Photographers: Les Leverett; Marc Sharratt.

One of the most comprehensive Conway Twitty collections on the market, 2006's two-disc GOLD spans the country star's entire career, from his late-1950s rock-&-roll days to his final recordings in the early '90s. This impressive 40-track set acknowledges Twitty's short-lived stint as a rockabilly performer with its first four tunes, most notably the yearning "It's Only Make Believe," which finds the Mississippi-born singer pulling a very convincing Elvis impersonation. Though Twitty fell off the music radar for most of the '60s, he returned confidently in '68 (a good year for comebacks) as a country crooner with the lovelorn "Next in Line." It was smooth sailing from then on, as Twitty offered up a stunning streak of hits that lasted until just before his death in 1993. Among the many classics on GOLD are the aching "Hello Darlin'," the smoldering "After the Fire Is Gone" (one of Twitty's numerous duets with Loretta Lynn), and the lilting "I've Already Loved You in My Mind." For listeners seeking a thorough Twitty retrospective, the well-selected GOLD is ideal.

In 2000 MCA Nashville released an excellent Conway Twitty hits collection, The #1 Hits Collection, which compiled a whopping 33 chart-toppers. It was a nice listen, illustrating precisely why Twitty is such a legend. Then came 25 Number Ones in 2004, which was essentially a scaled-down, more economical single-disc version of its double-disc predecessor. And then, since MCA is wont to repackage Twitty's back catalog ad infinitum, along came Gold in 2006. This double-disc, 40-song collection is yet another entry in the ideal Twitty compilation sweepstakes, and while its predecessors were plenty satisfactory, this one just may be the most satisfactory one yet. It's certainly more ideal than The #1 Hits Collection, as it includes some of his latter-day hits from the '80s and early '90s (there are seven extra songs on Gold, in case you're counting). And while 25 Number Ones is probably the most economical Twitty compilation you're liable to find on the market, the guy just had way too many hits to be summed up on a mere single disc, as many a fan would argue. So Gold may well be the one-stop Twitty best-of collection of choice, even if it still misses one of Stephen Thomas Erelwine's personal favorites, the Merle Haggard-penned "I Wonder What She'll Think About Me Leaving." If you want that song, you'll need to move up a notch, to the four-disc Conway Twitty Collection (1994). To recap, Gold effectively supplants The #1 Hits Collection, slotting itself between the single-disc, economical 25 Number Ones and the four-disc, definitive Conway Twitty Collection. So there are a few choices, clearly. Be assured, in any event, that all are satisfactory, differentiated by price point and comprehensiveness. ~ Jason Birchmeier