George Jones: More George Jones guests...

March 11, 2009

More George Jones guests...

As I touched upon in the previous blog entry, 2009 marks the 30th anniversary of My Very Special Guests and from that point forward George increased the number of duet recordings he participated in. In years past he would sing duets with artists who were part of the record label he happened to be on. Aside from his duets with Tammy Wynette, he was noted for his duets with Melba Montgomery throughout the early to late 1960's while at the same time pretty much having a duet partnership with pop singer Gene Pitney.

George and Melba Montgomery's duet career is highlighted by their only Top-5 hit, "We Must Have Been Out of Our Minds", in 1963. They remained a duet throughout the 1960's continuing to release singles that received various degree's of commercial success. Melba is second to Tammy Wynette when it comes to female duet success with George. George and Melba released several albums together and six singles released from the two of them were all commercially successful, several peaking in the Top-20...but none of their duets together would match or top the Top-5 finish of their 1963 single. Melba had a husky voice for such a young woman...she was born in 1938 and when she and George recorded together in 1963 she was just 25...Melba makes an appearance on the biography video of George, Same Ole Me which was issued in 1989.

George's other frequent duet partner during the 1960's was pop singer Gene Pitney. The two of them became so popular together that they went under the title "George and Gene" on many of their releases. They issued several duet recordings in the mid to late 1960's with their biggest commercial success coming with "I've Got Five Dollars and It's Saturday Night", a Top-20 hit for them, but a smash hit during the previous decade for Faron Young. What could five dollars get someone in 1965 when George and Gene were on the charts with that single? I bet it could have gotten you quite a lot at a fast-food place and fuel cost was probably $.25 a gallon. Modern audiences tend to laugh at this song now because it's dated...sung back in a time when things weren't so costly as they are now...but it's still a good sing-a-long song even if the lyrics do not mirror contemporary lifestyles.

George and Gene issued two duet albums together in the mid 1960's. For the First Time Two Stars Together and It's Country Time Again. In the years and decades following those releases, independent record labels both here in the United States and world-wide have issued and re-issued those recordings in a variety of low-budget projects. The two never appeared together in concert and Pitney passed away on April 5, 2006 while in the middle of a tour overseas where most of his greatest fame was accomplished.

One of the last re-issues of their material surfaced in 2005 in a CD collection called The Complete '60s Duets and it was compliled by Varese Sarabande in 2004, distributed by King Records a year later. The collection featured all 17 recordings the two made during the 1965 sessions which according to the liner notes were recorded during two separate periods, one in January 1965 and another in June 1965.

As I previously mentioned, there were occasional duets from the 1950's...but the release of 1979's My Very Special Guests seemed to open the floodgates for all sorts of artists clamoring for a duet with George.

George Jones most famous pairing is with Tammy Wynette. Their recording career on vinyl began in 1971 on a song called "Take Me" which George had recorded as a solo song several years earlier. Their version hit the Top-10, as did the original, giving George the rare feat of scoring a Top-10 hit with the same song. The duet was included on their first album together, We Go Together which was issued late in 1971 after George got out of his contract with Musicor Records in order to record with Tammy on her label, Epic, under the guidance of Billy Sherrill.

The George and Tammy marriage lasted a period of years but their music together lasted nearly a full decade, 1971-1981. Their marriage officially lasted for six years, 1969-1975, with the two separating prior to the divorce being finalized on March 13th. Epic Records and Billy Sherrill continued to have the two perform together on records and on TV programs...often there was speculation flying the two would re-marry but it never happened...she eventually married songwriter George Richey while George Jones became a "confirmed bachelor", insisting in an interview with Country Music Magazine in 1977 that he was through with being the marrying kind since it always ends up in divorce. Ironically, after George and Tammy's divorce, they continued having #1 hits and high selling albums and singles...but just as ironic is 1977 marked the last time the two were on tour together for quite awhile.

Tammy's duet with George on the 1979 duet project had been recorded in 1977...and so, in 1980, five years after the divorce, the two of them recorded a brand new album together, appropriately titled Together Again. The album featured a Top-5 hit and a Top-20 hit single and after it's release, and subsequent promotion of the album on TV programs, according to several associates, George insisted that he'd never work or sing with Tammy again. In case you are interested, the three hit singles from the 1980 reunion album were "Two Story House", a Top-5 smash hit. The other hit single was the Top-20 "A Pair of Old Sneakers", which hit in early 1981. George and Tammy prior to this 1980 album had enjoyed seven additional duet albums...all but one charted. The album that failed to chart was their gospel album, We Love To Sing About Jesus in 1972. This 1980 album was their eighth duet album together. As far as singles...earlier I mentioned Melba Montgomery being the second most popular female duet partner with George...with Tammy being #1.

