Play the Jukebox: After Closing Time

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Welcome to July! Happy Canada Day to our neighbors (oops, neighbours ) to the north! For this month, we’re playing the jukebox. I mentioned in the teaser yesterday that there are lots of country songs that mention jukeboxes, and you’ll get your fair share of them this month…starting with this one, as we start the alphabetical list. Linda? NO!!!!! After Closing Time - David Houston and Barbara Mandrell Here we are, and nearly everyone of a certain age has heard of Barbara Mandrell, even if they don’t like country music. She had a variety series with her sisters. She had a crossover pop hit with her version of the R&B song “(If Loving You Is Wrong)I Don’t Want to Be Right.” She’s in the Country Music Hall of Fame, to no one’s surprise; additionally, she’s the first (and to date, only) woman inductee in the Steel Guitar Hall of Fame. Meanwhile, you’re probably saying, “David WHOston?” Going back to 1970, when this song was released, the tables were turned. David Houston was a superstar, and Barbara Mandrell was just an up-and-coming singer. This was the era of the “country duets,” when you had Loretta and Conway, Porter and Dolly, George and Tammy, and anybody else they could put together. (If you can believe it, comedian Archie Campbell did a duet album with singer Lorene Mann…that’s really not as bad as you’d think.) Houston had four #1 hits in a row (something Mandrell never accomplished at the apex of her career), including a pop crossover with “Almost Persuaded” (not the Christian hymn) that won him two Grammy awards. How times changed. When Houston died in 1993 he got one of those one-inch “Country Singer Dies” notes on the back page of the newspaper…if that. All of them mentioned his association with Mandrell. This was their first hit together. It’s always been a favorite of mine, a story about a barroom waitress who’s loyal to her man. After Closing Time Written by Billy Sherrill, Norro Wilson, and Danny Walls Recorded by David Houston and Barbara Mandrell From A Perfect Match, 1970 JUKEBOX LYRICS: I’ll even play the jukebox on your dime