That's My Pa

Enjoy this collection immensely. A wide variety of music accompanied by an interesting narrative of some of Sheb's life. A real treasure

The tracks in this set cover Sheb Wooly's career from 1945 through 1972. CD1 and 2 are entirely monophonic while CD3 and 4 are a mix of stereo and mono tracks. Unfortunately, the tracks are not presented in chronological order. This set gives me the impression being composed of two different two CD compilations. The first two CDs are in chronological order while the last two CDs are haphazardly arranged. It includes very few of Sheb's charting songs but does contain numerous previously unreleased songs. It completely ignores his music performed under the name Ben Colder. Consider this to be a collection of unreleased material and obscurities. I'm docking this set one star due to the lack of charting hits and better known songs.Despite the paucity of better known songs, this is an extremely enjoyable album with generally incredibly good sound. The one imperfection I noted was that the bass was pushed a bit too much in some of the tracks producing a slight hollow booming quality to the lower notes in Sheb's voice and exagerated low frequencies in the instrumental accompaniment. This is more apparent on the older tracks.Given the very high price of these Bear Family sets, I'd expect them to be of exceptional quality. However, this is no longer the case. Several of the Bear Family sets I've purchased in the last year or so have parts of at least one CD that doesn't play. In this set, I was unable to play the last track of CD3 and the last two tracks of CD4. This is a problem especially when one attempts to fill an entire CD. The inner most tracks are recorded much more densly than the outer tracks and so reading errors are more likely. I'm docking this set one star for each unplayable CD.I was going to give this set five stars, but after considering it overnight, I decided to express my true feelings about the quality and content of this set by giving it the two stars it deserves.The following is a track listing that includes the year of the recording session as reported in the Sheb Wooley sessions list. Note that the Bear Family seems to have used the first release date rather than the recording date in their documentation. Also, the Bear Family has used 1997 as the year for previously unreleased tracks. To find the source I used for this information, Google "Praguefrank's Country Music Discographies: Sheb Wooley", including the quotation marks.MP3Tag can be used to automatically update the "Year" tag in your MP3 files. Invoke the convert text file to tag function and give it the format string "%track%;%title%;%year%;". You can then use the Year tag to update your filenames so they include the year within your filenames.CD101;I Can't Live Without You;1945;02;Oklahoma Honky Tonk Girl;1945;03;Lazy Mazy;1947;04;Wooley's Polka;1947;05;Peepin' Through The Keyhole;1947;06;Time Won't Heal An Achin' Heart;1947;07;Too Long With The Wrong Woman;1947;08;Your Papa Ain't Steppin' Anymore;1947;09;Cherokee Waltz;1948;10;Texas Rose;1948;11;Spanish Darling;1948;12;Freight Train Cinders In My Eyes;1948;13;A Heart Bound In Chains;1948;14;Indian Maiden - Romance;1948;15;Jole Quadroon;1948;16;Rover Scoot Over;1948;17;The Sun Is Going Down Upon My Heart;1949;18;That Mean Feeling;1949;19;You're The Cats Meow;1950;20;(Now You're) Changing Your Name;1950;21;Wha' Hoppen To Me, Baby;1950;22;Mule Boogie;1950;23;Over The Barrel;1951;24;Country Kisses;1951;25;Hoot Owl Boogie;1951;26;Aircastles;1951;27;Boogie Woogie Waltz;1951;CD201;Down In The Toolies;1951;02;What'cha Gonna Do;1951;03;Backroom Boogie;1951;04;You Never Can Tell;1952;05;Goodbye Texas, Hello Tennessee;1952;06;I'll Return The Letters;1952;07;A Cowboy Ought To Be Single;1952;08;Knew I Had Lost;1953;09;Don't Stop Kissing Me Goodnight;1953;10;Texas Tango;1953;11;Love Is Just Another Merry-Go-Round;1953;12;White Lightnin';1953;13;A Fool About You;1953;14;Panama Pete;1953;15;Blue