For an artist who scored a whopping 52 number one singles (more than any other artist in country music history), narrowing a budget-priced introductory collection to just 12 would be, to say the least, a daunting task. Real fans will have all kinds of issues as to what got left off, but it is far more important to concentrate on what is here, and what's in the grooves is plenty. This set goes back to the first one, when was still a rocker, with still one of the most astonishing early rock & roll performances, and one that blows 's reading of the same song out of the water. From the country years come such classics as the bluesy and What's more is that wrote or co-wrote ten of these dozen cuts. This one is a winner. ~ Thom Jurek