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- Occasional Hope on Album Review: Vern Gosdin – Late & Great: The Voice
- Ron Oates on Album Review: Vern Gosdin – Late & Great: The Voice
- Luckyoldsun on Album Review: Aaron Tippin – ‘Tool Box’
- Pistol Annies are pro songwriters | canada.com on Album Review: Pistol Annies – ‘Annie Up’
- Gene Owen on “Remember country music?” – An Evening with Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell at Birmingham Symphony Hall, Friday 10 May 2013
- Luckyoldsun on “Remember country music?” – An Evening with Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell at Birmingham Symphony Hall, Friday 10 May 2013
- Jonathan Pappalardo on “Remember country music?” – An Evening with Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell at Birmingham Symphony Hall, Friday 10 May 2013
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“Just To Satisfy You” was a cover of a minor hit for Bobby Bare in 1965. It also was the title of a Waylon Jennings album released in early 1969 with Waylon singing it as a solo. The Jennings 1969 album version is my favorite version of the song
“She ThInks I Still Care” is a really great song by a really great singer at the peak of his vocal prowess. Ann Murray did a distaff version that made it to #1 a dozen years later, and the song has been recorded hundreds of times in the ensuing years including as the tag-along flip to Elvis Presley’s 1977 # 1 “Moodly Blues”.
“She Thinks I Still Care” was George’s first big hit on the United Artist label and his second biggest chart hit behind “Tender Years”, his last hit for Mercury. If you really want to hear George Jones at his peak check out his 1960s recordings on the United Artists and Musicor labels. Long live King George
Sawyer Brown was much maligned at the time, although its music sounds classic compared to the piffle currently being played. Much of their early music could best be described as ‘escapist fare’, but there’s nothing wrong with that
I’d probably like “Fly Over States” if you’d replace the annoying rock guitars with a mandolin and fiddle.
“She Thinks I Still Care” is actually the only song to top the country charts by three different artists. We haven’t had a former #1 top the charts as a remake since Alan Jackson took “It Must Be Love” back to the summit in 2000.
I would put recordings like “She ThInks I Still Care” and “The Grand Tour” ahead of “He Stopped Loving Her Today” as essential, quintessential George Jones.
I couldn’t agree more. “He Stopped Loving Her Today” wouldn’t make my top ten list of favorite George Jones songs.
This week in 1952 Hank Thompson began a third week atop the Billboard country “best selling records” chart and swapped places with Carl Smith on the other two surveys. “The Wild Side Of Life” climbed to #1 for the first time as the “most played jukebox record” while Carl Smith’s “(When It Feels Like You’re In Love) Don’t Just Stand There” returned to #1 for a final time on the “most played by disc jockeys” chart. Carl’s brand new single “Are You Teasing Me” made it’s chart debut that week. The flip side “It’s A Lovely, Lovely World” debuted one week later.
Dickey Lee began his career as a rock & roll singer. A minor hit for a small record label brought him to Sun Records in 1957. Though his time at Sun accrued no hits he began a friendship with engineer Jack Clement. During that era Dickey also became buddies with Elvis Presley. A few years later as George Jones was preparing for his first recording session at United Artists Records it was Clement who pitched him one of Dickey’s songs. Co-written with Steve Duffy the song was inspired by Dickey’s failed college romance. Jones’ superb performance turned the song into a #1 hit and an important country classic. Connie Francis was the first woman to bend the gender of the song. She recorded “He Thinks I Still Care” on June 18, 1962 in Nashville and released it that fall as the “B” side of her MGM single “I Was Such A Fool (To Fall In Love With You).” Both sides charted on the Billboard Hot 100 with “He Thinks I Still Care” peaking at #57. Twelve years later Anne Murray scored a #1 country hit with the song for Capitol. In 1976 Dickey’s old friend Elvis recorded “She Thinks I Still Care.” It became a #1 country hit in 1977 as a “tag-along” B-side to “Moody Blue” on RCA.
With “Grandma Harp” Merle Haggard logged his 21st consecutive hit country single for Billboard Magazine. Dating back to “Swinging Doors” in 1966 every Merle Haggard single release had made the top ten. Counting “Grandma Harp” an even dozen of those singles reached #1. But that outstanding string came to an abrupt halt with Merle’s next release. The ill-conceived song “I’m A White Boy” failed to even chart on the Billboard survey. It’s amazing that an artist as popular as Merle was at that time was virtually ignored by radio. That song was not released on an album until after Merle had left for MCA and Capitol was scraping the bottom of the vaults for Haggard material to release. Merle quickly got back on track later in the year with his subsequent release “It’s Not Love (But It’s Not Bad).” Hag’s “Let Me Tell You About A Song” album that included “Grandma Harp” was voted as the Country Music Association’s 1972 Album Of The Year.
“Just To Satisfy You” was one of Waylon’s early compositions. Co-written with Don Bowman in 1960 Waylon first recorded it for an album produced by Herb Alpert (of Tijuana Brass fame) for the A&M label in 1964. Bobby Bare heard Waylon’s version on the radio as he drove through Phoenix and was inspired to record the song. Bare also encouraged Chet Atkins to sign Waylon to RCA Victor. Bare’s “Just To Satisfy You” single stalled at #31 in late October of 1965. Waylon re-cut the song in December 1968 for the title track of an RCA Victor album released the next year. The story of that song may have been ended there had it not been for Don Bowman who pitched it to Willie Nelson for a duet on Waylon’s “Black On Black” album. Recorded in Nashville in late 1981 the single holds the distinction of being one of the handful of times that an artist has followed a #1 hit with another of their own recordings. After two weeks at #1 with “Always On My Mind” Willie earned another pair of chart-topping weeks for his half of this excellent duet.
