Rating: 
Summary: 5 stars for research, 3 stars for selections, equals 4 stars
Review: Ain't debating musical favorites fun? Especially stuff like what are the greatest songs or albums, who are the all-time greatest singers or performers. Recently, CMT aired specials on the 40 Greatest Men and 40 Greatest Women of Country Music that certainly stirred up some discussions. Now there's a new book Heartaches By The Number that is bound to create even more heated deliberations.Using Dave Marsh's The Heart Of Rock And Soul: The 1001 Greatest Singles Ever Made as a model, music critics David Cantwell and Bill Friskics-Warren selected what they felt were the 500 most important country singles. In the introduction, these writers point out that their love affair with music began during the "crossover years" of 1967 to 1973. This helps to explain the hefty numbers of selections from this period, starting with their number one ranked single Sammi Smith's rendition of "Help Me Make It Through The Night": a 1971 country hit that also crossed over to the pop top 10. Country superstars of the '60s and '70s show up a lot of this list, George Jones with twelve entries and Loretta Lynn with nine, for instance. Of course, Jones and Lynn would undoubtedly be featured a lot in this type of book regardless of who wrote it. But Glen Campbell meriting four entries, Sammi Smith three, and Charlie Rich a staggering six (including the non-hit remake of Sinatra's jazzy "Nice 'n' Easy") while two of the most acclaimed artists in modern country Vince Gill and Mary Chapin Carpenter received none is clearly biased. The crossover period of country music also seems to have influenced the authors to stretch the boundaries in order to classify different types of popular music as country. Gladys Knight and the Pips' "Midnight Train To Georgia," Joe Simon's "The Chokin' Kind," and Otis Redding's "Sittin' On the Dock Of The Bay" are some soulful numbers whose country setting helps to make their selection somewhat plausible. But the Monkees "Last Train To Clarksville" and the Rolling Stones "Honky Tonk Woman?" To quote Jimmy Stewart in It's A Wonderful Life: "you're screwy!" There are only 16 recordings selected from the 1990s and merely one (Lee Ann Womack's "I Hope You Dance") since 2000. Responsible at least in part for this dearth is the authors' decision to omit recordings not released commercially as singles. In recent years, most singles have been marketed only to radio to promote an album and are not available in stores. But since the average country listener isn't aware if their favorite radio hit by, say, Tim McGraw or Toby Keith was available as a commercial single, they don't know if it was snubbed by the authors or omitted on the technicality. Okay, I've been pretty picky. This book does actually have a lot going for it. The entries are informative, concise, and well-written. The selections from the '20s through the early '40s are particularly interesting to read about and it is hard to find fault with the authors' choices from this era (including The Carter Family's "Will The Circle Be Unbroken" and "Wildwood Rose," Jimmie Rodgers "T For Texas" and "Waitin' On A Train," Patsy Montana's "I Want To Be A Cowboy's Sweetheart" and Lead Belly's "Midnight Special" - the latter a landmark fusion of country with the blues). Ultimately, the book provides plenty of material to debate and teaches the reader a lot about music (not just country) history. This alone makes it a worthwhile purchase.
Rating:
Summary: 5 stars for research, 3 stars for selections, equals 4 stars
Review: Ain't debating musical favorites fun? Especially stuff like what are the greatest songs or albums, who are the all-time greatest singers or performers. Recently, CMT aired specials on the 40 Greatest Men and 40 Greatest Women of Country Music that certainly stirred up some discussions. Now there's a new book Heartaches By The Number that is bound to create even more heated deliberations. Using Dave Marsh's The Heart Of Rock And Soul: The 1001 Greatest Singles Ever Made as a model, music critics David Cantwell and Bill Friskics-Warren selected what they felt were the 500 most important country singles. In the introduction, these writers point out that their love affair with music began during the "crossover years" of 1967 to 1973. This helps to explain the hefty numbers of selections from this period, starting with their number one ranked single Sammi Smith's rendition of "Help Me Make It Through The Night": a 1971 country hit that also crossed over to the pop top 10. Country superstars of the '60s and '70s show up a lot of this list, George Jones with twelve entries and Loretta Lynn with nine, for instance. Of course, Jones and Lynn would undoubtedly be featured a lot in this type of book regardless of who wrote it. But Glen Campbell meriting four entries, Sammi Smith three, and Charlie Rich a staggering six (including the non-hit remake of Sinatra's jazzy "Nice 'n' Easy") while two of the most acclaimed artists in modern country Vince Gill and Mary Chapin Carpenter received none is clearly biased. The crossover period of country music also seems to have influenced