Album Review:
...And the Answer Is: Great Country Answer Discs from '50s-'60s, Vol. 1
- Release Date: 1995
- Genre: Country
- Label: Bear Family
- Total Time: 75:44
- Artist: Various Artists
- Flags: Lyrics are included with the album, Collection (various artists)
- Rating:
- Styles: Nashville Sound/Countrypolitan, Traditional Country, Bakersfield Sound
Review
Bear Family's three-volume And the Answer Is: Great Answer Discs from the '50s and '60s series documents the phenomenon of answer records, presenting both the original hit and the response to the single. These were songs designed to respond to hit singles, with the hopes that the second record would climb up the charts as well. Answer records were prevailant in pop and R&B as well as country, but on And the Answer Is: Vols. 1 and 3, Bear Family concentrates on country records. At their best, answer records became classics of their own -- Kitty Wells' "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels," and her response to Hank Thompson's "Wild Side of Life," arguably became even more famous than the record it was answering -- but most of the singles were simply novelties. Consequently, the music here is for fetishists and collectors -- after all, the average fan doesn't need to hear Jim Reeves' "Mexican Joe" followed by Carolyn Bradshaw's "The Marriage of Mexican Joe" -- but for any country or pop music fan with an interest in the arcane and unusual, And the Answer Is is a very enjoyable series. Highlights of Vol. 1 include Webb Pierce's "There Stands the Glass" / Betty Cody's "Please Throw Away the Glass," Hank Thompson's "Yesterday's Girl" / Goldie Hill's "I'm Yesterday's Girl," Skeets McDonald's "Don't Let the Stars Get In Your Eyes" / Goldie Hill's "I Let the Stars Get In My Eyes," Hank Williams' "Jambalaya" / Goldie Hill's "I'm Yvonne (From the Bayou)," and Hank Locklin's "Geisha Girl" / Skeeter Davis' "Lost to a Geisha Girl." ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music GuideTracks
| Track Title | iTunes | Composers | Performers | Time |
| The Wild Side of Life | Arlie Carter, William Warren | Hank Thompson | (2:44) | |
| It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels | J.D. Miller | Kitty Wells | (2:33) | |
| Back Street Affair | Billy Wallace | Webb Pierce | (2:47) | |
| Paying for That Back Street Affair | Jimmy Rule | Kitty Wells | (2:38) | |
| There Stands the Glass | A. Greisham, Mary Jean Shurtz, Russ Hull | Webb Pierce | (2:26) | |
| Please Trow Away the Glass | Betty Cody | (2:22) | ||
| Yesterday's Girl | Hank Thompson, Billy Gray | Hank Thompson | (3:06) | |
| I'm Yesterday's Girl | Goldie Hill | (2:56) | ||
| I Forgot More Than You'll Ever Know | Cecil A. Null | The Davis Sisters | (3:02) | |
| I Found Out More Than You Ever Knew About Him | Betty Cody | (3:07) | ||
| I Really Don't Want to Know | Don Robertson, Howard Barnes | Eddy Arnold | (2:37) | |
| I Really Want You to Know | Don Robertson, Howard Barnes | Betty Cody | (2:32) | |
| Don't Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes | Slim Willet, Barbara Trammel | Skeets McDonald | (2:46) | |
| I Let the Stars Get in My Eyes | Goldie Hill, Slim Willet | Goldie Hill | (2:36) | |
| Long Black Veil | Marijohn Wilkin, |
Lefty Frizzell | (3:08) | |
| My Long Black Veil | Marijohn Wilkin | (3:22) | ||
| I Fall to Pieces | Hank Cochran, Harlan Howard | Patsy Cline | (2:50) | |
| I'll Pick up the Pieces | (2:32) | |||
| Mexican Joe | Mitchell Torok | Jim Reeves | (2:40) | |
| The Marriage of Mexican Joe | Carolyn Bradshaw | (2:39) | ||
| Jambalaya (On the Bayou) | Hank Williams | Hank Williams | (2:55) | |
| I'm Yvonne (From the Bayou) | Goldie Hill | (2:19) | ||
| A Dear John Letter | Lewis Talley, Billy Burton, Fuzzy Owen | Jean Shepard, Ferlin Husky | (2:33) | |
| Forgive Me, John | Jean Shepard, Lewis Talley, Fuzzy Owen | Jean Shepard, Ferlin Husky | (2:26) | |
| Geisha Girl | Lawton Williams | Hank Locklin | (2:10) | |
| Lost to a Geisha Girl | Hank Williams | Skeeter Davis | (2:17) | |
| Fraulein | Lawton Williams | Bobby Helms | (2:54) | |
| (I'll Always Be Your) Fraulein | Lawton Williams, Roy Bodkin | Kitty Wells | (2:47) |
