Story Behind The Song

Every Song Has A Story... NASHVILLE TN When you're listening to a song, have you ever wondered who wrote it and where the idea came from? How long it took to write or how it got recorded? And have you ever asked why there isn’t somewhere to go find all the answers in one place? We did. That’s why we created Story Behind The Song.Many people never know the pain, joy, love or loss that inspire the greatest hits of our time, but with the launching of STORYBEHINDTHESONG.NET that may all soon change. We set out to design and uniquely informative and interactive website that captures, organizes and preserves the intriguing and heartwarming stories behind many of the most popular and inspiring songs, as told by the songwriters.A fresh source of information for music fans, the site is a musical gateway for songwriters and publishers to radio personnel and music lovers. We personally invite you to visit our site often to enjoy many engaging song stories. If there is a song story you’d like to see featured in our library on storybehindthesong.net, please let us know. We’re in the process of developing Story Behind The Song concepts for multi-media outlets.We hope you enjoy the stories as much as we’ve enjoyed collecting them from the heart of Music Row in Nashville.STORY BEHIND THE SONG Presents
AN EVENING OF SONG STORIES FROM NASHVILLE'S HIT SONGWRITERS
At The Bluebird Cafe
November 3, 2006 | 6:30 PM
4104 Hillsboro Pike | Nashville, TN 37215
No cover / $7 min. / Reservations recommended
Featuring Kent Blazy ("If Tomorrow Never Comes," "Ain't Goin' Down ['Til The Sun Comes Up]), Mark Alan Springer ("Two Sparrows In A Hurricane," "That's Why I'm Here"), Phil O' Donnell ("I Got You"), Tim Johnson ("Thank God For Believers," "She Misses Him"), Marc Beeson ("When She Cries," "Phones Are Ringing All Over Town"), Helen Darling ("Bring On The Rain") and more.
THE STORY BEHIND THE #1 SONG, “HE STOPPED LOVING HER TODAY”
In The Words of Songwriter Bobby Braddock
An interview with Jason Henke
Song written by Bobby Braddock & Curly Putnam
Recorded by George Jones on Epic Records
Originally released on I AM WHAT I AM (1980)
www.georgejones.com
“...As George sang it a second time – the version that would haunt us forever – he was looking right at Tammy, whose face was illuminated behind the glass.” – Bobby Braddock
Curly Putman says I brought the idea for "He Stopped Loving Her Today" to him, but I have no recollection of where it came from. Curly and I wrote it in a writer’s room at what was then Tree Publishing Company. We spent probably less than two hours on it before I took it home and completed it. There was a recitation verse added two or three years later, in 1980, at the request of George Jones' then-new producer, Billy Sherrill. I think that verse is the most compelling and most powerful.About three years passed from the time we wrote the song to the time George recorded it. He recorded it singing live with the band and his background vocal group in the studio – not the way they do it today in this age of overdubbing. George sang the song once and Billy, who was producing the session, asked him to do it again. About that time, Jones' ex-wife Tammy Wynette came into the control room with her new love, George Richey. She sat down next to Billy, and as Jones sang it a second time –– the version that would haunt us forever –– he was looking right at Tammy, whose face was illuminated behind the glass."He Stopped Loving Her Today" is unique in that it became George's comeback song and his career song. It was voted CMA Song of the Year two years in a row. In surveys taken by several magazines and a television network around the turn of the century, it was voted the Best Country Song of the Century and the Best Country Song of All Time.
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“He Stopped Loving Her Today” from the platinum album, I Am What I Am, hit #1 in the spring of 1980, beginning a new six-year series of #1 hits and Top 10 singles rivaling the peak of George’s popularity in the ‘60’s.
Producer Billy Sherrill, known for his lush, string-laden productions and his precise approach in the studio, was also responsible for Tammy Wynette’s hit albums.
Wynette filed for divorce from Jones in August 1973. Shortly after she filed the papers, the couple decided to reconcile and her petition was withdrawn. Following her withdrawal, the duo had a number one single with the appropriately titled “We’re Gonna Hold On.” In the summer of 1974, Jones hit #1 with “The Grand Tour” and “The Door.” Not long after those songs became hits, he recorded “These Days (I Barely Get By),” which featured lyrics co-written by Wynette. Two days later, Wynette left Jones; they divorced within a year.
