ReviewThis album was a mixed bag. One of those where you question what the record executives sitting in plush chairs were thinking. I mean some giant hits and some questionable filler.
They omitted Five Brothers, which was one of his most exciting singles in 1960 and charted, but included the lame flip side Ride Cowboy Ride which was nothing. Five Brothers just must have been too strong for their minds.
I do recall hearing Streets Of Laredo on the radio in Canada and possibly Red River Valley, but find no record of singles issued. I don't understand what happened there.
Others here were flip sides and were good, altho Saddle Tramp is lame.
At least the title is not "12 Million Sellers".
After this Marty had Vol.3 and Vol.4 Hits albums, and they also were scattered in their choices. You had to seek out Volume 3 to get the classic Devil Woman.
So the hits on here were A1, A3, B1, B4, B6. El Paso really started a new phase in Marty's career, so the division between Vol.1 and this one is significant.
{Images #865688 & 865689} would have been the eighth label variation; after the original 1955-62 "six-eye" label, there were six permutations of the "two-eye" label used by Columbia between 1962 and 1970. (Pressings made prior to late 1966 would have had "NONBREAKABLE" right below the cat. #.)