Unearthed George Jones Rarities Coming To CD

On February 23rd, Time Life will release George Jones: The Great Lost Hits, a double-CD collection of the country icon’s rare and largely out-of-print recordings that were originally released by the Musicor record label between 1965 and 1972.

There will also be a single disc version released on the same day, available exclusively at Wal-Mart. The 2-CD set features 34 tracks, culled from 250 possible cuts. These stripped-down, intimate Musicor recordings are being released on CD for the first time ever.

Says the press release:

The Great Lost Hits is filled with the songs that propelled one of the greatest careers in country music including “A Good Year for the Roses,” “Walk through this World with Me,” “I’ll Share My World with You,” “Love Bug,” and “When the Grass Grows over Me.” The original version of “Beneath Still Waters” (which later became a #1 country hit for Emmylou Harris) and “Your Angel Steps out of Heaven” (later recorded by Elvis Costello, Flying Burrito Brothers and others) are other remarkable standouts, as well as the original version of “Where Grass Won’t Grow” that George later recorded with Trisha Yearwood, Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris. There are also country treasures “World of Forgotten People,” written by Loretta Lynn just for Jones, and Tammy Wynette anonymously singing on “Never Grow Cold” soon after they began their relationship. It was actually Jones’s marriage to Wynette that prompted his departure from Musicor for her label, Epic. After leaving Musicor, Jones’ songs took on a different style, bearing more embellishments than his signature sound. The Musicor collection captures George at his unadorned best, at long last available after a series of exceedingly drawn-out legal proceedings left the vast bulk of the recordings unavailable, out-of-print or never before pressed in CD format.