the authors to stretch the boundaries in order to classify different types of popular music as country. Gladys Knight and the Pips' "Midnight Train To Georgia," Joe Simon's "The Chokin' Kind," and Otis Redding's "Sittin' On the Dock Of The Bay" are some soulful numbers whose country setting helps to make their selection somewhat plausible. But the Monkees "Last Train To Clarksville" and the Rolling Stones "Honky Tonk Woman?" To quote Jimmy Stewart in It's A Wonderful Life: "you're screwy!" There are only 16 recordings selected from the 1990s and merely one (Lee Ann Womack's "I Hope You Dance") since 2000. Responsible at least in part for this dearth is the authors' decision to omit recordings not released commercially as singles. In recent years, most singles have been marketed only to radio to promote an album and are not available in stores. But since the average country listener isn't aware if their favorite radio hit by, say, Tim McGraw or Toby Keith was available as a commercial single, they don't know if it was snubbed by the authors or omitted on the technicality. Okay, I've been pretty picky. This book does actually have a lot going for it. The entries are informative, concise, and well-written. The selections from the '20s through the early '40s are particularly interesting to read about and it is hard to find fault with the authors' choices from this era (including The Carter Family's "Will The Circle Be Unbroken" and "Wildwood Rose," Jimmie Rodgers "T For Texas" and "Waitin' On A Train," Patsy Montana's "I Want To Be A Cowboy's Sweetheart" and Lead Belly's "Midnight Special" - the latter a landmark fusion of country with the blues). Ultimately, the book provides plenty of material to debate and teaches the reader a lot about music (not just country) history. This alone makes it a worthwhile purchase.
Rating: 
Summary: Very enjoyable 'Heartaches'
Review: Although its subtitle ("Country Music's 500 Greatest Singles") presents this book as a list of great recordings, it's only nominally a countdown. Grumbling that your favorite single didn't crack their Top 200, while always entertaining, is largely beside the point. These two authors even admit in their introduction that they have bigger fish to fry here. Heartaches By The Number wants to define, offer a history of, illustrate the influence of, and revel in the pure sonic joys of country music. The amazing thing is that David Cantwell and Bill Friskics-Warren manage to do all of these simultaneously--and do them well.
There's lots to learn here. The two authors are obviously well-versed in country's history--equally comfortable discussing Dock Boggs' 1927 "Country Blues" or Lee Ann Womack's "I Hope You Dance"--and are able to share their knowledge, when appropriate, without slipping into a textbook-style lecture. And that's good because more than explaining history, this book slowly begins to reveal and argue for an aesthetic, a conception of what country music is and why it has a place in the lives of its listeners.
This aesthetic is going to trouble and confuse some listeners, downright anger others. Cantwell and Friskics-Warren conceive of a country music that includes The Stones and Dusty Springfield as well as Hank and Lefty. Why, in their Top 10, Elvis is flanked by Ray Price and The Carter Family. But it's this broad definition that provides much of the fun and the challenge here. How do these two have the gall to even call the Monkees country music, let alone include them among the creators of its greatest singles? Since when has Chuck Berry (or Otis Redding, or Lynyrd Skynyrd, or Fats Domino, or CCR--all here) been redesignated "Country"? It's exactly this default categorization that the authors want to challenge. Much of their discussion attempts to show how fluid the boundaries are between country and almost every other style of music.
And that's what it finally comes down to in this book: the music, what's actually down there in the grooves, or in the binary code. As much as anything, Cantwell and Friskics-Warren are great listeners, and they share a rare knack for translating the experience of listening into words. In a stunning discussion of Dolly Parton's "Coat of Many Colors," Cantwell reveals himself as a guy who has listened to this song enough times to identify with the singer AND with the song's narrator (he distinguishes between the two) from the inside. Vulnerable but not maudlin (just as the song is), he refuses to slip into cheap emotionalism, but shares a clearly heartfelt love and appreciation for the entire experience of this single--singer and song, meaning and music. Likewise, Friskics-Warren, in a tour-de-force discussion of three singles--G.B. Grayson's "Ommie Wise (1927), The Blue Sky Boys' "Banks of the Ohio" (1936), and The Louvin Brothers' "Knoxville Girl" (1959)--sees thematic and musical traditions stretching from 18th Century English ballads right up to rapper Eminem. Not surprisingly, the entry appears amid a stretch of several, all addressing themes of murder and prison ("Pistol Packin' Mama," "Life To Go," "Green Green Grass of Home," "Sing Me Back Home"). Theirs is a world of connection, not dissection.
