Over his 52-year recording career, George Jones [ tickets ] has made some very smart decisions about which songs to lay down on wax. But he's also made some not-so-wise decisions. In radio interviews, he's often joked about the hits he's missed.

With "Hits I Missed ... And One I Didn't," Jones revisits a number of songs that he originally passed on. Many of these tunes would go on to be monster smashes for other artists. The disc provides ample evidence that these tracks would have been just as big--or even bigger--if they'd been recorded by Mr. Jones in the first place.

Jones, who is arguably the finest country singer of all time, is in superb voice as he opens the album with a gorgeous version of Willie Nelson's "Funny How Time Slips Away" and the tender Mel Tillis-Danny Dill composition "Detroit City," which was the song that made Bobby Bare a star. The silver-haired crooner calls upon the great Dolly Parton to bring Hank Williams, Jr.'s "The Blues Man" to life and then melts listeners with the Alan Jackson hit "Here in the Real World."

The album's two highlights are "Today I Started Loving You Again" and "He Stopped Loving Her Today," which, ironically enough, form a set of thematic bookends. Jones' version of "Today I Started Loving You Again" is nearly as touching as Merle Haggard's great version. More impressively, the singer manages to again strike gold with a re-recording of his own smash "He Stopped Loving Her Today."