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. ~ Jason Birchmeier