It's Only Make Believe: The MGM Years

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  • Conway Twitty Sings
  • It's Only Make Believe
  • Conway Twitty Sings [1965]
  • Look into My Teardrops
  • Next in Line
  • I Love You More Today
  • To See My Angel Cry/That's When She Started to Stop Loving You
  • I Wonder What She'll Think About Me Leaving
  • Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man
  • Who Will Pray for Me
  • I Can't Stop Loving You/(Lost Her Love) On Our Last Date
  • Honky Tonk Angel
  • Country Partners
  • This Time I've Hurt Her More
  • Feelins'
  • United Talent
  • Now and Then
  • I've Already Loved You in My Mind
  • Georgia Keeps Pulling On My Ring
  • Cross Winds
  • Two's a Party
  • Southern Comfort
  • Lost in the Feeling
  • Don't Call Him a Cowboy
  • Borderline
  • House on Old Lonesome Road
  • Crazy in Love
  • Even Now
  • The Final Recordings of His Greatest Hits, Vol. 2
  • The Final Recordings of His Greatest Hits, Vol. 1
  • Final Touches
  • Crazy Dreams

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Release Date

February 26, 2008

Duration

45:01

Genre

Styles

Recording Date

May 7, 1958 - May 16, 1963
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Album Moods

Conway Twitty

It's Only Make Believe: The MGM Years

  • AllMusic Rating
    9
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AllMusic Review by

Here it is domestically -- finally -- 18 tracks of prime rockin' Conway Twitty from his first five years in the music biz. That first five years set the template for a remarkable five decades, where he nailed a charting record at one time or another. And he did it while he was alive, so Elvis doesn't count. This set, with impeccable liner notes by the great Colin Escott, begins right where it should with "It's Only Make Believe," the 1958 original hit version and still the best one among the many cover versions of the song out there. Twitty gets extra points because he co-wrote it. But there are 17 others here that reveal the tremendous range of Twitty as a singer, from the Jay Livingston and Roy Evans nugget "Mona Lisa," waxed in 1959 to his devastating rockabilly version of "Danny Boy," which was a number ten hit the same year. While everything here is awesome -- his own "Long Black Train," Dan Penn's "Is a Bluebird Blue," the reading of Chuck Willis' R&B weeper "It's Too Late," Roy Orbison's "I'm in a Blue Blue Mood," and Twitty's own "The Pickup" and "Rosaleena" -- all are killers. For those who only know of Twitty as a the golf-club wielding country crooner who ran the charts in the '70s and '80s, and as the founder of the Twitty City theme and amusement park, this will be nothing less than a revelation and well worth your hard earned dollars. This is primal rock & roll, full of nods to great doo wop, country, boogie, rhythm & blues, and pop, all of them transformed into the sublime by Twitty's golden, grainy voice.

Track Listing

Sample Title/Composer Performer Time Stream
1
Jack Nance / Conway Twitty
Conway Twitty
2:13 Amazon
2
Jay Livingston
Conway Twitty
2:25 SpotifyAmazon
3
Frederick Edward Weatherly
Conway Twitty
2:46
4
Ben Weisman / Fred Wise
Conway Twitty
2:14
5
Art Harris
Conway Twitty
2:38
6
Irwin Levine / Russell Brown [7]
Conway Twitty
2:15 SpotifyAmazon
7
Dan Penn
Conway Twitty
2:37 SpotifyAmazon
8
Henri Betti / Jerry Seelen
Conway Twitty
2:15 Amazon
9
Conway Twitty
Conway Twitty
2:48 SpotifyAmazon
10
Buddy Kaye / Ethel Lee
Conway Twitty
2:04 SpotifyAmazon
11
Joe Melson / Roy Orbison
Conway Twitty
2:56 SpotifyAmazon
12
Ray Passman / Bert Russell
Conway Twitty
2:29 SpotifyAmazon
13
Cecil McNeely
Conway Twitty
2:32 SpotifyAmazon
14
Conway Twitty
2:21 SpotifyAmazon
15
Deadric Malone
Conway Twitty
2:38 SpotifyAmazon
16
Conway Twitty
Conway Twitty
2:26 SpotifyAmazon
17
Jeff Barry / Ellie Greenwich
Conway Twitty
2:39 SpotifyAmazon
18
Conway Twitty
Conway Twitty
2:45 SpotifyAmazon
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