Guitar;1953;16;I Go Outa My Mind;1954;17;38-24-35;1954;18;I Flipped;1954;19;Hill Billy Mambo;1954;20;Listening For Your Footsteps;1955;21;Speak Of The Devil;1955;22;Love At First Sight;1955;23;Love Is A Fever;1955;24;Humdinger;1955;25;It Takes A Heap Of Livin';1955;26;Tom, The Boogie Woogie Tom Cat;1955;27;First Day Of School;1956;28;the lonely man;1956;CD301;Memories Are Made Of This;1966;02;That's My Pa;1961;03;That's My Ma;1962;04;Daddy Kiss And Make It Well;1962;05;Sally's Arms;1965;06;Blue Guitar;1964;07;Ten Chances To One;1962;08;Only For You;1966;09;Juarez (with recitation);1963;10;Wildwood Flower On The Autoharp;1966;11;Anchor's Aweigh (My Love);1966;12;The Will;1970;13;Cowboy Hero;1963;14;The Big Blizzard;1964;15;Four Walls;1966;16;Tonight's The Night My Angel's Halo Fell;1966;17;A Letter To Daddy;1966;18;Daddy's Home;1970;19;Number One On The Survey;1966;20;She Called Me Baby;1963;21;Laughin' The Blues;1962;22;Roughneck;1959;23;Tennessee Walking Horse;1965;24;The Legend Of Echo Mountain;1962;25;Natchez Landing;1964;26;The Recipient (The Heart Song);1969;27;Nobody's Child;1972;CD401;you still turn me on;1968;02;the answer, my love;1966;03;somebody please;1962;04;a place to be lonely;1964;05;the love-in;1967;06;the one man band;1969;07;Good time charlie;1962;08;I don't belong in her arms;1970;09;Land of no love;1962;10;I remember loving you;1968;11;not once but a hundred times;1966;12;sittin' and thinkin';1964;13;a new kind of lonesome;1962;14;Juarez;1963;15;i'll leave the singing to the bluebirds;1965;16;Joy;1971;17;Tie a tiger down;1968;18;cheap hotel;1967;19;The sun also rises;1965;20;whirlpool of love;1963;21;Old rag joe;1963;22;Not since adam;1963;23;make 'em laugh;1967;24;life is a fountain;1972;25;it's gold;1968;26;goodbye wabash cannonball;1971;27;a kick in the head;1971;28;right is right and left is lonely;1966;29;draggin' the river;1966;30;wrap me up some hurt;1966;31;doin' my thing;1971;

Good album if you enjoy novelty tunes. Hapy to havr it.

Born Shelby F. Wooley on April 10, 1921 in Erick, Oklahoma, this singer/songwriter certainly had a diverse career, having started as the head of a Western Swing band in the style of Spade Cooley and Bob Wills, then gravitating to the more sentimental ballads featured in what then passed as straight "cowboy" music later in the 1940s as performed by such as Roy Rogers and Gene Autry. Later, after joining MGM, he began to fuse elements of Western Swing with those of R&B and in the 1960s began a string of comic parodies of big Country hits under the alias Ben Colder (some might remember him from his role of Pete Nolan in the TV series Rawhide with Clint Eastwood). But while there are currently quite a few Sheb Wooley/Ben Colder CD compilations on the market, not one of them contains the 17 titles he placed on the national Pop and/or Country charts from 1955 to 1971 under both personae, all for MGM, never mind their B-sides, leaving completist hits collectors totally frustrated. The excellent Bear Family of Germany comes the closest to capturing his charted singles as Sheb Wooley at least (not one Ben Colder release among them) with no less than 227 sides contained in these five releases:Rawhide/How The West Was Won (October 1995) - 24 tracks of straight "cowboy" style songs none of which were among his hits;The Purple People Eater (November 1997) - 31 tracks which include 2 hits and one B-side;That's My Pa - 4-CD Box Set (March 1998) - 113 tracks which include 7 hits and 3 B-sides;Wild And Wooley Big Unruly Me (1999) - 29 tracks which include 1 hit and 4 B-sides;White Lightnin' (April 2012) - 30 tracks which include 1 hit.A mix of Ben Colder and Sheb Wooley sides are in the 2013 volume "22 Of The Best ; Ben Colder, Sheb Wooley, 1921-2003" from Tee Vee Records, but this clone of K-Tel is simply a re-hash of their March 1998 release "22 Greatest Hits Of Sheb Wooley Or Do You Say Ben Colder" which presented later re-makes by Sheb and in no way resemble his charted hit renditions (many weren't