Johnny Paycheck - Biggest Hits (1983)

Biggest Hits was released in 1983, just after Johnny Paycheck's streak of big hits on Epic was ending. It was the perfect opportunity to summarize his extended commercial peak, but the compilers chose not to strictly follow chart positions. Many big tunes -- Top Ten hits, even -- are missing, but the ten songs here hold together because they're nearly all great barroom anthems, whether it's a weeper like "She's All I Got," "Fifteen Beers," the saloon saga "Colorado Cool-Aid," or David Allan Coe's rowdy "Take This Job and Shove It." Subsequent collections covered more ground, with 2002's The Soul & the Edge taking the crown for its comprehensiveness, but as a lean slab of Paycheck's best outlaw music, this can't be beat. © Stephen Thomas Erlewine