And Along Came Jones;The Best of George Jones (1955-1967)

GEORGE JONES And Along Came Jones (MCA) The Best of George Jones (1955-1967) (Rhino) On his latest album, And Along Came Jones, George Jones is in fine voice, demonstrating the technique that forged his reputation-''living'' the songs for the three minutes he's singing them. Most of these tunes cast him as life's perennial loser, moping over happier days with his estranged family or pleading for a love to return, but they cover familiar territory in a too- familiar way. Only a handful of them-especially ''You Couldn't Get the Picture,'' in which a wife has left Post-Its to explain why she's walked out- seem worth his efforts. Still, at the age of 60, Jones is such a masterful singer that nearly any album is worth the price. The Best of George Jones carefully details an earlier phase of his career, including such career-making classics as ''The Window Up Above,'' ''She Thinks I Still Care,'' and ''The Race Is On.'' But on such mid-'50s hard-country hits as ''Why, Baby, Why'' and ''What Am I Worth,'' Jones often sounded more like Hank Williams, Roy Acuff, and Lefty Frizzell than he sounded like himself, and he had yet to find the wail-and- plunge vocal styling that would eventually become his signature. But on the whole, these are the songs that first wrote Jones' name in the history books and earned him a reputation as one of the greatest country singers of all time. And Along Came Jones: B The Best of George Jones: B+ -AN