![]() ![]() This is a fun collection of early work by country singer Roger Miller, in the years before he hit the bigtime as a novelty-singing goofball in the early 1960s. ![]() Roger Miller "A Man Like Me - The Early Years of Roger Miller " (Bear Family Records, 2006) If you're looking for a single CD that encompasses the key parts of Miller's career, this German import may be the way to go. Plus, all the great liner notes and impeccable sound quality that we've come to expect from Bear Family. This single disc set includes his early '60s RCA material as well, and all the big hits, too. Roger Miller "King Of The Road" (Bear Family Records, 1994) I haven't heard this collection, but I'd imagine that for the true Roger Miller fan, this is the way to go! Roger Miller "King Of The Road: The Genius Of Roger Miller" (Polygram Records, 1995)Ī fairly definitive 3-CD box set which includes his later hits on Columbia, his early ones on RCA, and a bunch of the even earlier material from the '50s that came out on Starday. In fact, this is probably good enough to fool most listeners, although the originals are definitely better. These renditions remain faithful to the '60s originals, almost note for note, though not tone for tone, and they definitely lack the energetic spark and crisp production style of the Smash singles. ![]() Re-recorded versions of a dozen of his best-known songs. Roger Miller "His Greatest Hits" (Curb Records, 1991) And pretty much the only original Roger Miller LP to have made it unscathed into CD form! There are more extensive best-of albums available now, but this one's still a doozy. A very compact reading of his early hits, with classic Smash label artwork. The first standard-issue best-of Roger Miller collection, this was a common fixture in used bins for decades to come, and still a great record. Roger Miller "Golden Hits" (Smash Records, 1965) This is probably the best collection of Miller's stuff on the Smash and Mercury labels you're likely to find, and will give you ample opportunity to judge for yourself the merits of the Miller ouvre. The trouble came later, when, as a chart-topping singer-songwriter, he felt compelled to write and record more serious material, and his records became sluggish and mistakenly highbrow. (Although, personally, I rather like his late '50s recordings for the Starday label.) Anyway, Miller came up with a great formula - his songs were fun, and funny, the sparse arrangements left plenty of room for his "nutty" personality to come through, and he definitely stood out from the pack. Miller came up with this punk-ish approach after nearly a decade kicking around the margins of Nashville, where he succeeded as a songwriter, but bombed as a performer. The thing that's striking about Miller's early hits is how stripped-down they are - the band is basically limited to rhythm, with little of the instrumental zip (or orchestral excess) that you heard in other contemporary country tunes. As a Midwesterner, I'm also fond of "Kansas City Star," and, of course, the latter-day hobo anthem, "King Of The Road" is quite simply one of the most mindlessly addictive pop songs on the 'Sixties. "Dang Me," "Chug-A-Lug," and "You Can't Rollerskate In A Buffalo Herd" are all classics, and they swept the charts. While Buck Owens strapped on a Fender and injected a teenybopper bounce into his work, Miller tapped into the new Pop mindset by crafting several of the goofiest, perkiest, and most memorable novelty tunes ever recorded. Man, talk about being in the right place at the right time! Roger Miller's hitmaking heyday came in 1964-65, when the Beatles ruled the world, and Nashville was once again struggling not to lose its audience to an unstoppable rock'n'roll craze. ![]() Roger Miller "All Time Greatest Hits" (Mercury Chronicles, 2003) Anyway, he was one of the big crossover stars of the decade, and definitely worth knowing about. (Then again, he also wrote "Husbands And Wives," which is a doozy. There's a lot of Miller's work that I think is great - my complaint would be more with his later work, when he started to take his role as a Composer of Popular Song a little too seriously, and he started to craft overly poetic proto-countrypolitan songs that were sometimes a bit of a snooze. Admittedly, some of Miller's follow-up singles, like "You Can't Rollerskate In A Buffalo Herd" and "Kansas City Star" don't have quite the same creative spark, but there has to be a middle ground somewhere. Some folks find his goofball novelty hits, like "King Of The Road," "Dang Me" to be irresistible singalong classics, while others (the more cranky among us) consider them to be tacky blights along the face of popular culture. Texas-born, Oklahoma-raised 1960's country superstar Roger Miller (1936-1992) is one of those love-'em-or-hate-'em kind of artists. Roger Miller country music discography (DJ Joe Sixpack's Guide To Hick Music) ![]()
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