Don't Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes [Import]
Skeets Mcdonald
CD Rel Date: 1998-11-25
One of the pioneers of West Coast country music and an archetypal honky tonk singer, Skeets McDonald is chiefly remembered for his 1953 hit Don't Let The Stars Get In Your Eyes. Over an 18-year recording career from 1949 to 1967, though, he recorded 143 songs. All of them are in this long-overdue complete career retrospective. Taken together, Skeets' output not only shows how country music changed over two decades, but how one man could rise above the trends to make simply great beerhall country music.Born in Arkansas, Skeets' recording career began in Detroit, cutting risque jukebox hits like The Tattooed Lady and Birthday Cake Boogie. He moved to the west coast in 1951. Signed immediately to Capitol, he helped define Bakersfield-styled country music, recording classics like I'm Hurtin' (later recorded by Nat 'King' Cole) and Looking At The Moon And Wishing On A Star, as well as Don't Let The Stars Get In Your Eyes. He later turned to rockabilly with You Oughta See Grandma Rock and Heartbreakin' Mama (both featuring Eddie Cochran on guitar). His fabulous 1958 Capitol LP, 'Goin' Steady With The Blues' (featuring Buck Owens and Joe Maphis on guitar) is widely acknowledged as one of the great Fifties country albums.In 1959, Skeets moved to Columbia Records where he recorded Ray Price-styled shuffles for a few years (several of them actually featuring Price on harmony vocals) before scoring another major hit in 1963 with Call Me Mister Brown. The set is rounded out with his last recordings for Uni, made shortly before his death in 1968.A newly-researched biography by Colin Escott and photos and ephemera from family, friends, and fans complete this long-overdue retrospective of a Post-War country music pioneer... and one of the best pure singers in country music history.
Tracklist:
- You Can't Come Back-Polka
- I Can't Take No More (So I Must Say Goodbye)
- My Home in Tennessee
- Make My Dreams Come True
- The Things You Used to Say
- When the Roses Bloom Around Our Cabin Door
- The Southland Boogie
- Mean and Evil Blues
- The Tattooed Lady 1
- The Tattooed Lady 1
- Birthday Cake Boogie 1
- Sentimental Fool 1
- Baby When You're Around 1
- Please Daddy Don't Go to War 1
- So I Cried Myself to Sleep 1
- Goodbye Blues 1
- Only One Love in Each Heart 1
- Scoot, Git and Be Gone 1
- Bless Your Little Ol' Heart (You're Mine) 2
- Today I'm Movin' Out 2
- Blues Is Bad News 2
- Fuss and Fight 2
- Baby Brown Eyes 2
- I'm Hurtin' 2
- Ridin' with the Blues 2
- Big Family Trouble 2
- Tell Me Why 2
- Be My Life's Companion 2
- The Love That Hurt Me So 3
- Heartbreaking One 3
- Wheel of Fortune 3
- Please Come Back 3
- You Made Me Cry 3
- Curtain of Tears 3
- I'm Sorry to Say I'm Sorry 3
- Don't Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes 3
- A Losing Hand 3
- I've Got to Win Your Love Again 3
- Let Me Know 4
- I Can't Last Long 4
- Baby, I'm Lost Without You 4
- Hi Diddle Lee (My Way) 4
- Worried Mind 4
- Walking on Teadrops 4
- It's Your Life 4
- Baby, I'm Countin' 4
- Look Who's Cryin' Now 4
- I Need Your Love 4
- Looking at the Moon and Wishing on a Star 5
- We're Lovin' and Livin' 5
- Oh How It Hurts 5
- Remember You're Mine 5
- Your Love Is Like a Faucet 5
- You Talk About Me, I'll Talk About You 5
- I Love You, I Love You, I Love You 5
- I Love You, Mamma Mia 5
- Smoke Comes Out My Chimney Just the Same 5
- Each Time a New Love Dies 5
- But I Do 6
- Number One in Your Heart 6
- You're Too Late 6
- I Can't Stand It Any Longer 6
- I Got a New Field to Plow 6
- Your Sweet Love Is Gone 6
- Strollin' 6
- You Turned Me Down 6
- It'll Take Me a Long, Long Time 6
- Don't Push Me Too Far 6
- Fallen Angel (Are You Sorry?) 7
- Somebody 7
- You Oughta See Grandma Rock 7
- Heart-Breakin' Mamma 7
- You Oughta Be My Baby 7
- You Better Not Go 7
- I Am Music 7
- Welcome Home 7
- I Can't Hold a Memory in My Arms 7
- Keep Her Off Your Mind 7
- Fingertips 8
- I'm Hurtin' 8
- Bless Your Little Ol' Heart (You're Mine) 8
- Love Wind 8
- I'll Make Believe 8
- The Echo of Your Footseps 8
- The All American Boy 8
- Let's Spend Some Time with Me 8
- Fort Worth Jail 8
- Hawwaiian Sea Breeze 8
- Blues in My Mind 9
- Yard and a Half Blues 9
- Goin' Steady with the Blues 9
- I'll Sail My Ship Alone 9
- Gone and Left Me Blues 9
- Lost Highway 9
- My Room Is Crowded 9
- You're There 9
- Tomorrow Never Comes 9
- I'm Sorry Now 9
- What a Lonesome Life It's Been 10
- Baby Wait 10
- What Am I Doing Here 10
- What I Know About Her 10
- Gotta Get You from That Crowd 10
- Where You Go (I'll Follow) 10
- Cheek to Cheek with the Blues 10
- Everglades 10
- Make Room for the Blues 10
- This Old Heart 10
- He'll Let You Live a Little 11
- You're Not Wicked, You're Just Weak 11
- Same Old Town 11
- What a Fool I Was 11
- I Write You Letters 11
- You Warned Me 11
- In the Corner of My Mind 11
- Fast Company 11
- This Old Broken Heart 11
- Call Me Mr. Brown 11
- I've Gotta Show You 12
- Dear John (I've Sent Your Saddle Home) 12
- Chin Up-Chest Out 12
- I'd Hate to Be Him 12
- Think of Me 12
- Too Many Times (Away from You) 12
- Mrs. Right's Divorcing Mr. Wrong 12
- Down in Mexico 12
- Teardrop Inn 12
- Me and My Heart and My Shoes 12
- Tell Me a Lie 13
- Big Chief Buffalo Nickel (Desert Blues) 13
- A Member of the Blues 13
- Molly Brown 13
- There Sits An Angel 13
- Day Sleeper 13
- She's Never Gone That Route Before 13
- Mable 13
- Too Much of Me (Walked Away with You) 13
- The Police Files 13
- Your Uncertain Mind 14
- It's Genuine 14
- Old Indians Never Die 14
- You Can't Keep a Good Man Down 14
- Talk of the Town (Hush Hush)