Producers include: Merle Haggard, Dean Holloway, Lewis Talley.
Recorded between 1981 and 1996.
All tracks have been digitally remastered using HDCD technology.
This is part of Legacy's "16 Biggest Hits" series.
Remastered in HDCD (High Definition Compatible Digital).
In 1995, Merle Haggard and his band the Strangers re-recorded many of Haggard's hits. Those recordings have since been licensed to various record companies, including one of the Hag's old labels, Epic. For 16 BIGGEST HITS, Epic licensed 13 rerecordings of hits Haggard originally released on Capitol and MCA, then completed the disc with three of Haggard's Epic hits.
Haggard's new versions of his classics are appealing, even if they add little to the original recordings. Because these recordings were made at Haggard's home studio with his stage band providing backing support, they sound a lot like board recordings of a '95 Merle Haggard concert. The sound is simple but clean, the band plays with the confidence of a group that has played the material hundreds of times, and Haggard, as always, sings superbly. A few of the choices are odd--are "The Fighting Side Of Me" and "Daddy Frank" really among Haggard's 16 biggest or best hits?--but BIGGEST HITS remains a solid collection nonetheless. All these re-recordings, and a dozen others, are available on two Sun records, CLASSICS and GREATEST HITS-FINEST PERFORMANCES.