Raven [Australia]
2007
Too Good To Stop: Greatest Hits 1974-1985
About This Album
Mickey Gilley had a long run as a country hitmaker, reaching the top spot twice in 1974 with "I Overlooked an Orchid" and "Room Full of Roses" and then staying in the Top Ten for nearly a decade, logging his last Top Ten country hit in 1986 with "Doo-Wah Days." Raven's comprehensive 2007 compilation Too Good to Stop: Greatest Hits 1974-1985 stops a year earlier than that, but none of the handful of hits he had after 1985 are missed. If anything, this is a perfect example of a compilation that is too generous to its detriment. To be sure, this is as exhaustive a Gilley collection as can be assembled: it has all the big hits, and it paints a portrait of the progression of his career. The problem is, as his popularity grew, his music grew stale. During the first part of his career he pretty much devoted himself to mimicking his cousin Jerry Lee Lewis -- and to his credit, he did it splendidly, capturing the Killer's cadence and energy so well that it never seemed like copying, it seemed as if they were coming from the same place. Which, of course, they were: they shared much of the same background, and he could do honky tonk balladry with the same easy touch as he could rock & roll, and that made his '70s records real treats.
Track List (try tracks 2,3,4,5,7,8,9,10,12,14,17,21,22,23,24,25 and 26)

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