“Poison Love” is a country song with an unusual backstory. It was being written in the late 1940s with the involvement of a Houston-area car dealer, Elmer Laird, who was sponsoring a radio show; when Laird was killed in a violent dispute before the song was finished, his collaborators completed it and credited it to him.
The song was introduced on record in 1950 by Johnnie and Jack and their Tennessee Mountain Boys. On a studio musician’s suggestion, the duo set it to a brisk Latin-tinged rhythm — an unusual touch for country music of the time — and the result became their biggest hit, climbing to the top of the country chart.
Its bitter lyric of a love turned to poison, and its catchy lilt, kept the song in circulation across country and bluegrass. The version heard here is by Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys.
