respectable #42 at a time when hard rock was blasting away most of the competition. Jennings and Nelson recorded together several more times after “Mammas, Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys,” even notching another number one hit in 1982 with “Just To Satisfy You” (its backstory previously told here on Classic Country Music Stories). Their cover versions of Otis Redding’s “(Sittin’ On) The Dock Of The Bay” (also in ’82) and The Eagles’ “Take It To The Limit” the following year were less successful, peaking at #13 and #8 respectively. In 1985, the “Highwayman” project (which also featured Johnny Cash and Kris Kristofferson) returned Waylon & Willie to the top spot one last time.
The outlaw music and style, which had made stars of Waylon, Willie and the boys, rode tall and proud on country music’s range for a good number of years, but as all things do, it eventually faded away. The “group” movement in country music, propelled by the emergence of Alabama to superstar status, would lead to its demise. Yet, the song that seemed to characterize this Texas-based counterculture period remains as well-known as any icon of the era. In a sense, “Mammas, Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys” has become part of the American myth, just like the lonely life it celebrated. It has grown well-past a frustrated guitar player’s look at his own life. – JH
The Story Behind The Song:
“He Stopped Loving Her Today” (written by Bobby Braddock & Curly Putman)
George Jones (#1, 1980 - Inducted into the National Recording Registry: 2009)
There’s an old cliché that says country music is mostly comprised of three chords and the truth. There’s also a generalization that says country music is, on the whole, unremittingly sad. Needless to say, those are broad descriptions that limit the scope of a type of music that encompasses many different musical strategies and is capable of conveying the full range of the emotional spectrum. Yet there is no doubt that “He Stopped Loving Her Today,” the 1980 masterpiece by George Jones, does indeed adhere to those clichés, even as it finds a way to transcend them.
After all, the song is pretty much just three chords (technically, there are six, but that’s only because of the key change). The truth can be found in Jones’ stunning performance, a vocal for the ages. And the song itself contains the sadness, which was then amplified to majestic proportions by the production of Billy Sherrill. All of those disparate elements and unique personalities meshed to create this one-of-a- kind recording from 1980. The accolades for “He Stopped Loving Her Today” were immediate, as it won multiple Grammy, Academy of Country Music and Country Music Association awards. It continues to amass honors, including selection by the Library of Congress’s National Recording Preservation Board for induction into its “National Recording Registry” in 2009 (the highest honor a recording can achieve), and numerous occasions when it was named the greatest country song of all time on various media lists. The only thing that can match its lofty status might be the unlikeliness of the circumstances behind the song’s creation and recording.
George Jones was at a low point in 1980, both personally and professionally. Substance abuse had wrecked the trajectory of one of the finest careers in country music history, and his previous few singles and albums were lacking in comparison to some of his best. As fate would have it, legendary producer
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