George Jones and Tammy Wynette
The Classic Christmas Album

The cover photo pretty much says everything you need to know about the seven-year marriage between George Jones and Tammy Wynette: he has the faintest trace of a smile on his face, but she looks more glum than Charlie Brown on Christmas Eve. Mind you, that’s just sort of how Wynette rolled: even when she was singing a supposedly happy tune, she sounded as if someone had driven a sharpened candy cane through her heart. None of which changes the fact that she and Jones were two of the titans of country music, making this compilation—including solo tracks from both, plus a few duets—the perfect soundtrack for piloting your ride-on lawnmower 10 miles down the freeway to the nearest bar because your wife hid the car keys again.