The smooth, blockbuster country sound of Ronnie Milsap is coming back to vinyl.

Craft Recordings will issue a wide-release black LP pressing of 2020's The Best of Ronnie Milsap, issued on CD and digitally not long after the label became the home for Milsap's winning streak of RCA Records albums and singles through the '70s, '80s and beyond. (A dark-red vinyl was issued exclusively for Cracker Barrel stores back then; this time around, a "tan smoke" variant will be available to Milsap's top listeners on Spotify through their "Fans First" initiative.) As before, the collection includes liner notes from our own Joe Marchese.

The 12 tracks on The Best of Ronnie Milsap represent only a fraction of the dizzying array of hits the North Carolina singer/songwriter/pianist notched across 1973 and 1991: 49 Top 10s on Billboard's country chart, 35 of them No. 1 singles. "Smoky Mountain Rain," "(There's) No Gettin' Over Me," "I Wouldn't Have Missed It for the World," "Any Day Now," and "Stranger in My House," to name just five of the songs on this album, were also considerable crossover hits on the all-genre Hot 100, as well. Stirring and bold, with a fine sonic mix between Music Row traditionalism and then-modern, sleek "countrypolitan" production, Milsap was a guaranteed hitmaker for years, and a beloved live draw up to his retirement from performing in 2023.

Almost completely blind since birth and raised in poverty by his grandparents, Milsap overcame considerable adversity, mastering the piano and earning a spot on the Scepter Records roster, where he cut the R&B hit "Never Had It So Good," an early Ashford & Simpson composition that hit the Top 20 of the R&B charts in late 1965. By the end of the decade, after moving to Memphis and working closely with producer Chips Moman, Milsap found his way into country-rock history as a session player on Elvis Presley's hits "Don't Cry Daddy" and "Kentucky Rain." Another RCA recording artist, Charley Pride, would eventually catch him at a gig at the Whisky-a-Go-Go and encourage him to pursue country - a genre he'd dominate over the next decade-plus. Along the way, he's won six Grammys, eight CMA Awards and a spot in the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2014.

The Best of Ronnie Milsap will be available on LP November 1. Pre-order links are below; as an Amazon affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases.

The Best of Ronnie Milsap (Craft Recordings, 2024) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

Side A

1. Smoky Mountain Rain
2. I Wouldn't Have Missed It for the World
3. (There's) No Gettin' Over Me
4. Stranger in My House
5. Any Day Now
6. Lost in the Fifties Tonight (In the Still of the Night)

Side B

1. It Was Almost Like a Song
2. Don't You Know How Much I Love You
3. A Woman in Love
4. He Got You
5. What a Difference You've Made in My Life
6. Show Her

Track A1 from Greatest Hits - RCA Victor AAL1-3772, 1980
Tracks A2-3 from There's No Gettin' Over Me - RCA Victor AHL1-4060, 1981
Tracks A4. B2 and B6 from Keyed Up - RCA Victor AHL1-4670, 1983
Tracks A5 and B4 from Inside - RCA Victor AHL1-4311, 1982
Track A6 from Greatest Hits, Volume 2 - RCA Victor AHL1-5425, 1985 and Lost in the Fifties Tonight - RCA Victor AHL1-7194, 1985
Tracks B1 and B5 from It Was Almost Like a Song - RCA Victor AHL1-2439, 1977
Track B3 from Stranger Things Have Happened - RCA Victor 9588-1-R, 1989