1955 Tennessee Ernie Ford: Give Me Your Word

A major player in the country and western field, Ford's distinctive booming baritone was tailor made for the genre's tales of God and the soil. However, expecting it to slip easily into balladeer mode is as optimistic as stitching a pair of home made wings onto a dog and expecting it to fly. He's game enough, but his strained modulation makes this particular single sound like it's been out in the sun too long; there's more wow and flutter in his voice than even the nastiest Amstrad hi-fi could ever manage and it ricochets off the dramatic cod Rachmaninov piano led orchestration with all the grace and style of a builder's tool bag dropping onto a car bonnet. In short, it's a ghastly plod and about as representative of his output as the 'On The Buses' films are to the Hammer canon. The 'River Of No Return' B side was a far better effort and I'd like to think it played no small part in this staying at number one for seven weeks. Unless people really were more easily pleased back then.