This impulse for connection is seen most vividly in the context the authors create for their discussions throughout. They encourage readers to listen to, and think about, this music here in the real world, a world that includes Betty Friedan and Horatio Alger, Harlan County USA and The Daily Worker, LBJ and V-E Day and POW's and TM, Dorothy Allison and Carson McCullers, Jim Crow and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., The Beatles and the Buddha and Bonanza, Times Square and Teamster Strikes, Designing Women and Smokey & the Bandit. For Cantwell and Friskics-Warren, music, like the rest of the world, affects our hearts AND our minds, our outer lives AND our inner lives. Great singles allow us a glimpse at what Friskics-Warren describes as "the point at which the personal and the political converge."
And lest this all sound a bit too heavy, let me assure you that Heartaches By The Number is a FUN read as well. The counting format offers bite-size portions that read well on their own (sort of intellectual bathroom reading) but are always part of the larger discussion. And these guys can be FUNNY (and cynical), too. Complimenting the musicians backing Tennessee Ernie Ford on "Shot Gun Boogie," Cantwell notes, "Then again, Henry Ford could swing with this group behind him!" And introducing Glen Campbell's signature single, Friskics-Warren asks, "'Gentle On My Mind' might have played well during the Summer of Love, but was its load of bull for real?" Like many of their musical heroes here, these two are straight-shooters.
About the best compliment I can pay this book is that it makes you want to go back and listen to the recordings. The authors encourage us to return to these singles--sometimes songs you didn't think you liked, songs you didn't even think were country--and listen again. They encourage us to really open our ears--and as a result, our hearts and minds.
My biggest problem with Heartaches By The Number: I don't own all of these records. Next step: the Time/Life Heartaches By The Number companion box set. Bear Family Records, are you listening?
Rating:
Summary: Very enjoyable 'Heartaches'
Review: Although its subtitle ("Country Music's 500 Greatest Singles") presents this book as a list of great recordings, it's only nominally a countdown. Grumbling that your favorite single didn't crack their Top 200, while always entertaining, is largely beside the point. These two authors even admit in their introduction that they have bigger fish to fry here. Heartaches By The Number wants to define, offer a history of, illustrate the influence of, and revel in the pure sonic joys of country music. The amazing thing is that David Cantwell and Bill Friskics-Warren manage to do all of these simultaneously--and do them well.
There's lots to learn here. The two authors are obviously well-versed in country's history--equally comfortable discussing Dock Boggs' 1927 "Country Blues" or Lee Ann Womack's "I Hope You Dance"--and are able to share their knowledge, when appropriate, without slipping into a textbook-style lecture. And that's good because more than explaining history, this book slowly begins to reveal and argue for an aesthetic, a conception of what country music is and why it has a place in the lives of its listeners.
This aesthetic is going to trouble and confuse some listeners, downright anger others. Cantwell and Friskics-Warren conceive of a country music that includes The Stones and Dusty Springfield as well as Hank and Lefty. Why, in their Top 10, Elvis is flanked by Ray Price and The Carter Family. But it's this broad definition that provides much of the fun and the challenge here. How do these two have the gall to even call the Monkees country music, let alone include them among the creators of its greatest singles? Since when has Chuck Berry (or Otis Redding, or Lynyrd Skynyrd, or Fats Domino, or CCR--all here) been redesignated "Country"? It's exactly this default categorization that the authors want to challenge. Much of their discussion attempts to show how fluid the boundaries are between country and almost every other style of music.
And that's what it finally comes down to in this book: the music, what's actually down there in the grooves, or in the binary code. As much as anything, Cantwell and Friskics-Warren are great listeners, and they share a rare knack for translating the experience of listening into words. In a stunning discussion of Dolly Parton's "Coat of Many Colors," Cantwell reveals himself as a guy who has listened to this song enough times to identify with the singer AND with the song's narrator (he distinguishes between the two) from the inside. Vulnerable but not maudlin (just as the song is), he refuses to slip into cheap emotionalism, but shares a clearly heartfelt love and appreciation for the entire experience of this single--singer and song, meaning and music. Likewise, Friskics-Warren, in a tour-de-force discussion of three singles--G.B. Grayson's "Ommie Wise (1927), The Blue Sky Boys' "Banks of the Ohio" (1936), and The Louvin Brothers' "Knoxville Girl" (1959)--sees thematic and musical traditions stretching from 18th Century English ballads right up to rapper Eminem. Not surprisingly, the entry appears amid a stretch of several, all addressing themes of murder and prison ("Pistol Packin' Mama," "Life To Go," "Green Green Grass of Home," "Sing Me Back Home"). Theirs is a world of connection, not dissection.
