Long Live King George
Long Live King George | ||||
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Compilation album by George Jones | ||||
Released | March 11, 1965 | |||
Recorded | August 27, 1955 – April 21, 1958 | |||
Genre | Country, rockabilly | |||
Label | Starday | |||
Producer | Pappy Daily | |||
George Jones chronology | ||||
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Singles from Long Live King George | ||||
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Long Live King George is a 1965 country music album released by George Jones. The album was long thought to be a studio release; however, it is a late Starday Records compilation of Jones recordings throughout the mid- to late 1950s.
The album features many of Jones' early songs, including many of his earliest hits, "You Gotta Be My Baby" from 1956, "Seasons of My Heart" from 1955, and Jones' first chart single "Why Baby Why" in 1955. It lists a track from his third collaboration attempt in 1957 with Virginia Spurlock titled: "No, No, Never".
Background and composition
In late 1956, there were shakeups in some of the top management jobs in Nashville and part of this realignment saw Starday Records,[1] an independent country music label founded in Houston by Jones's producer and mentor H.W. "Pappy" Daily[2] and Jack Starns, absorbed into Mercury Records. As Colin Escott writes in the liner notes to the Jones retrospective Cup of Loneliness: The Classic Mercury Years, Daily and Starday president Don Pierce were approached to take over Mercury's country roster to form the Mercury-Starday label but "the clincher was the success of George Jones. After 12 years in the business, Mercury hadn't found one country artist who had promised or delivered half of what George had." By July 1958, Mercury-Starday dissolved with Pierce assuming control of Starday and Jones remaining at Mercury with Daily producing him.[3]
Jones wrote or co-wrote all of the selections on Long Live King George. Two selections, "Nothing Can Stop My Love" and "Tall, Tall Trees", were co-written with Jones's friend Roger Miller, the latter becoming a chart-topping country hit for Alan Jackson in 1995. Jones also collaborated with J.P. Richardson (better known as the Big Bopper) on the upbeat "If I Don't Love You (Grits Ain't Groceries)" (which, aside from the title line, has no relation to the R&B song "Grits Ain't Groceries"). Richardson would also compose "White Lightnin'", which would become Jones's first number one in 1959.
Long Live King George includes several songs, such as his first chart hit "Why Baby Why", that appeared on his 1957 debut album Grand Ole Opry's New Star. As Jones star continued to rise in the country music field, Starday would continue to release albums featuring recordings by Jones culled from its archive, including several rockabilly sides that the singer detested. Starday would continue this practice into the 1970s. Jones would later explain to Nick Tosches in 1994, "There was no such thing as production at Starday. We’d go in with the band, we’d go over the song, I’d look over and tell the steel player to take a break or kick it off, and I’d get the fiddle to play a turnaround in the middle. I’d just let them know if we were going to tag it or not. We’d just go through it. We didn’t take the pains of making several takes. Back then, over three or four takes, they’d say, 'My God, this is costing us money.' So we’d just get it down as good as we could. If we went a little flat or sharp in a place or two, they’d say, 'The public ain’t going to notice that, so put it out.' So we did, and it wasn’t too successful, so I think maybe the public did notice it."
Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
Allmusic | link |
Track listing
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
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1. | "Nothing Can Stop My Love" | Roger Miller, George Jones | 2:27 |
2. | "No Use to Cry" | Jones | 2:15 |
3. | "No, No, Never (w/ Virginia Spurlock)" | Jones, Bernard Spurlock | 2:04 |
4. | "If I Don't Love You (Grits Ain't Groceries)" | Jones, J.P. Richardson | 1:54 |
5. | "Seasons of My Heart" | Jones, Darrell Edwards | 2:55 |
6. | "Jesus Wants Me" | Jones, Eddie Noack | 1:59 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
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7. | "You Gotta Be My Baby" | Jones | 2:29 |
8. | "I Gotta Talk to Your Heart" | Jones | 2:21 |
9. | "Tall, Tall Trees" | Miller, Jones | 2:24 |
10. | "I'm Ragged But Right" | Jones | 2:14 |
11. | "Why Baby Why" | Jones, Edwards | 2:18 |
12. | "Take the Devil Out of Me" | Jones | 2:39 |
References
- v
- t
- e
- Grand Ole Opry's New Star
- Country Church Time
- White Lightning and Other Favorites
- George Jones Salutes Hank Williams
- George Jones Sings Country and Western Hits
- George Jones Sings from the Heart
- George Jones Sings Bob Wills
- Homecoming in Heaven
- My Favorites of Hank Williams
- I Wish Tonight Would Never End
- George Jones Sings Like the Dickens!
- I Get Lonely in a Hurry
- The Race Is On
- Mr. Country & Western Music
- New Country Hits
- Old Brush Arbors
- Trouble in Mind
- Country Heart
- Love Bug
- I'm a People
- We Found Heaven Right Here on Earth at "4033"
- Walk Through This World with Me
- George Jones Sings the Songs of Dallas Frazier
- The George Jones Story
- My Country
- If My Heart Had Windows
- I'll Share My World with You
- Where Grass Won't Grow
- Will You Visit Me on Sunday
- George Jones with Love
- George Jones Sings the Great Songs of Leon Payne
- George Jones (We Can Make It)
- A Picture of Me (Without You)
- Nothing Ever Hurt Me (Half as Bad as Losing You)
- In a Gospel Way
- The Grand Tour
- Memories of Us
- The Battle
- Alone Again
- I Wanta Sing
- Bartender's Blues
- My Very Special Guests
- I Am What I Am
- Still the Same Ole Me
- Shine On
- Jones Country
- You've Still Got a Place in My Heart
- Ladies' Choice
- Who's Gonna Fill Their Shoes
- Wine Colored Roses
- Too Wild Too Long
- One Woman Man
- You Oughta Be Here with Me
- And Along Came Jones
- Walls Can Fall
- High-Tech Redneck
- The Bradley Barn Sessions
- I Lived to Tell It All
- It Don't Get Any Better Than This
- Cold Hard Truth
- The Rock: Stone Cold Country 2001
- The Gospel Collection
- Hits I Missed...And One I Didn't
- Burn Your Playhouse Down – The Unreleased Duets
- What's in Our Heart (with Melba Montgomery)
- Close Together (As You and Me) (with Melba Montgomery)
- Bluegrass Hootenanny (with Melba Montgomery)
- George Jones & Gene Pitney – For the First Time! Two Great Stars
- George Jones & Gene Pitney – Recorded in Nashville, Tennessee! (with Gene Pitney)
- It's Country Time Again! (with Gene Pitney)
- Double Trouble (with Johnny Paycheck)
- A Taste of Yesterday's Wine (with Merle Haggard)
- Kickin' Out the Footlights...Again (with Merle Haggard)
- George Jones & The Smoky Mountain Boys
- Hillbilly Hit Parade
- George Jones Singing 14 Top Country Song Favorites
- George Jones Sings His Greatest Hits
- The Fabulous Country Music Sound of George Jones
- Long Live King George
- The Crown Prince of Country Music
- A King & Two Queens (with Judy Lynn and Melba Montgomery)
- Blue & Lonesome
- Heartaches & Tears
- Famous Country Duets
- Hits by George
- The Best of George Jones
- All-Time Greatest Hits, Vol. 1
- Encore
- Anniversary – 10 Years of Hits
- By Request
- Super Hits
- Friends in High Places
- Super Hits, Volume 2
- 16 Biggest Hits
- 50 Years of Hits
- God's Country: George Jones and Friends