“I’m A White Boy” was ignored by radio due to the title alone – there was nothing remotely racist about the lyrics – it wasn’t a great song but it wasn’t bad. If he had titled it “I’m A Poor Boy” , it probably would have been a top ten hit. Alas, even in the 1970s PC thought sometimes ran amok.
I never heard Waylon’s 1960 version, or if I did , it didn’t register. I knew that Waylon co-write the song with Don Bowman, in fact he and Don wrote several songs together . I have some of Don’s albums and have been offered some pretty prices for them. Don wasn’t much of a singer but he had a wild sense of humor
In addition to the curious title Merle’s use of the phrase “..hump and get it” in the lyrics contributed to objections to that song. The melody was pretty catchy though. Too bad he didn’t do a lyric re-write because it might have continued his string of hits.
You are so right that Don Bowman is a most underrated talent. Extremely clever but he never received his due. Perhaps because Roger Miller stole too much of the country comedy limelight during the 1960′s Bowman was largely overlooked. For folks who go back that far, Bowman was the first host of the nationally syndicated American Country Countdown program from 1973 until 1978 when Bob Kingsley took over. That show is hosted today by Kix Brooks.
“White Boy” is not even listed in Wikkepedia as a Haggard single.
Was it actually a bona fide single that Capitol Records wanted to run up the chart and promoted to radio? Seems bizarre and I’d have to say I have my doubts.
Or is it possible that they pressed some 45′s of it for whatever reason, but that it was never intended as a radio single?
“White Boy” is not even listed in Wikkepedia as a Haggard single.
That’s why you should NEVER accept ANYTHING from Wikipedia as a fact. There are countless errors regarding country artists, recordings, chart positions, etc, etc etc. For that reason Wikipedia should NEVER be used as a primary (or even secondary) source of information. They have endless errors in most other categories too.
“I’m A White Boy” was indeed an actual Haggard single released as Capitol 3376. The flip side was “A Shoulder To Cry On” which was actually a better version of the song than the one Hag later re-recorded for his “It’s Not Love (But It’s Not Bad)” album. Of course, Charley Pride’s RCA Victor recording of “Shoulder” became a #1 hit in 1973.
Wikipedia often does not list uncharted singles (and frequently misses charted ones too)
The best quote concerning Wikipedia is courtesy of Michael Scott [from NBC'S The Office]
“Wikipedia. Is the best thing ever. Anyone, in the world, can write anything they want about any subject. So you know you are getting the best possible information.”
Well, the point of Wikipedia is that if a subject has enough readers, over time, they will correct the errors that are there. Perhaps someone will correct their Haggard discography.
I know Wikipedia is not perfect, but it’s a helluva lot better than the site I used to look to for chart information–All Music Guide.
Wikipedia could certainly be better–It could do a better job listing songwriters.
Well, the point of Wikipedia is that if a subject has enough readers, over time, they will correct the errors that are there.
Most knowledgeable and true experts for any given field don’t have the time nor the inclination to correct countless Wikipedia errors. They don’t pay for anyone’s expertise so where is the incentive? My attitude toward Wikipedia is “garbage in – garbage out.” Unfortunately too many people accept Wiki facts as 100% true and then perpetuate those errors over & over with postings throughout the internet. I especially feel sorry for individuals who have incorrect information posted about them and then spend years attempting to correct those falsehoods.
My experience with All Music guide is that they too are far from perfect but they have a much higher batting average for accurate music info than Wikipedia does.
Well, at least Wikipedia is free and readily accessible. And it’s a good starting point to find information.
All Music Guide is so cluttered with information on dupicative Billboard charts that I never heard of and a lot of it seems to be arranged in almost random order. And they have no consistent way of distinguishing among new material, compilations, reissues, and cut-rate pressings issued by record labels that an artist had no connectin with, etc. Look up an artist like Johnny Cash and they’ll have you believe that he put out about 500 albums–including probably 25 new ones just last year.
The All Music Guide may not be configured to your specifications but it does provide generally accurate info. I have often found releases in their listings that I was unaware of. They put the info out there and it’s up to the user to decide what to do with it. For artists that I particularly like they have been a valuable asset in creating my own discographies. My primary complaint with All Music Guide is that they often list CD reissue albums that share the same title in place of the original vinyl album release. Cover art and track lineups often differ greatly. It would be helpful if they would list both albums but differentiate between the two.
All Music Guide is also free so I’m not sure what you are referring to there.
Johnny Cash easily has 500+ albums. If you add up all of his vinyl albums (many of which have not been released on CD) CD releases, multi-disc box sets and foreign & bootleg releases the overall total likely exceeds 1000. The Sun Records material alone has been licensed to a multitude of labels and has been reissued ad infinitum first on vinyl (and cassette & 8-track) then on CD. In Europe recordings fall out of copyright after 50 years so there has been a flood of new Cash releases since 2005. 25 new Cash albums per year may be a conservative estimate given the deluge of releases now that all of his Sun recordings and his early Columbia recordings (pre-1962) are both out of copyright.
George Jones is another artist with a 500+ album discography with more and more albums released each year.
On the question at hand, All Music Guide does not list “White Boy” as a Haggard single either.
But I defer to your expertise on Haggard’s discography and take your word that it was.