All things considered,
The Definitive Collection is an excellent single-disc sampler of
Patsy Cline. One could easily point out that there have been a lot of
Patsy Cline compilations, many of them in print on the day this one was released, and validly ask just why the world (or even the U.S.) needs another one. From Universal's point of view, there remained an unfilled niche in the marketplace for a full-length CD compilation selling for more than the short discount albums but less than the multi-disc sets. That is where
The Definitive Collection, with its 22 tracks, selling for a mere $14.99, comes in. The track list, sequenced in roughly chronological order, presents all 14 of
Cline's country chart hits, among them "Walkin' After Midnight" (heard here in the original hit recording, not the re-recording found on
Patsy Cline's Greatest Hits), "I Fall to Pieces," "Crazy," and "She's Got You." The eight additional tracks have been judiciously selected and include two songs that made the pop, but not the country, singles charts ("Heartaches" and "Strange"); two B-sides written by noteworthy country artists (
Hank Cochran's "Why Can't He Be You," and Bob Montgomery's "Back in Baby's Arms"); and a handful of pop and country standards (
Hank Williams' "Lovesick Blues" and "Half as Much," the
Bing Crosby/Grace Kelly hit "True Love," written by
Cole Porter, and
Bob Wills' "San Antonio Rose"). The result is a well-rounded 58-plus minutes of
Cline (about one-fifth of her total recorded output) that presents the highlights of her career. True, a few more tracks could have fit on the CD, but then the publishing royalties might have necessitated a higher price. ~ William Ruhlmann