Sweet Memories (LP)

Sweet Memories
Compilation album by Mickey Newbury
Released	1985
Recorded	1969-1979
Genre	Country, Folk
Label	MCA
Producer	Jerry Kennedy, Bob Beckham, Dennis Linde, Russ Miller, Marlin Greene, Chip Young,
Mickey Newbury chronology
After All These Years (1981) Sweet Memories (1985) In a New Age (1988)

Sweet Memories is a compilation album by singer Mickey Newbury released on MCA Records. It was released during a period of inactivity for the songwriter, who had not recorded since 1981.

Background

Although Newbury had cemented his place as a songwriting legend, having been inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame on October 12, 1980, and had recorded some of the most original albums of the 1970s, his profile as a recording artist had sunk to an all-time low by the middle of the 1980s. Although his previous two albums - The Sailor (1979) and After All These Years (1981) - had featured a more contemporary sound than his earlier, more atmospheric studio albums, they did not dent the charts, and he would not release another album until 1988. He was not completely inactive during this period, appearing on the Bobby Bare and Friends television show in 1983 and also participating on the Canadian program In Session with friend Larry Gatlin the same year.^[1] He also toured Australia in 1984 and sang "Sweet Memories" during a "guitar pull" as part of the television special The Door Is Always Open hosted by Waylon Jennings. However, Newbury was disenchanted with the music business, especially after Wesley Rose, who controlled the publishing rights to 300 Newbury's compositions, sold the Acuff-Rose publishing company to Opryland USA for $22 million in 1985. Adding to his woes, the IRS came after Newbury as well. "All that came together at one time...So I wasted what should have been the best years of my life just fightin' off the wolves," he later remarked. "Plus I was old...Nobody wanted me anymore."^[2]

Sweet Memories was the first Newbury "best of" package. MCA had purchased ABC Hickory Records in 1979. When Newbury had originally signed with Hickory, the label acquired his Elektra masters, which also included his 1969 Mercury album Looks Like Rain. Looking to cash in on Newbury's past, MCA released a new compilation album with most of the songs coming from the early 1970s, including his only hit single, "An American Trilogy," which opens the set. The album contains five songs from Newbury's 1973 album Frisco Mabel Joy, which had been the singer's highest charting album. Newbury had no input on the package, which included liner notes written by Wesley Rose. Newbury biographer Joe Ziemer observes, "Eight of the ten songs are from the Cinderella trilogy of albums [the three albums Newbury recorded between 1969 and 1973], though without the original continuity and transitions, the magic is mostly lost."^[3]

Track listing

All tracks by Mickey Newbury except where noted

1. "An American Trilogy" (Traditional; arranged by Mickey Newbury)
2. "Good Morning, Dear"
3. "If You Ever Get to Houston (Look Me Down)
4. "She Even Woke Me Up to Say Goodbye"
5. "Dizzy Lizzy"
6. "Sweet Memories"
7. "Remember the Good"
8. "Sunshine"
9. "The Future's Not What It Used to Be"
10. "How I Love Them Old Songs" (Newbury/Doug Gilmore)

References

1. Zeimer 2015, pp. 214–215.
2. Zeimer 2015, p. 218.
3. Zeimer 2015, p. 221.