Today, Tomorrow & Forever [Laserlight]

Laserlight's TODAY, TOMORROW AND FOREVER, while just one of many Patsy Cline collections, has its good points. Cline's career divides into two neat periods: her earlier work on Four Star from 1955-1960, and her later recordings for Decca, made from 1960 until her tragic death in 1963. Everything she did was produced by Owen Bradley, yet her earlier work finds her experimenting more with the rockabilly, R&B, and honky-tonk sounds of the time, while from 1960 on she focused much more on making smooth pop entertainment for the widest audience possible.

Laserlight's collection is drawn from the Four Star material, and offers a good introduction to the variety of Cline's '50s recordings. "I Cried All The Way to the Altar," "A Church, a Courtroom And Then Goodbye," and "Fingerprints" are full-blooded honky-tonk, with steel guitar or fiddle front and center, "Hungry For Love" (listed here as "I'm Hungry, Hungry For Your Love") and "I Don't Wanna" cover the rock & roll side of things, while "Try Again" and "I Can't Forget You" point to the kind of pop approach Cline would wholly embrace on her later Decca recordings.