Bartender’s Blues

George Jones was born in Saratoga, Texas, on 12 September 1931. His first record, “No Money in This Deal,” was cut in Beaumont in January 1954 and issued by Starday that February. The producer was Starday co-founder Jack Starnes, and the record began Jones’s long association with H. W. “Pappy” Daily. Most of the Starday sides that followed were made at Gold Star studio in Houston with Daily producing. One of them, “Why Baby Why,” recorded on 27 August 1955 and issued on Starday 45-202, reached number four on the Billboard country chart and was his first hit. In 1956 he also put out rockabilly under the name Thumper Jones.

Jones moved to Mercury in 1957, the year Starday merged with it. He had first recorded in Nashville in December 1956. “White Lightning,” recorded at the Bradley studio on 16th Avenue South on 9 September 1958, was his first country number one in 1959 (Mercury 71406). On 13 April 1960, with Grady Martin on guitar, Jimmy Day on steel, Tommy Jackson on fiddle and Floyd Cramer on piano, he recorded his own “The Window Up Above,” a number two, and “Family Bible.” Mercury issued “Family Bible” on 71721 with “Taggin’ Along,” a Houston side from 1956. “Tender Years,” recorded in February 1961, gave him another number one.

He signed with United Artists in 1962, and his first session there, on 4 January 1962, produced “She Thinks I Still Care,” another number one. Daily took him to Musicor in 1964, and many of his Musicor sessions were held at Columbia’s Nashville studio with the Jordanaires. They included duets with Gene Pitney, Melba Montgomery and Brenda Carter; “Milwaukee, Here I Come,” cut with Carter on 25 June 1968, reached number twelve.

After marrying Tammy Wynette in 1969, Jones bought out his Musicor contract to record with her producer, Billy Sherrill, at Epic. His Epic sessions began in April 1971. On 10 October 1977 he recorded James Taylor’s “Bartender’s Blues” with Taylor singing alongside him, and it reached number six on the country chart. Jones was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1992 and died in Nashville on 26 April 2013.

Session details drawn in part from the Bluegrass Discography.