Greatest Hits

Roy Clark compilations were curiously sparse during the CD era, which is what makes Crafts 2020 collection Greatest Hits so notable. Varese Vintage released one in 1995 and Time/Life put one out a decade later, so there was a need in the marketplace to get Clarks hits back in circulation. Crafts compilation covers the same ground as its two predecessors. Everything from the Varese disc is here, generally in the same sequence, and those are the same songs that filled out the Time/Life comp (the 1969 single Love Is Just a State of Mind and Roys Guitar Boogie are missing in action), and in its CD incarnation, this runs a generous 18 tracks, so theres space for more hits here. This means Greatest Hits runs all the way into 1980, when his Kenny Rogers soundalike Chain Gang of Love closed out his streak of Billboard Country Top 40 hits by peaking at 21. Having this closure is welcome but the compilation rightly focuses on Clarks big hits of the late 60s and 70s, when he was one of the biggest stars in country music thanks to his starring role on Hee Haw. Perhaps this downplays Clarks prodigious gifts as a guitarist, but it does tell a full tale of his country-pop crooning, which was so smooth it could slide onto easy listening airwaves with ease. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine