Johnny Paycheck's Greatest Hits, Vol. 2

Johnny Paycheck's Greatest Hits, Vol. 2
Compilation album by Johnny Paycheck
Released	October 1978 (1978-10)
Genre	Country
Length	28:54
Label	Epic Records
Producer	Billy Sherrill
Johnny Paycheck chronology
Take This Job and Shove It (1977) Johnny Paycheck's Greatest Hits, Vol. 2 (1978) Armed and Crazy (1978)

Johnny Paycheck's Greatest Hits, Vol. 2 is the fourth compilation album by American country music artist Johnny Paycheck. The album was released in October 1978, via Epic Records. It was produced by Billy Sherrill.

By 1978, Paycheck had fully embraced the outlaw country persona that defined his late-1970s work. The release of Johnny Paycheck's Greatest Hits, Vol. 2 coincided with his newfound popularity following the number one country hit "Take This Job and Shove It," written by David Allan Coe. The success of that song reintroduced Paycheck to a broader audience and was seen as the beginning of his "second coming" as a chart-topping artist, this time under the Epic Records label.^[1]

Whereas Paycheck's earlier compilations focused largely on his Little Darlin' material, Vol. 2 collected his Epic-era singles, which were grittier, funnier, and more rebellious than his earlier love ballads and honky-tonk weepers.

The album features a short but potent collection of Paycheck's mid-to-late-1970s material, including chart hits like "Take This Job and Shove It," "I'm the Only Hell (Mama Ever Raised)," and "Colorado Kool-Aid." While critics noted that the label included some filler tracks to fill out the runtime, the core half-dozen songs were praised for their attitude, humor, and swagger.^[1]

Tracks such as "Colorado Kool-Aid" and "I'm the Only Hell (Mama Ever Raised)" embody the rebellious outlaw spirit, featuring dark humor and sharp storytelling. In one track, a drunken fight in a Mexican bar ends in a surgically-removed ear; in another, Paycheck's narrator flips off the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).^[2] "I'm the Only Hell (Mama Ever Raised)" in particular features one of Paycheck's most famous likes: "I reached into the glove box / Another liquor store went down.^[3]

The album also includes a cover of "Rhythm Guitar," a tongue-in-cheek track with memorable lyrics, "Nobody wants to play rhythm guitar behind Jesus," which received praise for its dry wit.^[1] Less favorably received was Paycheck's cover of Paul Simon's "Gone at Last," which critics found mismatched with Paycheck's style.^[1]

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[1]
Christgau's Record Guide	A−[2]

Johnny Paycheck's Greatest Hits, Vol. 2 was largely well-received by critics, who saw the best-of format as an ideal container for Paycheck's more rowdy, hit-or-miss material. Robert Christgau gave the album a strong A-, noting that the format effectively stripped away filler and posturing, leaving behind only Paycheck's most hard-hitting and funny outlaw songs.^[2] Billy Altman of the New York City Daily News commented on the album's timeliness, noting that while Paycheck had long been prolific, it wasn't until that year that he "came into his own" as a true country star. Altman praised the album for containing "one or two great songs" amid "tons of filler" typical of country releases at the time, but emphasized that the great ones were career-defining tracks.^[3]

The album peaked at number 23 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart and benefited from Paycheck's commercial peak.^[4] Released after Take This Job and Shove It, the compilation capitalized on his mainstream success, earning strong sales and keeping his earlier Epic material in circulation during his peak years.^[1]