool Such as I

9. Gal Who Invented Kissin'

10. I Went to Your Wedding [Alternate Take]

11. Would You Mind?

12. Lady's Man

13. Yellow Roses

14. Miller's Cave

15. Beggar to a King

16. I've Been Everywhere

17. Ninety Miles an Hour (Down a Dead End Street)

18. Let Me Go Lover

19. Wishing Well (Down in the Well)

20. Hello Love

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Tender ballads, urgent travel songs, infectious boogies--Canadian Hank Snow not only handled them all, but he handled them quite well and rode them all to the top of the country charts. His music was a logical extension of his idol Jimmie Rodgers's style, and Snow's letter-perfect, prudently effective vocal delivery and crisp, tasteful acoustic-guitar runs graced countless (actually, 36) top 10 country hits. This 20-song collection provides a nice introduction to his various styles and captures all of his best-known songs. His own compositions "I'm Movin' On" and "Rhumba Boogie" plus covers like "I've Been Everywhere" and "I Don't Hurt Anymore" were not only hugely dominant hits (Shania wasn't the first Canadian country phenom), but they remain cornerstones of country. --Marc Greilsamer

Tracks:

Rhumba Boogie
I'm Movin' On
The Golden Rocket
Unwanted Sign Upon Your Heart
Music Makin' Mama From Memphis
The Gold Rush Is Over
I Don't Hurt Anymore
(Now And Then, There's) A Fool Such As I
The Gal Who Invented Kissin'
I Went To Your Wedding (Alternate Take)
Would You Mind
Lady's Man
Yellow Roses
Miller's Cave
Beggar To A King
I've Been Everywhere
Ninety Miles An Hour
Let Me Go, Lover
The Wishing Well
Hello Love

Amazon.com

Tender ballads, urgent travel songs, infectious boogies--Canadian Hank Snow not only handled them all, but he handled them quite well and rode them all to the top of the country charts. His music was a logical extension of his idol Jimmie Rodgers's style, and Snow's letter-perfect, prudently effective vocal delivery and crisp, tasteful acoustic-guitar runs graced countless (actually, 36) top 10 country hits. This 20-song collection provides a nice introduction to his various styles and captures all of his best-known songs. His own compositions "I'm Movin' On" and "Rhumba Boogie" plus covers like "I've Been Everywhere" and "I Don't Hurt Anymore" were not only hugely dominant hits (Shania wasn't the first Canadian country phenom), but they remain cornerstones of country. --Marc Greilsamer

Customer Reviews:

Hank Snow Has Voice and Rhythm.......2007-02-17

Hank Snow is great on this CD. He and his band found rhythm that will make you want to get up and dance with this CD. This is a "Happy" CD.

I dont hurt anymore.......2006-09-16

Hank Snow was one of the best country singers and this CD is great. With real country music harder and harder to find having this CD is a boost to anyone's honky tonk collection. And for the money its really great. Good sound quality as well. Well this is DP movin on now take care all.

Hankering for a Hank Snow immersion?.......2006-09-03

It's been a long, long time since I've listened to much Hank Snow -- since back in the 1950's, before rock & roll routed C&W for me. But this CD put me right back there with this really large selection of his great ones, plus some I had never heard. You can't beat Hank for the fast-talking, driving rhythm of such cuts as I've Been Everywhere, and Music Makin' Mama. Way before we got so aware of international influences in our music, there he was talking about the Cuban and South American rhythms in The Rhumba Boogie. Its the slower pieces, though, that are my favorites - Now And Then ... and I Don't Hurt Anymore. The whole CD is surely a trip down nostalgia lane, to a time when the world, and gender relations, and lyrics were different from what they have become, but I really enjoyed the trip.

Hank Snow - A really true gentle man.......2006-08-27

Even though I have just ordered the CD, I rate it 5 stars and would give it more if I could. For I remember all of his songs. When my husband and I were in Nashville back in 1985, we took one of those tours of the stars' homes. We saw some really nice places for back then. Some were hidden behind gates and walls. But Hank Snow's house was right on the street. A modest little brick house no better than what we could afford. (I believe I still have a picture of it, or the brochure, somewhere packed away in my belongings. Sadly, when I'm gone and my children or grandchildren go through my stuff, they won't know what it is or who he was.) And I am very positive that he could have afforded much more. It just didn't matter to him. The tour bus driver told us that Hank drove himself everywhere, including to the Opry every Friday and Saturday nights. I believe he was still married to his sweetheart at that time. (I've lost track now).
But I do know that I have read that he had a very sad childhood. I believe I remember reading that he was physically abused and ran away from home at age 9 to go out to sea on some freighter. What a terrible life for a child. He was so small. But look who he grew up to be. A really nice man. As far as I know, he never turned to alcohol nor drugs. I did not know that he had passed away until I read one of these reviews. I'm just now learning how to go on line and find all of this stuff. It's true what they say that it is very hard to teach an old dog anything.
Another one of his ilk would be Little Jimmie Dickens. And from the same era. And I remember hearing them both on the Grand Ole Opry when I was a child. I wish he were still performing on the Opry. I know he had a hard time adjusting to those new "rock" stars being considered as country, and so do I.
What, pray tell, is country about all of that screaming and yelling and groping. You can't even watch a video on TV of any of them, without all of that screaming in the background, and the groping "fans" in the bottom of the screen. And the nearly naked girls shaking and jiggling all over. You can't hear them singing. (or yelling). And I don't even want to. It's only by accident that I see any of them, and I quickly turn away. Except for a few and one that comes to mind right now is a young fellow named Josh Turner. He has a marvelous voice and you can actually hear him singing.
I think Hank Snow would approve of him. Even to having him on the Opry. Which would be a great endorsement for Josh.

Essential Country.......2006-04-09

The man who introduced Elvis to Colonel Parker and was a major Country star for three decades is worth getting to know, and this good-value CD is the place to meet him. The alternative single-disk collection, The Best of Hank Snow, has only 10 tracks but is not much cheaper. The mastering on this CD is very good and the insert notes are fine. The first 5 tracks are Hank's own compositions and, although they are good, it has to be said they are musically very similar and it is just as well that he went on to record other writers' songs. I've Been Everywhere, written by Geoff Mack, shows extraordinary verbal dexterity and is worth the price of admission on its own. The egregious Val Doonican often sang this song on his television variety show in Britain. It's good to hear it done properly.

Hank Snow had a tight-throated, slightly nasally style that became standard for Skiffle singers. His voice sounds just the same on the earliest recordings on this CD (1950) and on the latest (1973), although the style of the songs changes.

There is a departure from the somewhat raw Carter-style sound of the earlier songs with Let Me Go, Lover, which has a twangy, sentimental style which was to become typical of much 60s Country music. It may seem odd now that this song had been a simultaneous hit for Teresa Brewer and Patti Page in 1954 and then a hit for Snow the next year. But in the 50s, and even more in the 40s, it was commonplace for a hit song to be recorded by several artists and released at the same time. Another oddity about Snow's version is that, although it is titled Let Me Go, Lover, he actually sings "Let me go, woman".

This music may not find favor with hard-core traditionalists and old-school Folkies, but for Grand Ole Opry and Skiffle fans, it's the business.

Hank's career spanned six decades, forty-five years of them with RCA. This collection is the genuinely essential Snow.

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