BEST OF/20TH CENTURY - CD

Producers: Mark Wright, Tony Brown. Compilation producer: Andy McKaie. Recorded between 1990 & 1999. Includes liner notes by Rich Kienzle. Digitally remastered by Mark Omann (Universal Mastering Studios-West, Hollywood, California). Liner Note Author: Rich Kienzle. Photographers: Wayne Knight Collection; Se?or McGuire. Although both compilations contain 12 tracks, the mid-priced 20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection: The Best of Mark Chesnutt is actually a bit longer than the full-priced Greatest Hits from 1996 and more current, containing Chesnutt's 1997 hit "Thank God for Believers" and his 1999 hit "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing." But neither collection is complete. Chesnutt scored 21 Top Ten country hits during the 1990s, and each album inevitably misses some of them. The major omissions from this one are "Blame It on Texas," "Old Flames Have New Names," "Old Country," "Almost Goodbye," and "Goin' Through the Big D," each of which hit the Top Five, with "Almost Goodbye" going all the way to number one. Four of these five are on Greatest Hits, which otherwise has an overlap of seven tracks with The Best of. That means a Chesnutt fan is likely to be somewhat dissatisfied with either one and may be forced to buy both to have a reasonable collection of hits. (And even then, there are some missing from both collections.) At least this one costs a few bucks less. ~ William Ruhlmann