Dottie West – Suffer Time (1966/2016) [Official Digital Download 24bit/192kHz]

Suffer Time is an album by country music singer, Dottie West, released in 1966. This album was Dottie West’s most successful album in her whole 20-year career of releasing albums. The album peaked all the way at #3 on Billboard’s “Top Country Albums” list in 1966. The album featured West’s biggest hit so far during her career, the #5 hit “Would You Hold It Against Me”, as well as the #17 hit “What’s Come Over My Baby”. It also included the #22 hit “Before the Ring on Your Finger Turns Green”, as well as the #24 hit “Mommy Can I Still Call Him Daddy”. Both “Would You Hold It Against Me” and “Before the Ring on Your Finger Turns Green” was nominated for a Grammy award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance. Some of the songs on this album were written by West herself, including her big hit, “Would You Hold It Against Me”. Suffer Time is one of West’s best-known albums.

Dottie West is visibly suffering on the cover of her 1966 album Suffer Time. Not only is she wearing a pained expression — she appears to be on the verge of jumping off a bridge. The first song, “Mommy, Can I Still Call Him Daddy,” could certainly drive its listeners to jump off a bridge. The wretched warbling of West’s four-year-old son, Dale, renders nearly unbearable this maudlin tale of divorce as seen through the eyes of a child. Producer Chet Atkins must have had some difficulty getting a usable performance out of the tyke, because it sounds like he used a single take of the boy singing the chorus and dubbed it in everywhere it appears in the song. Even following on the heels of West’s Top Five hit “Would You Hold It Against Me” wasn’t enough to push this stinker into the Top 20. The album quickly improves, however, and wrings the tears out of a platter’s worth of weepers about dead and dying love. West composed most of the songs on the album with her husband, including the two aforementioned hits and the album’s second Top 20 entry, “What’s Come Over My Baby.” Felice and Boudleaux Bryant contributed the moderate hit “Before the Ring on Your Finger Turns Green,” the only uptempo song on the album’s first side. Atkins produced all but three cuts, which he delegated to Ray Stevens. The production style on Stevens’ tracks is noticeably different, disrupting the continuity of the album. Thanks in large part to its four hit singles, Suffer Time was a substantial hit on the country album charts, despite the liner notes’ promise that it will make its audience “taste the unhappiness of the eternal loser.” –AllMusic Review by Greg Adams

Tracklist:

01. Dottie West – Mommy, Can I Still Call Him Daddy (03:00)
02. Dottie West – Another Heart for You to Break (02:00)
03. Dottie West – Baby (02:58)
04. Dottie West – Before the Ring on Your Finger Turns Green (02:02)
05. Dottie West – Wear Away (02:42)
06. Dottie West – Fair Weather Lover (02:39)
07. Dottie West – Suffer Time (02:23)
08. Dottie West – Let Me Talk to You (02:56)
09. Dottie West – Would You Hold It Against Me (02:42)
10. Dottie West – Just Out of Reach (02:52)
11. Dottie West – What’s Come Over My Baby (02:58)
12. Dottie West – Is This Me? (02:43)