Life Notes courtesy of Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
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OTHER HITS BY BOBBY BRADDOCK:
“D-I-V-O-R-C-E” – Tammy Wynette
“Womanhood” – Tammy Wynette
“Golden Ring” – George Jones & Tammy Wynette
“Her Name Is” – George Jones
“Faking Love” – T.G. Sheppard
“You Can’t Have Your Cake & Edith Too” – The Statler Brothers
“Old Flames Have New Names” – Mark Chesnutt
“Texas Tornado” – Tracy Lawrence
“Time Marches On” – Tracy Lawrence
“I Wanna Talk About Me” – Toby Keith
LEARN MORE @ WWW.BOBBYBRADDOCK.COM
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THE STORY BEHIND THE #1 SONG, “BORN COUNTRY”
In The Words of Songwriters John Schweers & Byron Hill
Interview with Jason Henke & Adam Olson
Recorded by Alabama on RCA Records
Available on numerous Alabama CDs, incl. ULTIMATE ALABAMA: 20 #1 HITS (2004)
www.thealabamaband.com
“...Off I went as fast as I could...running down the stairs, waving my hands, yelling ‘Hey Teddy, Teddy, I got a song for you.’” - Byron Hill
“The Alabama guys called me from the Grammy Awards – of all places – and they were going on and on...‘This is the song we’ve been trying to find for two or three years...we’re promising you a #1.” - John Schweers
“Writer / publisher Tom Collins had that title and he gave it to songwriters Keith Stegall (now also a famed producer) and Roger Murrah (Nashville Songwriter Hall of Fame Member). They tried to write it but couldn’t come up with anything they really liked, so they gave the idea back to Tom,” ‘Born Country’ co-writer, John Schweers, remembers.
“Byron Hill and I were up there writing a day or two later bouncing ideas off each other and nothing stuck, so Byron asked, ‘Why don’t we try writing that ‘Born Country' song?’ We cleared it with Tom and within a few seconds, I was thinking of the Frio River in Texas, picked up my guitar, started playing a few chords and out comes: ‘clear creeks / cool mountain mornings / honest work out in the field’ and Byron followed up without missing a beat: ‘cornbread in my mama’s kitchen / daddy saying grace before the meal.’
“We knew we were onto something, so we thought things over for a minute and then I think Byron said it: ‘family ties run deep in this land / never very far from what I am.’ We had all of that literally in three minutes. We were scrambling as fast as we could to write down what we had just said to capture it all.”
Byron recalls, “I think John and I drew a lot from the past and our own family experiences in writing the song. I didn’t live way out in the country, but when I was a kid, we moved to a rural area of town where I grew up. I remember crickets serenading in the dark and moonlights...you know, those kinds of things. ‘Born Country’ became a nice little warm song that evoked some great memories.”
Finished in less than an hour, “Born Country” took on a new life when the demo was sung by an up-and-coming talent named Joe Diffie, then unsigned. The song was pitched to Alabama using all avenues possible over the course of two or three years and yet John, Byron and their publishing teams never heard a word.
About four years after the song was written, a much-needed breakthrough came under random circumstances, according to Schweers.
“Byron calls me one day and says, ‘John, you’re not going to believe what just happened…Billy Lawson and I were writing today (in a little upstairs room overlooking 17th Avenue South – on Nashville’s Music Row), and Billy is looking out the window trying to come up with a song idea and out of nowhere yells ‘look, there goes Teddy Gentry (Alabama bass player and vocalist) walking down the street.’ Sure enough, there was Teddy walking by wearing a fur coat in the rain. I had been kind of stalking Alabama with this song, so off I went as fast as I could...running down the stairs at Tom Collins Music, waving my hands – ‘Hey Teddy, Teddy, I got a song for you.’ I was wrestling around in the glove compartment of my car and after what seemed like forever, finally pulled out the tape of the demo and put it square in Teddy’s hands.’”
“It was obviously great to get that news,” Schweers says. “I was keeping my fingers crossed, but I still hung up the phone, shook my head, laughed a little and thought, ‘Teddy will probably throw that tape in the weeds the second he goes around the corner.’ But boy was I wrong because about a week later, the Alabama guys called me from the Grammy Awards – of all places – and they were going on and on about the song...’This is that song we’ve been looking for two or three years, man…we’re going in to cut it, and we’re promising you a #1 record on it."
Teddy, Randy Owen, Jeff Cook and Mark Herndon were right on in their prediction. The song became one of the band’s impressive 41 #1 hits in 1992.
“It was kind of a cool thing,” Hill says. “I’d always wanted an Alabama cut, and their recording of it was just unbelievable. The way I perform it on guitar is so simple and basic, but Josh Leo, L.M. Lee and Alabama did a killer job producing it. They just took it into the stratosphere. From there on out, I would try to write in that small room upstairs at the publishing company, making sure I got the chair by the window just in case someone else was walking by that was important.”
“I think a lot of artists don’t know how cut off they are behind the seven or eight people listening to potential songs to record for them because a song making it through that many people is almost impossible, but if you could put it in the artists’ hands, and they hear it, they usually know what the fans like better than anybody,” Schweers explains. “This was a rare case because you almost can’t ever put it in the artist’s hands. Trust me, if you can catch the artist down at the Piggly Wiggly, and happen to have a copy of the song you've been trying to pitch them in your car, grab it and put it in their hands.”
