She’s Gone Gone Gone

Lefty Frizzell made the first recording on 10 February 1965 at Columbia’s studio at 804 16th Avenue South in Nashville. Grady Martin, Harold Bradley and Ray Edenton played guitars, with Pete Drake on steel, Joseph Zinkan on bass, Buddy Harman on drums, William Pursell on piano and a vocal chorus. Don Law and Frank Jones produced. Columbia released it in March 1965 as 4-43256, backed with “Confused,” and it also went on Frizzell’s LP The Sad Side of Love. The single reached No. 12 on Billboard’s country chart, his last Top 20 hit.

The singer brought the trouble on himself. She had told him she would be gone the moment he deceived her, and he didn’t believe her. Now she is on a train that only gets farther away while he cries. He has lost his right to be happy, and she was gone before his first tear fell. If he knew where to find her he would crawl back on his knees, and he counts the passing seconds as distance between them.

Two bluegrass bands recorded it in 1979. Country Gazette cut it as “Gone, Gone, Gone” for All This & Money Too! (Ridge Runner), with Roland White, Joe Carr and Michael Anderson singing. J.D. Crowe & the New South opened My Home Ain’t in the Hall of Fame (Rounder 0103) with it, recorded at Electric Arts Studio in Madisonville, Kentucky. Keith Whitley sang lead and played guitar, Jimmy Gaudreau sang tenor and played mandolin, and Crowe sang baritone and played banjo. Doug Jernigan played steel and dobro, Bobby Slone fiddle, Steve Bryant electric bass and Jimmy Ashby drums.

The song has returned to the country charts twice. Carl Jackson’s version, his first single for Columbia, reached No. 44 in 1984. Glen Campbell’s 1989 recording reached No. 6 and was his last Top 10 country hit.