Overview
The 'Honky Tonk Crazy'
album was produced by the legendary Billy Sherrill, a man who had been
at the control desk of many an album project for fellow country music
artist George Jones. The album,
which was intended to be a Gene Watson/George Jones duets
release & is the only Gene Watson album which was produced by
the legendary Billy Sherrill.
The 'Honky Tonk Crazy' album yielded a hit single on the Billboard
country music charts in the USA in 1987; the title track reached No. 43
that year, and the 'B' side of the single
was 'Starting new memories'.
The 'Honky Tonk Crazy'
album was intended to be a duets album with
George Jones. This collaboration didn't happen, due to either time constraints or legal
entanglements, or both. Gene Watson &
George Jones
did record the Christmas
standard 'Silver Bells' together, a track which was included on the 'Nashville
Christmas Album', which was released by Sony Music in 1991.
Whether Gene Watson & George Jones have recorded any other
material together is a matter for debate.
Speaking of Gene Watson & George
Jones recording together, there
had been plans for them to record the song 'Too gone too long' for their
proposed duets album.
However, when it appeared
that this project was not going to happen, the track was offered instead
to Randy
Travis,
who turned his performance of the song into one of his biggest hits:
'Too gone too long' spent one week at No. 1 on the Billboard country
music singles chart in 1988.
The
'Honky Tonk Crazy' album was produced by Billy Sherrill.
All tracks on 'Honk Tonk Crazy' were arranged by Billy Sherrill, with
the exception of 'You took her off my hands' (track indicated thus
•),
which was arranged
by Jack Smith.
The 'Honky Tonk Crazy' was recorded at Eleven Eleven Sound, Nashville,
Tennessee where the Recording Engineer was Ron 'Snake' Reynolds.
The Assistant Engineer was Ed Hudson.
The 'Honky Tonk Crazy' album was mastered by M.C. Rather at Custom Mastering, Nashville,
Tennessee.
The 'Honky Tonk Crazy' album achieved a chart position of
Number 54 on the Billboard Top Country Album Chart in 1987.
'Honky Tonk Crazy'
Epic Records FE40644 (1987)
Track Listing
1 'Honky
tonk crazy'
Written by
Harlan Howard (RIP) & Ron Peterson
Published by
BMI
2
'Her heart or mine'
•••
Written by
Don Reid & Harold Reid (The Statler
Brothers)
Published by
BMI
3
'I didn't think of you at all' ••
Written by Roger
Brown
Published by
ASCAP
4
'Getting
used to being loved again'
Written by G.
Dobbins &
G. Ray
Published by
ASCAP /
SESAC
5
'Nobody's baby tonight'
Written by M.
Buckins
Published by
BMI
6
'I always get it right with you'
Written by Joe Allen & Charlie Williams
(RIP)
Published by
ASCAP /
BMI
7
'When she touches me'
Written by C.
Quillen & M. McGuire
Published by
ASCAP
8 'Ashes to ashes'
Written by Joe Chambers & Larry Jenkins
Published by
ASCAP
9
'Everybody needs a hero' ••
Written by
Troy Seals &
Max D. Barnes (RIP)
Published by
ASCAP / BMI
10
'You took
her off my hands' •
Written by Harlan Howard
(RIP), Skeets McDonald
(RIP)
&
Wynn Stewart (RIP)
Published by
BMI
Musician Credits
Guitar:
Billy Sanford
Keyboards:
Bobby Wood
Guitar:
Dale Sellers
Steel Guitar:
Weldon Myrick
Fiddle: Mark O'Connor
Drums:
Kenneth Malone
Bass:
Robert Wray
Lead Guitar:
Jerry Kennedy
Harmonica:
Terry McMillan (RIP)
Piano: Hargus 'Pig' Robbins
Bass:
Henry Strzelecki
Background Vocals:
Hurshel Wiginton, Wendy Suits, Diane Tidwell
& Louis Nunley
Re-recorded
versions of 'I didn't think of you at all' & 'Everybody needs a hero'
(tracks indicated thus ••)
can be found on the 'Gene Watson: Then & Now' album, which was released on Koch Records
Nashville in June 2005.
'Her heart or mine' (track indicated thus
•••) was
originally recorded by
The Statler Brothers & was included on their 'Pardners
in Rhyme' album, which was released on Mercury Records
in 1985.
You
can read a review of Gene Watson's 'Honky Tonk Crazy'
album here.
The
review, which was written by Bob Powell, was published
in the June 1987 issue of the United Kingdom monthly
publication
Country Music People.