This impulse for connection is seen most vividly in the context the authors create for their discussions throughout. They encourage readers to listen to, and think about, this music here in the real world, a world that includes Betty Friedan and Horatio Alger, Harlan County USA and The Daily Worker, LBJ and V-E Day and POW's and TM, Dorothy Allison and Carson McCullers, Jim Crow and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., The Beatles and the Buddha and Bonanza, Times Square and Teamster Strikes, Designing Women and Smokey & the Bandit. For Cantwell and Friskics-Warren, music, like the rest of the world, affects our hearts AND our minds, our outer lives AND our inner lives. Great singles allow us a glimpse at what Friskics-Warren describes as "the point at which the personal and the political converge."
And lest this all sound a bit too heavy, let me assure you that Heartaches By The Number is a FUN read as well. The counting format offers bite-size portions that read well on their own (sort of intellectual bathroom reading) but are always part of the larger discussion. And these guys can be FUNNY (and cynical), too. Complimenting the musicians backing Tennessee Ernie Ford on "Shot Gun Boogie," Cantwell notes, "Then again, Henry Ford could swing with this group behind him!" And introducing Glen Campbell's signature single, Friskics-Warren asks, "'Gentle On My Mind' might have played well during the Summer of Love, but was its load of bull for real?" Like many of their musical heroes here, these two are straight-shooters.
About the best compliment I can pay this book is that it makes you want to go back and listen to the recordings. The authors encourage us to return to these singles--sometimes songs you didn't think you liked, songs you didn't even think were country--and listen again. They encourage us to really open our ears--and as a result, our hearts and minds.
My biggest problem with Heartaches By The Number: I don't own all of these records. Next step: the Time/Life Heartaches By The Number companion box set. Bear Family Records, are you listening?
Rating: 
Summary: Help Me Make it Through The Book
Review: I found this a really poorly done vanity project of the authors. They frankly write like a individual fan would, not like historians. I mean really THREE Sammi Smith records in the top 500?? That very talented lady only had THREE top ten hits period!! Some of the selections (MANY of the selections) seem deliberately chosen to provoke rather than being there for being truly outstanding recordings. The fact that this listing is not a serious attempt to acknowledge ground-breaking or important recordings can be judged by the fact that so many recordings are grouped together in entries with their neighboring song on the list (ie: two Merle Haggard songs ranked side by side or Dolly Parton & Norma Jean's "working girl" songs ranked consecutively). This even goes on into the "alternate 100" list with three completely forgettable different songs called "The Other Woman" ranked side by side. The research here isn't very good either, most country music buffs won't learn a thing here. Sometimes it doesn't even appear the authors even really LISTENED to the record! For example discussing Norma Jean's record HEAVEN HELP THE WORKING GIRL they quote the line "we'd both be sorry if I did go home to your wife and your kids" as if some guy trying to pick Norma Jean up was inviting her home for supper!! Norma Jean actually sings "We'd both be sorry if I did, (pleading) GO home to your wife and your kids" ie: a man has propositioned her and she is pointedly reminding him of his family at home. How could they not understand that?? Similarly, they ludriciously compare Dottie West's A LESSON IN LEAVIN' to Aretha Franklin records, it has about as much in common with a Franklin disc as it does with A Beverly Sills' one. And the authors make one of the most offensive (if unintentional) slams I've ever read on a country songwriter in their comments on Merle Haggard's recording "I'm A Lonesome Fugitive" (written by Liz Anderson with some assistance from her husband Casey) stating it was a song Haggard himself could have wrote. Well, dear authors, Mr. Haggard DID NOT write it, he had written almost nothing at this early point in his career and in fact his later songwriting was clearly inspired by the bitter and lonesome themes in the Liz Anderson songs he rode to fame with such as "Fugitive" and "Strangers". THAT would have been a more appropiate comment. Country songwriters are usually highly praised within the industry so it's strange to read comments in a book belittling their actual contribution. I suspect the authors knocked this book out in a couple weeks. At least that's how it looks.
