There have been many collections of {|Roger Miller|}'s hitmaking peak on {|Mercury|} over the years, but few have been as comprehensive or as good as {|Mercury|}/{|Chronicle|}'s 2003 CD, {|All Time Greatest Hits|}. Spanning 20 tracks over the course ... Read more

There have been many collections of {|Roger Miller|}'s hitmaking peak on {|Mercury|} over the years, but few have been as comprehensive or as good as {|Mercury|}/{|Chronicle|}'s 2003 CD, {|All Time Greatest Hits|}. Spanning 20 tracks over the course of one CD, this contains all the big songs: {|Dang Me,|} {|Chug-a-Lug,|} {|Do Wacka Do,|} {|In the Summertime (You Don't Want My Love),|} {|King of the Road,|} {|You Can't Roller Skate in a Buffalo Herd,|} {|Kansas City Star,|} {|England Swings,|} and {|Husbands and Wives,|} among others. All but one track from the seminal 1965 collection {|Golden Hits|} is here ({|Atta Boy Girl|} is the missing culprit -- a good song but not enough to tip the scales in favor of the 38-year-old collection), and it spans further than that record, collecting hits from 1967-1970 and ending with the 1986 hit {|River in the Rain.|} While that final song isn't quite of the standard of what preceded it, it provides a nice closer to a set of songs that unequivocally proves {|Miller|}'s genius. That might seem like a weighty word for a singer/songwriter whose specialty was lightweight funny songs, but the thing is, those songs have a certain mad ingenious sensibility that nobody else could replicate, and he could dig deeper -- witness {|I've Been a Long Time Leavin' (But I'll Be a Long Time Gone)|} -- when he wanted to. That side might not be mined as deeply as it could have been here, but that's what previous comps like the {|King of the Road|} box is for. This is a hits collection, a summary overview and introduction to his genius, and it succeeds brilliantly on that level. Absolutely essential. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine Less