Ronnie Milsap - 40 #1 Hits (2000)

Long before Lee Roy Parnell copped Delbert McClinton for mainstream country, and Ronnie Dunn challenged Vince Gill for soulful-country-ballad supremacy, Ronnie Milsap brought sanitized R&B to Nashville. But as a full-rounded performer, Milsap also knew his way around deep-dish country, rock & roll, and middle-of-the-road smoothies, all of which he integrated into an enormously popular, piano-based country-pop style that earned him 40 chart-topping singles, six Grammys, and eight CMA awards in the '70s and '80s. Drawing on such topflight songwriters as Mike Reid, Burt Bacharach, Kris Kristofferson, and Bob McDill, Milsap built a repertoire that ranged from sunny lopers ("Pure Love") to emotional meltdowns ("Please Don't Tell Me How the Story Ends") and classic Nashville Sound ("I'd Be a Legend in My Time"), growing more adventurous with the envelope-pushing "Stranger in My House" that brought much-needed tension to an often flaccid genre. By the time his reign ended in the '90s, he could take credit for helping shove country beyond its rural roots, but he'd also lost his edge with songs that dwelled on nostalgia ("Lost in the Fifties Tonight"). This two-CD collection covers the best of it and adds two new cuts, the engaging, Delbert McClinton-like "Livin' on Love" and the largely forgettable "Time, Love, and Money." Can Milsap make a comeback? To quote a song title here, "Stranger Things Have Happened." But not likely.