Ten Previously Unavailable Conway Twitty Albums Reissued

Amid the continuing effort to revitalize the legacy of Country Music Hall of Famer Conway Twitty and reconstitute his music in modern form for fans to enjoy, ten albums from the heart of Conway’s career have finally been released for both streaming and download for the very first time by the Universal Music Group.

Many Conway fans have been frustrated over the holes in availability of much of his catalog in the digital space. Though some specific songs from the albums have been available for streaming or download via other releases, the albums themselves have not. The ten albums include:

The High Priest of Country Music (1975)
Now and Then (1976)
Play, Guitar Play (1977)
I’ve Already Loved You in My Mind (1977)
Georgia Keeps Pulling on My Ring (1978)
Conway (1978)
Cross Winds (1979)
Heart & Soul (1980)
Mr. T (1981)
Borderline (1987)

Beyond streaming or download, almost all of these titles were also never available on CD, only vinyl and cassette. 1987’s Borderline was the only title ever originally released on CD. That means aside from used copies, the albums have been completely out of circulation, sometimes for 40 years.

The reissued albums include 100 total songs, 16 of which were some of Conway’s 55 total #1 hits, and 3 are Certified Gold singles by the RIAA. The album The High Priest of Country Music is a fan favorite, and includes the duet “Don’t Cry Joni” with Conway’s daughter Joni Lee. The Cross Winds album was a big turning point in Conway’s career when he began moving on from working with producer Owen Bradley, and started co-producing his own records.

The latest release of albums is part of an agreement UMG has with the Conway Twitty estate to reissue 10 albums per year until his entire discography is restored and modernized. Why UMG is only releasing 10 per year instead of reissuing the entire discography isn’t entirely clear, though it likely has something to do with time and financial resources.

2021 is the 4th year of the UMG agreement, with last year seeing many of Conway’s duet albums with Loretta Lynn being re-released. With the latest batch of albums, it leaves 16 of Conway’s 65 total studio albums still to be issued.

In August, three famous Conway Twitty songs were finally Certified Gold in “That’s My Job,” “I’d Love to Lay You Down,” and “Tight Fittin’ Jeans.” Just like the singer’s discography, accounting on his sales had fallen behind, but the effort is underway to bring it all back up to speed, with further certifications likely coming in the future.

There are still more Conway Twitty titles to be restored and modernized to the streaming and download era, but this latest batch takes Twitty’s tunes a step closer to being fully available for old and new fans.

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