50 Number Ones

Disc 1
1	I Hate Everything
2	Fool Hearted Memory
3	A Fire I Can't Put Out
4	You Look So Good In Love
5	Right Or Wrong
6	Let's Fall To Pieces Together
7	Does Fort Worth Ever Cross Your Mind
8	The Chair
9	Nobody In His Right Mind Would've Left Her
10	It Ain't Cool To Be Crazy About You
11	Ocean Front Property
12	All My Ex's Live In Texas
13	Am I Blue
14	Famous Last Words Of A Fool
15	Baby Blue
16	If You Ain't Lovin' (You Ain't Livin')
17	Baby's Gotten Good At Goodbye
18	What's Going On In Your World
19	Ace In The Hole
20	Love Without End, Amen
21	I've Come To Expect It From You
22	If I Know Me
23	You Know Me Better Than That
24	The Chill Of An Early Fall
25	So Much Like My Dad
26	I Cross My Heart
Disc 2
1	Heartland
2	Easy Come, Easy Go
3	I'd Like To Have That One Back
4	The Man In Love With You
5	The Big One
6	You Can't Make A Heart Love Somebody
7	Lead On
8	Check Yes Or No
9	I Know She Still Loves Me
10	Blue Clear Sky
11	Carried Away
12	I Can Still Make Cheyenne
13	One Night At A Time
14	Carrying Your Love With Me
15	Today My World Slipped Away
16	Round About Way
17	I Just Want To Dance With You
18	TRUE
19	We Really Shouldn't Be Doing This
20	Write This Down
21	The Best Day
22	Go On
23	Run
24	Living and Living Well
25	She'll Leave You With A Smile

Barnes & Noble

The title tells only part of the amazing story: Since his 1981 debut with the Strait Country album, the humble Texan George Strait has cut no fewer than 50 chart-topping singles. The rest of the story is that since his first No. 1, "I Hate Everything" -- a fiddle- and pedal steel–rich tale of reconciliation born of another man's despair -- Strait has kept his traditional approach intact, occasionally injecting some rock 'n' roll propulsion and intensity (as on the driving, buoyant "Blue Clear Sky") or a chiming electric piano (the dreamy "You Look So Good In Love"), but never straying far from the support provided by a basic country combo with fiddles and steel. He picks exquisite songs that tell quintessential country stories -- about people celebrating love, about people torn up by love, about misadventures in love (as in the self-deprecating "All My Exes Live in Texas" and the bluesy, George Jones–style weeper "Let's Fall to Pieces Together"), about people trying to get from one day to the next ("I Can Still Make Cheyenne"). And Strait sings with tremendous feeling, using the entire range of his warm voice and phrasing with masterful sensitivity to a lyric's nuances, whether he's up there in the ether crying out a plea or easing down low for some romantic crooning (see "The Chair"). Not least of all, he's worked with two great producers in Jimmy Bowen and Tony Brown, who know exactly what to add to give a song wings and then get out of the artist's way. What's so special about George Strait? The answer's here, 50 times over. David McGee

All Music Guide

There have been plenty of George Strait compilations, and most of have been very good, but none have been as good as 2004's 50 Number Ones. While the 1995 box set Strait Out of the Box illustrated the range and depth of Strait's musical achievement, it may have been too lengthy for some listeners, and shorter compilations like the two-volume The Very Best of Strait left too many hits behind -- and by 2004, all those compilations were out-dated, since Strait continued to top the charts until the release of 50 Number Ones. This double-disc contains all the big hits that he's had since Strait Out of the Box, along with all of his classics from the '80s and early '90s. The title might bend the truth a little bit -- at least according to the Billboard charts, such latter-day singles as "True" and "Run" only peaked at number two, not number one -- but it doesn't matter, since this contains all of his major singles in one convenient package. And it's not noteworthy just because it's one-stop shopping, it's also noteworthy because it proves exactly how consistent George Strait's body of work has been over the last twenty-some years. From start to finish, there's not a slow spot here -- it's a thoroughly entertaining collection that belongs in the ranks of country's greatest-hits albums. Stephen Thomas Erlewine