Well, George and Tammy enjoyed a string of 12 hit duet recordings from 1971 to 1977. Among their most celebrated duets are their three #1 hits: "We're Gonna Hold On", 1973; "Golden Ring", 1976; and "Near You", 1977. In addition to those hits, they are also known for "The Ceremony", from 1972...a Top-10 single in which the two recite wedding vows with a preacher heard on the recording to give it authenticity. "We Loved It Away" and "Southern California" are a few more Top-10 hits they had. The two of them were among the golden age of country duets which included their competitors: Conway Twitty and Loretta Lynn; Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton; and later in the 1970's Jim Ed Brown and Helen Cornelius...although George and Tammy's singles out-put had dropped considerably by the time Jim Ed and Helen started releasing material together.

Running current with George and Tammy's 1980 "reunion" on records was George's pairing with Johnny PayCheck...the two of them enjoyed a brief successful team-up releasing their versions of 1950's pop and rock songs. Johnny was among the guests in 1979 on My Very Special Guests and by 1980 someone at Epic had the idea of George and Johnny doing an entire album of songs together. Their album, Double Trouble didn't reach the Top-40 on the albums chart but several of their singles became Top-40 hits.

After Together Again ran it's course, and the promotion and publicity died down from the 1979 all-duets project, George settled in on a seven year run of Top-10 successes, beginning in 1980. He continued to issue duets...and as I mentioned earlier, a lot of artists were clamoring for a chance to sing with George. A few of these happened during the 1979-1982 era. Johnny Cash, for instance, was one of George's biggest supporters and friends and he asked George to appear on a few of his duet projects. One of their recordings, 1979's "I Got Stripes", appears on the 2005 re-issue of My Very Special Guests. They recorded another duet as well, "I'll Say It's True", that made the country charts. George, during this time period, also recorded a duet with David Allan Coe, "This Bottle In My Hand", in early 1980...and still there's more...George recorded a duet with Hank Williams, Jr entitled "I Don't Care If Tomorrow Never Comes" plus George was one of the duet partners for Ernest Tubb on the 1979 project, The Legend and the Legacy, which featured Ernest Tubb singing duets with a number of artists. George and Ernest performed "Half a Mind" and "Filipino Baby".

One of country music's other legends, Merle Haggard, teamed up with George in 1982 for A Taste of Yesterday's Wine and then in 1984 nine female country singers teamed up with George on the Ladies Choice project. George's 1985 and 1986 albums each featured a few duets: "If You Could Touch Her At All", a duet with Lynn Anderson, and "That's Good, That's Bad", a duet with Lacy J Dalton, appeared on George's 1985 album, Who's Gonna Fill Their Shoes while another duet, with Patti Page, surfaced on 1986's Wine Colored Roses album. During 1985 George found the time to guest on a couple of other duets, "Half a Man" was a duet with Willie Nelson and it was featured on Willie's Half Nelson project. The other appearance was on the David Allan Coe single, "Don't Cry Darlin".

In 1987 Epic released a compilation duet album featuring duet and solo recordings of George, Merle Haggard, and Willie Nelson. The album was called Walking The Line.

The duets just kept on coming...in 1988 he was on the charts with Shelby Lynne on a song called "If I Could Bottle This Up", which featured a second duet on the flip-side of the single, "I Always Get It Right With You". George recorded several more duets in 1988 that never made it onto any album until in 1991...when Epic issued Friends In High Places. The duets were a wide variety of country styles pairing George with the likes of Charlie Daniels, Jim Lauderdale, Dolly Parton, Sweethearts of the Rodeo, Vern Gosdin, among others. The duets that George recorded in 1988 with Jim Lauderdale, "Tavern Choir", and Dolly Parton, "Rockin' Years", were not part of the 1991 Friends in High Places release. Those two 1988 recordings would surface 20 years later on the duet collection, Burn Your Playhouse Down.

In 1990, George notched his 78th Top-10 single in the form of a duet...this time with Randy Travis on "A Few Ole Country Boys", which was featured on Randy's duet's album, Heroes and Friends.

