AMG Review of Gold [2006]

Jason Birchmeier
All Music Guide

In 2000 MCA Nashville released an excellent Conway Twitty hits collection, The #1 Hits Collection, which compiled a whopping 33 chart-toppers. It was a nice listen, illustrating precisely why Twitty is such a legend. Then came 25 Number Ones in 2004, which was essentially a scaled-down, more economical single-disc version of its double-disc predecessor. And then, since MCA is wont to repackage Twitty's back catalog ad infinitum, along came Gold in 2006. This double-disc, 40-song collection is yet another entry in the ideal Twitty compilation sweepstakes, and while its predecessors were plenty satisfactory, this one just may be the most satisfactory one yet. It's certainly more ideal than The #1 Hits Collection, as it includes some of his latter-day hits from the '80s and early '90s (there are seven extra songs on Gold, in case you're counting). And while 25 Number Ones is probably the most economical Twitty compilation you're liable to find on the market, the guy just had way too many hits to be summed up on a mere single disc, as many a fan would argue. So Gold may well be the one-stop Twitty best-of collection of choice, even if it still misses one of Stephen Thomas Erelwine's personal favorites, the Merle Haggard-penned "I Wonder What She'll Think About Me Leaving." If you want that song, you'll need to move up a notch, to the four-disc Conway Twitty Collection (1994). To recap, Gold effectively supplants The #1 Hits Collection, slotting itself between the single-disc, economical 25 Number Ones and the four-disc, definitive Conway Twitty Collection. So there are a few choices, clearly. Be assured, in any event, that all are satisfactory, differentiated by price point and comprehensiveness.