Collin Raye

When Collin Raye exploded onto the country scene in the early '90s with a voice that could make a statue sob, it seemed like the second coming of Vince Gill, though the Arkansas crooner was always very much his own man. The undying devotion flowing from every line of "In This Life" made it a mainstay at more country weddings than anything this side of "Stand By Your Man," and if you can keep a dry eye throughout Raye's first #1 hit, "Love, Me," you ought to check and make sure you've still got a heartbeat. And even though he's famous for mixing country twang with pop ballads and a touch of gospel soul, Raye can still kick out a classic two-stepper like the old-school saloon shuffle "Every Second" without breaking a sweat.

In Next Steps, Raye revs up for some rockin' country.

Sure, those pretty-sounding pipes of Collin Raye's put him on the path to balladeer glory, but when he wants to, he can kick out the jams with the best of them. Look no further for the proof than the barn-burning boogie of "I Want You Bad (And That Aint' Good)" and the nice 'n' greasy riffs revving up the hot-to-trot "She's All That." Of course, he can pour just as much power into a ballad as he can into a rocker — you can see heartbreak in the headlights when he pulls out all the stops while locking lungs with soap star Bobbie Eakes on "Loving This Way."

In Deep Cuts, Raye wades soul-deep into the waters of pop, rock, and honky-tonk.

When you've got a voice like Collin Raye's, it almost seems like a crime not to lend it to some of the classic tunes you've grown up loving. Raye slips so easily into the Beach Boys' nautical smash "Sloop John B." you'd swear his last name was Wilson. Likewise, the way he flat-out nails the soaring Steve Perry part in "Open Arms," he probably shouldn't be surprised if he gets a call from Journey offering him a job. He can even make a monolithic country standard like "Cold Cold Heart" his own — ol' Hank himself would've surely been awed at the pure emotion that pours from Raye's version like a rushing river of tears.

In the '90s, when the sounds streaming out of Nashville became bigger than ever all across America, Collin Raye was country radio. The multi-platinum power hitter soared easily into the Top 40 with every one of his first 19 singles. His videos have gotten more CMT screen time than flatbed Ford pickups, but Raye's an envelope-pusher, too — he's had hit collaborations with everyone from New Age piano man Jim Brickman to All My Children heroine Bobbie Eakes, and covered tunes by the legends of rock (Journey), pop (the Beach Boys), and the singer-songwriter scene (Don McLean). That's a lot of Collin to catch up on, so where do you start? Right here, with the whopping stack of must-have tracks we've cherry-picked from his hit-packed history, all of 'em right here at your fingertips.