OTHER HITS BY BYRON HILL:
“Fool Hearted Memory” – George Strait
“Size Matters” – Joe Nichols
“Nothin’ On But The Radio” – Gary Allan
“The Pages Of My Mind” – Ray Charles
“Lifestyles of the Not So Rich and Famous” – Tracy Byrd
“If I Was A Drinkin’ Man” – Neal McCoy
“Pickin’ Up Strangers” – Johnny Lee
“Nights” – Ed Bruce
“Politics, Religion, and Her” – Sammy Kershaw
LEARN MORE @ WWW.BYRONHILLMUSIC.COM
OTHER HITS BY JOHN SCHWEERS:
“I Left Something Turned On At Home” – Trace Adkins
“Daydreams About Night Things” – Ronnie Milsap
“Don’t Fight The Feelings” – Charley Pride
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THE STORY BEHIND “I LOVED HER FIRST”
In The Words of Songwriter Elliott Park
Interview with Jason Henke & Reed Trontell
Song written by Walt Aldridge & Elliott Park
Recorded by Heartland on Lofton Creek Records
Available on Heartland’s Debut CD, “I Loved Her First"
http://www.loftoncreekrecords.com | http://www.myspace.com/heartlandcountry
“My favorite part of the song is probably when the guy says ‘and I prayed that you would find him someday but it’s still hard to give you away.’ That’s something that even now with my daughters being really young, I am already praying about.” – Elliott Park
I signed a publishing deal with Michael Martin and Jason Houser at Extreme Writers Group in November of 2003. A couple of months after that, I came to Nashville from Texas to write. I can’t remember the exact date, but I had talked to Michael and Jason on the phone and they told me they had set up a co-write for me with a guy named Walt Aldridge. I’m probably the most naïve guy when it comes to songwriting. I didn’t know who the guy was. I said, “Well, what’s he done?” They said, “Well, he’s written some songs...a song named “There’s No Getting Over Me” that Ronnie Milsap cut, “I Sure Can Smell The Rain,” “Modern Day Bonnie and Clyde”...and I think my jaw probably dropped and I said, “What am I supposed to do? What am I going to do? I’m going to be nervous to death.” (laughing) I was. I was nervous. I remember being in that writing room over at the Starstruck building (17th Avenue South on Music Row in Nashvillle) where Extreme was three years ago, and I was just waiting in there...shaking. I was scared...this was my first co-write...and it was with Walt Aldridge.
He's like 6’5”, but he looked like he was 7’ tall...he came in and shook my hand (he's the nicest guy) and he sat down, pulled out his guitar, and said, “Well, what do you want to write about today?” I understood that the unwritten rule for co-writing sessions is that the less achieved writer kind of brings the idea to the table so I brought out a couple of ideas that were pretty average. He didn't think they were bad, but asked what else I had.
So I pulled out another idea I had been carrying with me for over two years. All I had written was the title and a couple lines in the chorus – “I loved her first, I held her first.” I said to Walt, “This is a waltz, and I know it won’t probably ever do very good because it’s a waltz.” (The funny thing is that when I came to meet Michael Lasko from Taxi on one of my earlier trips to Nashville, I had met with a higher-up at a certain Performing Rights Organization and let him listen to a few of my songs. They were all waltzes and he said, “Yeah, those are good songs, but you need to write some uptempo stuff...you’re never going to have a hit with a waltz.” All I could manage was an “OK...I didn’t know that.” He was nice and he was really right if you look at the formula of writing a successful song these days but I left feeling kind of dejected and thinking that a waltz could never work.) Walt asked what the idea was, and I told him that it was about this Daddy who is trying to give his girl away at her wedding, and he is saying it to her future husband, you know, “I loved her first.” The inspiration for the song at that time was my two daughters. What’s very interesting that I didn’t realize until I sat down with Walt was that he had two daughters who were at the age that the character in the song would be, and I think Walt jumped all over it because he could relate to it even more than me. I was kind of forecasting myself into that role sometime in the future because of my young daughter. But really I didn’t have the inspiration as much as Walt. It really hit home for him a lot more than for me...(continued)*
* TO READ THE REST OF THE STORY BEHIND “I LOVED HER FIRST,” AND OTHER GREAT STORY SONGS, PLEASE VISIT US @ WWW.STORYBEHINDTHESONG.NET...
“Why” | Jason Aldean
Song story by Rodney Clawson
“Living In Fast Forward” | Kenny Chesney
Song story by Rivers Rutherford
“It’s Five O’ Clock Somewhere” | Alan Jackson
Song story by Jim “Moose” Brown
“The Thunder Rolls” | Garth Brooks
Song story by Pat Alger
“Settle For A Slowdown” | Dierks Bentley
Song story by Brett Beavers
“A Real Fine Place To Start” | Sara Evans
Song story by George Ducas
“Independence Day” | Martina McBride
Song story by Gretchen Peters
“How Do You Get That Lonely” | Blaine Larsen
Song story by Rory Feek
“867-5309” | Tommy Tutone
Song story by Alex Call
...AND MANY,MANY MORE!
We hope you enjoy the stories as much as we’ve enjoyed collecting them from the heart of Music Row in Nashville. Questions or comments? Please contact us: [email protected]
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