George left Epic in 1991 and went over to MCA...while there he continued recording sporadic duets. He and Mark Chesnutt recorded an up-tempo duet, "Talkin' To Hank", in 1992. Also in 1992 several country singers guest starred on George's single, "I Don't Need Your Rockin' Chair". In 1993 George and Sammy Kershaw recorded "Never Bit a Bullet Like This"...and in 1994 another all-star duet project was released. The Bradley Barn Sessions featured George singing his previous hit songs with artist's who were inspired by him. The collection featured a duet with Tammy Wynette, a re-recording of their 1976 #1 "Golden Ring". This marked the first time the two had recorded together in 14 years. George had recently underwent heart bypass surgery...delaying the release of the album until later in 1994. The guests on the 1994 project included Alan Jackson, Travis Tritt, Trisha Yearwood, Marty Stuart, as well as Mark Knopfler and Keith Richards, among many others. All of the artists who recorded duets with George in 1994 recorded two...one of the duets were put on the album while the second duet was kept in the vaults...seven of the unreleased duets from 1994 appeared on 2008's Burn Your Playhouse Down collection.

The reunion of George and Tammy started in 1994 and the two went on a full-blown reunion tour and they recorded a brand new album together, One which was released in 1995 and it contained 10 songs. This marked the first original George and Tammy album in 15 years and their first concert appearance as a duo in 18 years. Their album was a Top-20 success.

George continued to appear in duet recordings off and on throughout the 1990's and into the next millennium, most notable being his background harmony work on Patty Loveless' Top-20 single, "You Don't Seem To Miss Me", in 1998 as well as the award winning single "Too Country" where Brad Paisley recruited George, Buck Owens, and the song's writer, Bill Anderson, for a group recording. In 2006 George teamed up with Merle Haggard again for Kickin' Out the Footlights...Again and the album became a Top-30 hit...but neither George or Merle toured or promoted the album that much in spite of the demand. The two are on different record labels first and foremost...but there wasn't much publicity, which was a shame.

This concludes the look of George's "guests" through the years.

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1976

there were several George Jones albums issued in the mid to late 1970's that never really got the attention they deserved and years later various independent record labels both in America and overseas have issued CD's of the mid '70s out-put; there's a popular belief that his material wasn't up to the 1960's standards but this material is not meant to be comparable to his 1960's out-put...the album contained a majority up-tempo feel in spite of the album cover and it's title; It wasn't until mid-way through that we hear sad songs; the album contained two hit singles...first off the Top-20 title track, "The Battle", and the Top-40 love ballad "You Always Look Your Best Here in My Arms".

1977

One of the under-rated albums from the late '70s from George is this one; it's called I WANTA SING and the title track is about George's musical heroes but don't let the bizarre album cover sway your opinion before hearing the songs; on this album we have hard-core country music with just a touch of pop...that touch of pop comes on "I Love You So Much It Hurts Me" where he croons the song; the hits include the Top-40 "Old King Kong" and the Top-30 "If I Could Put Them All Together"; other highlights from this album include "They've Got Millions in Milwaukee", "Bull Mountain Lad", and "Rest In Peace".

1980

George and Johnny PayCheck had been releasing duet singles for two years prior to the release of this 1980 duet album; titled DOUBLE TROUBLE it set out to cash-in on the rowdy/outlaw side of country music that had been taken over by the Urban Cowboy era; the album contained all of the singles the two were to release together: "Maybelline", "You Can Have Her", "When You're Ugly Like Us", and "You Better Move On"; their single releases were once a year 1978, 1979, 1980, and into early 1981; the duo's 1979 recording of "Proud Mary" is on here as well...it originally appeared on the 1979 all-star collection MY VERY SPECIAL GUESTS that Epic issued on George.

1980

This album is routinely voted as George's all-time classic...every song from #1 to #10 is typically picked as a favorite among his fans; the monster success of the album's centerpiece, "He Stopped Loving Her Today", is one reason why this album in particular stands out above all the others...the single not only hit #1 but it won a Grammy and several other awards; The album itself became the fastest selling of his career...hitting Platinum barely 3 years later...a million copies of a vinyl album was unheard of for many country singers...not to mention one that remained grounded in country music without a lot of pop aspirations; The album featured two more singles...the somber "I'm Not Ready Yet" and the honky-tonker "If Drinkin' Don't Kill Me"; The album had it's share of up-tempo songs...such as "Good Hearted Woman", "His Lovin' Her Is Gettin' In My Way", and the bouncy "Bone Dry".

1981

Issued after the widespread acclaim and success of I AM WHAT I AM in 1980, this album rode the success of it's predecessor and featured two major Top-5 hits plus it included a song that was originally a single-only release in 1979 called "Someday My Day Will Come"; the two Top-5 hits were "Same Ole Me", and the #1 "Still Doin' Time"; the album contained a duet with his daughter, Georgette, "Daddy Come Home"; this album went Gold several years later and it included "I Won't Need You Anymore" which would become one of Randy Travis' first hit songs; other highlights are "You Can't Get The Hell Out of Texas", "Girl, You Sure Know How To Say Goodbye", and "Couldn't Love Have Picked a Better Place To Die".

