UK collection from the Country legend. 'Rose Garden' was such a massive hit worldwide that it's easy to overlook Lynn Anderson's many other chart accomplishments. She scored with 59 45s between October 1966 and March 1989, including four other Country #1s (all of which also made the Hot 100) and a total of 18 Top 10 hits. Lynn has won multiple awards (including best female singer) from the Academy of Western Artists and was deservedly inducted into the Country Music Hall Of Fame in 1999 - a fitting accolade for one who had been named Billboard's "Artist Of The Decade" in 1980 in honor of her '70s successes.
From its breathless opening rush of pile-driver strings, Lynn Anderson's signature hit, "Rose Garden," announces itself to be every bit as pop as it is country, and consequently it stands as a supreme example of the countrypolitan sound. A crossover smash, "Rose Garden" was nothing less than a dense, twangy version of Phil Specter's Wall of Sound, all pounding country rhythms, whizzing steel guitar, soaring backing vocals, and dramatic strings. What gets lost a bit in there, though, is that Anderson was a fine and subtle country singer, a gift she displays repeatedly on Golden Classics, never more so than on countrypolitan classics like "How Can I Unlove You" and her thrilling 1972 version of the pop standard "Cry." --David Cantwell
