Going back to 1987...a year after WINE COLORED ROSES...Epic released this album on George in late 1987 and the bulk of it's singles were released in 1988 with the exception of "The Bird" which hit the country chart in December of 1987 and peaked early in 1988. That particular recording is a funny/novelty song and it hit the Top-30, peaking in the same position as his previous single, "I Turn To You". The sales of "The Bird" were high and in a separate survey the single hit the Top-10 based on sales.
After the moderate airplay success of "The Bird", Epic issued "I'm a Survivor" which sounds as if it were written especially for George...it peaked in the Top-60...his singles were starting to chart lower in this period as you can tell. A third single from TOO WILD TOO LONG was the sad "The Old Man No One Loves" which was made into a music video. The single was charted for a grand total of 6 weeks and peaked in the Top-65.
On the concert trail George was as busy as ever and packing in audiences all over the country and up in Canada. The album's title track, "Too Wild Too Long", tells the story of a man who meets up with a woman he once knew and he begins to tell her how much he hasn't changed and that he still has an urge to roam...telling her "but i've still got this problem with just four little walls/and one good look should tell you that I haven't changed at all...". As a side-note, I have a red ball cap with the phrase TOO WILD TOO LONG written across it that was bought by my grandparent's when they saw George in concert in 1989.
There is a You Tube clip of George performing one of the songs from this album on the TV show HEE-HAW. "The Real McCoy" was not issued as a single, although it was the B-side of one. This particular song was performed by George on several of his TV appearances as if it were a single. It's a song about a man who notices a lot of women during the course of a day and he finds enjoyment that he's got the real deal at his house and she doesn't need any fake eye-lashes or Hong Kong hair as George puts it.
There are a few cover songs on here...first there's "New Patches" which was a hit for Mel Tillis a few years before George recorded it. Then we have "I'm a Long Gone Daddy", the Hank Williams song. George's rendition is faithful to the original from Hank although it has a more bluesy arrangement and George says "time to move on awhile" during one of the instrumental breaks which wasn't in the Hank version. There's also some subtle difference in word usage. In Hank's version the line goes "you start your jaws a-waggin and you never stop/you never shut your mouth until I blow my top/so I'm leavin' now..." and in George's version the phrase remains the same except for "you never hush yo' mouth until I blow my top...". So, little changes here and there are to be expected.
The sleeper song of the album...or the romantic song...the straight-forward love ballad...belongs to "Moments of Brilliance". The album closes with the topical song "The USA Today"...it isn't about the newspaper...instead, it's about current events and politics and other topical subjects of that time period. It features a patriotic decoration "But you don't see those refugee's heading the other way/So welcome to the USA today...". George telling us that the country has it's problems but it's still the greatest place to live.
After the promotion died down with this album by late 1988, he was appearing with Shelby Lynne promoting their duet "If I Could Bottle This Up", which had hit the Top-45...coming close to making the Top-40. They recorded a second duet entitled "I Always Get It Right With You". That particular song found it's way onto a George Jones unreleased duets CD years later, BURN YOUR PLAYHOUSE DOWN. "If I Could Bottle This Up" is featured on the 1991 duets compilation FRIENDS IN HIGH PLACES that Epic issued on George.
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