1982

George and Merle trade verses throughout the majority of this duet album...only one song features almost all George and it's "Silver Eagle" which is a narrative/ballad about Haggard; Each singer gets a song patterned after them...in Haggard's case it's "Silver Eagle" and in George's it's the novelty "No Show Jones", which closes out the album; One of the more deeper songs is "I Think I've Found a Way To Live Without You" and coming in a close second is "After I Sing All My Songs"; the album contained the #1 title track, "Yesterday's Wine", and the Top-10 "C.C. Waterback"; "The Brothers" is another great song.

1983

This is a wonderful album from George released in early 1983; according to what I've read, the vocals were recorded in 1982 and Billy Sherrill and his associates added everything else later but you couldn't tell by listening to it that it was patched together; It boasted three major Top-5 hits: the title track, "Shine On", plus the smashes "Tennessee Whiskey" and "I Always Get Lucky With You", all three singles peaked at #3, #2, and #1 respectively; in spite of the album boasting those hits, it went out of print as mostly everything George recorded in the mid 1980's period; Have no fear...it's available as an MP3 digitial download so the material lives on in the digital age.

1983

Released in the latter part of 1983, this album went by without much notice...you'd think an album named after his outdoor music park would generate interest but Epic didn't do anything with the album and as a result it's not remembered but it's a great album...and it did reach the Top-30 on the country album chart...so it wasn't completely over-looked...but none of the songs were promoted as singles; I wrote at length about this album and the outdoor music park, Jones Country, within the blog pages to the left of this time-line.

1984

such a wonderful duets album is this one from George and a host of female country singers; the album boasts 9 duets and 1 solo song; The solo song is "She's My Rock", which was a huge hit for George in the fall of 1984; after the single fell back down the charts the follow-up was issued...a duet with Brenda Lee on a song called "Hallelujah, I Love You So", which promptly hit the Top-20 in early 1985...as did the third single from this album, a duet with Lacy J Dalton entitled "Size Seven Round and Made of Gold"; Some of the other highlights is the duet with Leona Williams, "Best Friends", and the duet with Loretta on "We Sure Make Good Love"...Emmylou Harris, one of George's biggest fans, appears on "All Fall Down".

1985

Featuring the Top-5 title track, "Who's Gonna Fill Their Shoes?", this album contained a few positive, feel-good songs in addition to the standard sad, heartbreak songs, too; The title track was made into an award winning music video; Two more songs became hits as well, "The One I Loved Back Then" matched the success of the title track while "Somebody Wants Me Out of the Way" reached the Top-10 in early 1986; a couple of duets were featured on this album...one of them with Lacy J Dalton called "That's Good...That's Bad" and one with Lynn Anderson called "If Somehow You Could Touch Her At All"; "If I Could Paint You a Picture" is in the pretty song category.

1986

On this particular album we hear George perform a variety of songs...some countrier than others; Patti Page appears on a duet, "You Never Looked That Good When You Were Mine"; A lot of attention was paid to "The Right Left Hand", which was written about George and Nancy; the single hit the Top-10 in early 1987; the title track, "Wine Colored Roses", was a Top-10 in late 1986; a third single, "I Turn To You", reached the Top-30; other highlights from the album are "Ol' Frank", "If Only Your Eyes Could Lie", and "These Old Eyes Have Seen It All".

1990

This here is the rare album, YOU OUGHTA BE HERE WITH ME, that Epic Records issued on George in 1990; the label released two commercial singles from this album...so it wasn't totally ignored...but in hindsight the promotions department didn't spend much time on the release; the singles issued were "Hell Stays Open All Night Long" and the bouncy "Six Foot Deep, Six Foot Down"; George actually performed the second song on his TV show in the late 1990's. This project, too, is available as an MP3.

2006

This reunion album between George and Merle came out in 2006; the album was a moderate success and I pin a lot of blame on the fact that it was not highly promoted/publicized with some kind of tour or any joint appearances; both artist's were extremely busy on the road doing solo dates that a concert tour was impossible...even more ironic is that Haggard was on tour with Willie Nelson and Ray Price around the same time this CD came out....Haggard, Willie, and Ray had recorded an album called LAST OF THE BREED, released early in 2007, a few months after the release of this 2006 album, and the three of them went out on tour to select venue's; on this 2006 album, each singer takes turns singing the hit songs of each other plus they unite in five duet recordings throughout; this reunion album marked the first duet project for the two of them since 1982...this particular 2006 CD was issued in October and the LAST OF THE BREED was issued in March 2007...giving no real time to support the CD on the road.