Swing Wide Your Gate of Love: Best of Vol.1

Hank Thompson

It is hard to overstate the impact that Hank Thompson has had on country music. In the 1940s and '50s, with his famous backing band, the Brazos Valley Boys, Thompson perfected his style of Honkytonk Swing, a chart-topping recipe that fused the poly-instrumental richness of Western Swing with the prominent vocal/snare tandem of Honkytonk. Standing tall in glittering Nudie suits, Thompson always emphasized showmanship, but his resonant baritone was always the star of the show, launching chart hits--including "The Wild Side of Life" and "A Six Pack To Go,"--in an unprecedented six consecutive decades. Thompson also stretched boundaries as a businessman with a pioneering TV show and country's first Las Vegas show and first solo live release.