In the third decade of his career, already long famous, George Jones followed his new lover Tammy Wynette to Epic, where he offered his incomparable voice to her producer, Billy Sherrill. The singles Jones released with Sherrill--"The Grand Tour," "The Door," "He Stopped Loving Her Today," to name just three--elevated Jones from great country singer to living legend. This 16-track set skips far too many Jones-Sherrill highlights (and it oddly includes "Radio Lover," one "biggest hit" that was never a hit at all), but it's the only one-disc set to provide an overview of the team's entire 17-year partnership. From 1972's poignantly countrypolitan "A Picture of Me" to the grim humor of 1989's "The King Is Gone," no country music is as painfully beautiful as this. --David Cantwell