till fiery and feisty in his 70s, now releasing records on a label run by his manager, Evelyn Shriver, George Jones and Shriver came up with a heck of a conceit for an album: on Hits I Missed …And One I Didn’t, Jones has collected and recorded 11 songs sent to him over the years that he rejected, most of which went on to become huge hits for other artists. The set closes with a new recording of the “one [he] didn’t” miss, his signature song (which some, including I, will tell you is the greatest record in the history of country music), “He Stopped Loving Her Today.”

This may sound like a bad idea coming to fruition, but Jones has a secret weapon in his corner: producer Keith Stegall. Stegall is one of the best and most reliable producers in Nashville, starting with his work on Randy Travis’ 1986 debut Storms of Life; he’s also been Alan Jackson’s producer from day one, and if those two don’t give a guy traditionalist credentials, nothing will. Considering that Jones included smashes from both Travis (“On the Other Hand”) and Jackson (“Here In the Real World”) among the songs he picked for Hits I Missed, Stegall was a natural choice to helm the project.

I’m among the many who’ll tell you that not only do I think “He Stopped Loving Her Today” is the greatest country record ever, I also find the Ol’ Possum to be the greatest male singer of all time, regardless of genre. No one this side of Aretha Franklin can wring the emotion so thoroughly out of a lyric like Jones. How does he do, however, with songs largely associated with other artists? Please. George Jones is the consummate singer, an artist who’s never really cut a bad album (bad songs, yes, but a bad album? Nope), so as long as he doesn’t try to record metal or trance or something equally outlandish, he’s generally gonna be on safe ground; Hits I Missed is no exception to that rule. In fact, thanks to the sure, steady hand of Stegall behind the boards, this continues a recent string of great albums from Jones extending back at least six years.

Opener “Funny How Time Slips Away,” penned by Willie Nelson, has been recorded by a legion of artists, from Bryan Ferry and Tom Jones to Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley. Jones does it as a straight-up ballad (with some great 60s-country piano from Pig Robbins and a sterling guitar solo from Nashville session king Brent Mason) and nails it. The aforementioned Travis and Jackson covers won’t make you forget the originals, but are fine renditions nonetheless, while Jones improves upon Vern Gosdin’s classic cheating song “If You’re Gonna Do Me Wrong,” and gives Mark Chestnutt’s smash “Too Cold at Home” a great reading (and hearing him hitting on a presumably fine young thing in the bar is surprisingly believable).

About “He Stopped Loving Her Today,” Jones says in the album’s liner notes that “…I never thought I’d fool with recording it again since the original is so timeless. The only person I would trust it to is my current producer, Keith Stegall. As I’ve said many times before, Keith reminds me of a young Billy Sherrill [the producer of many of Jones’, and Tammy Wynette’s (among others), classic singles, including ‘He Stopped’] and he did a fabulous job. I’ve been doing that song in my shows for the last 25 years and, truthfully, I think I’ve learned to sing it better.”

I’ve got to respectfully disagree. Jones’ performance is gorgeous, but doesn’t possess the same raw-yet-bridled emotion of the original (and the strings don’t swell up in quite the same catch-in-your-throat way as they do on the 1980 version). Two of the other selections here, however, are worthy of joining the original “He Stopped” in Jones’ pantheon of classics.

Ray Charles’ “Busted” gets a superb reading from Jones, opening with a fiddle line reminiscent of George Strait’s “Ocean Front Property,” then turns into a much more Cajun-flavored creation—he even tosses off a few words in Creole on the song’s bridge. Jones is clearly having fun with the classic tale of being broke. On the other end of the song spectrum is one of Hank Williams, Jr.’s finest compositions, “The Blues Man.” The song has apparently been offered to Jones on more than one occasion, and he says that “[m]aybe it hit too close to home at the time and that was why I rejected it,” what with its lines about getting “sued over no-shows” and drinking and speeding (Hank, Jr. reportedly wrote the song about his father, not about Jones). It’s done here as a duet with Dolly Parton, who gives the song added warmth. “The Blues Man” isn’t dissimilar to Jones’ astonishing 1999 single “Choices,” and for many of the same (admittedly autobiographical) reasons, it’s quite a piece of work.

It’s funny to think that all of these dozen songs (save “He Stopped”) were hits that George Jones “missed”—I mean, this is a guy who knows how to pick songs, as his amazing 50-plus-year career (compiled impressively on last year’s 50 Years of Hits) attests over and over. As listeners, we should feel fortunate that Jones decided to finally cut this collection, proving yet again that there’s no one at his level of brilliance in country music. There’s a reason—actually, there are many—that George Jones is a legend, and Hits I Missed provides another fine example of why.