Rating:
Summary: Help Me Make it Through The Book
Review: I found this a really poorly done vanity project of the authors. They frankly write like a individual fan would, not like historians. I mean really THREE Sammi Smith records in the top 500?? That very talented lady only had THREE top ten hits period!! Some of the selections (MANY of the selections) seem deliberately chosen to provoke rather than being there for being truly outstanding recordings. The fact that this listing is not a serious attempt to acknowledge ground-breaking or important recordings can be judged by the fact that so many recordings are grouped together in entries with their neighboring song on the list (ie: two Merle Haggard songs ranked side by side or Dolly Parton & Norma Jean's "working girl" songs ranked consecutively). This even goes on into the "alternate 100" list with three completely forgettable different songs called "The Other Woman" ranked side by side. The research here isn't very good either, most country music buffs won't learn a thing here. Sometimes it doesn't even appear the authors even really LISTENED to the record! For example discussing Norma Jean's record HEAVEN HELP THE WORKING GIRL they quote the line "we'd both be sorry if I did go home to your wife and your kids" as if some guy trying to pick Norma Jean up was inviting her home for supper!! Norma Jean actually sings "We'd both be sorry if I did, (pleading) GO home to your wife and your kids" ie: a man has propositioned her and she is pointedly reminding him of his family at home. How could they not understand that?? Similarly, they ludriciously compare Dottie West's A LESSON IN LEAVIN' to Aretha Franklin records, it has about as much in common with a Franklin disc as it does with A Beverly Sills' one. And the authors make one of the most offensive (if unintentional) slams I've ever read on a country songwriter in their comments on Merle Haggard's recording "I'm A Lonesome Fugitive" (written by Liz Anderson with some assistance from her husband Casey) stating it was a song Haggard himself could have wrote. Well, dear authors, Mr. Haggard DID NOT write it, he had written almost nothing at this early point in his career and in fact his later songwriting was clearly inspired by the bitter and lonesome themes in the Liz Anderson songs he rode to fame with such as "Fugitive" and "Strangers". THAT would have been a more appropiate comment. Country songwriters are usually highly praised within the industry so it's strange to read comments in a book belittling their actual contribution. I suspect the authors knocked this book out in a couple weeks. At least that's how it looks.
Rating:
Summary: Comprehensive, but a bit too academic?
Review: I'm a huge fan of classic country and I purchased this book and read it as soon as it came out. I found both authors to be highly qualified for the daunting task of picking the top 500 country singles of all time. Their comments are insightful and always interesting. My main complaint was that the majority of the singles they chose are from the very early years of country music - 1920 to 1940. I'd never heard any of them (although I had heard of many of them) and so it sort of felt like a museum exercise to read entry after entry about songs I'd never heard. And there are very few songs from the 1991-1996 period, when I feel country music made a huge comeback in terms of quality. It's still an interesting read, but it might have been even more effective if they had been able to include a CD or two of the songs they chose so you could actually hear why some of their early choices are so important.
Rating:
Summary: Comprehensive, but a bit too academic?
Review: I'm a huge fan of classic country and I purchased this book and read it as soon as it came out. I found both authors to be highly qualified for the daunting task of picking the top 500 country singles of all time. Their comments are insightful and always interesting. My main complaint was that the majority of the singles they chose are from the very early years of country music - 1920 to 1940. I'd never heard any of them (although I had heard of many of them) and so it sort of felt like a museum exercise to read entry after entry about songs I'd never heard. And there are very few songs from the 1991-1996 period, when I feel country music made a huge comeback in terms of quality. It's still an interesting read, but it might have been even more effective if they had been able to include a CD or two of the songs they chose so you could actually hear why some of their early choices are so important.
Rating: 
Summary: Nice try, but...
Review: If you're going to name the 500 best singles....you might want to include at least one from Alabama. Talk about no-brainers...their exclusion immediately puts this book's validity into serious doubt. Something tells me if you can't find room for the biggest selling, most awarded act in country music history, then why bother? On the plus side, the deserving songs they did include are well-profiled. It's just too bad some editor with a clue didn't stop these guys before they went careening out of control...with some truly bizarre picks. If a country radio station never played it (read some of the examples in other reviews), it AIN'T among the 500 best country singles ever. In fact that would make it impossible. Unless you count Ernest Tubb as one of our greatest rock stars.
Rating:
Summary: Nice try, but...
Review: If you're going to name the 500 best singles....you might want to include at least one from Alabama. Talk about no-brainers...their exclusion immediately puts this book's validity into serious doubt. Something tells me if you can't find room for the biggest selling, most awarded act in country music history, then why bother? On the plus side, the deserving songs they did include are well-profiled. It's just too bad some editor with a clue didn't stop these guys before they went careening out of control...with some truly bizarre picks. If a country radio station never played it (read some of the examples in other reviews), it AIN'T among the 500 best country singles ever. In fact that would make it impossible. Unless you count Ernest Tubb as one of our greatest rock stars.
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