even "hits")! Avoid them if you are seeking the originals. There is another mainly Ben Colder 1996 10-track compilation from King Special titled Shakey Breaky Car which MAY be originals but to this point I can't say for certain. The hits contained there (in addition to two billed as Sheb Wooley - Purple People Eater and That's My Pa) are: Hello Walls No. 2 - the March 1963 # 30 Country/# 131 Billboard Pop Hot 100 Bubble Under parody of the Faron Young hit (MGM 13122) - but not its B-side, Shudders And Screams; Fifteen Beers Ago - the February 1971 # 50 Country parody of the Conway Twitty hit Fifteen Years Ago (MGM 14209) - but not its B-side Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down (this would be his last charted singe); Almost Persuaded No. 2 - the October 1966 # 6 Country/# 58 Billboard Pop Hot 100 parody of the David Houston hit (MGM 13590) - but not its B-side Packets Of Pencils; Folsom Prison Blues - which was the uncharted B-side of Ben Colder's November 1968 # 24 Country/# 67 Hot 100 parody of the Jeannie C. Riley hit Harper Valley P.T.A. (Later The Same Day) on MGM 13997 - but the hit itself is omitted; and Detroit City No. 2 - the October 1963 # 90 Hot 100 parody of the Bobby Bare hit (MGM 13167) - but not its B-side Ring Of Smoke). Three Ben Colder hits simply not available on CD in their original format are: Don't Go Near The Eskimos - a December 1962/January 1963 # 18 Country/# 62 Hot 100 parody of the Rex Allen hit Don't Go Near The Indians (MGM 13104) and its flipside, Louisiana Trapper; Still No. 2 - the JulY 1963 # 98 Hot 100 parody of the Bill Anderson hit (MGM 13147) and its flip, Goin' Surfin'; and Little Green Apples No. 2 - the January 1969 # 65 Country parody of the Roger Miller hit (MGM 14015) and its B-side, It's Such A Pretty World Tonight.What I have done here, purely from the perspective of hits collectors, is list his Sheb Wooley charting sides showing where (or if) they can be found in any of the great Bear Family volumes, and repeat this review for each volume:Are You Satisfied? - # 95 Billboard Pop Top 100 in December 1955 on MGM 12114 is at track 31 of Purple People Eater (the flipside, Read Between The Lines, is nowhere to be found);The Purple People Eater - # 1 Pop Top 100 for 6 weeks/# 18 R&B in June/July 1958 on MGM 12651 is at track 1 of Purple People Eater and its B-side, I Can't Believe You're Mine, is at track 29;Sweet Chile - # 70 Billboard Pop Hot 100 in June 1959 on MGM 12781 is at track 6 of Wild And Wooley Big Unruly Me, and its flipside, More, is at track 11;That's My Pa - # 1 Country/# 51 Hot 100 in January/February 1962 on MGM 13046 is at track 2 in Disc 3 of the Box Set as well as track 30 in White Lightnin' while it's B-side, Meet Mr. Lonely, is at track 5 of Wild And Wooley Big Unruly Me;Blue Guitar - # 330 Country in July/August 1964 on MGM 13241 is at track 15 in Disc 2 and track 6 in Disc 3 of the Box Set, whilke the B-side, Natchez Landing, is at track 25 in Disc 3 of the Box Set;I'll Leave The Singing To The Bluebirds - # 34 Country in June 1966 on MGM 13477 is at track 15 in Disc 4 of the Box Set, while the flip, Buba Hoo Buba Dee, is at track 15 in Wild And Wooley Big Unruly Me;Tonight's The Nigh My Angel's Halo Fell - # 70 Country in October 1966 on MGM 13556 is at track 16 in Disc 3 of the Box Set - its B-side, Anchors Aweigh, is nowhere to be found;Tie A Tiger Down - # 22 Country July 1968 on MGM 13938 is at track 17 in Disc 4 of the Box Set - its B-side, Make 'Em Laugh, is at track 23;I Remember Loving You - # 52 Country January 1969 on MGM 14005 is at track 10 in Disc 4 of the Box Set while its flip, That Girl Next Door, is at track 27 in Wild And Wooley Big Unruly Me;The One Man Band - # 63 Country November 1969 on MGM< 14085 is at track 6 in Disc 4 of the Box Set - the flip, You Still Turn Me On, is at track 1 (this was his last charter as Sheb Wooley).An expensive way to try and cull together just the Sheb Wooley charted sides, but right now there is no other choice.