This week’s Two for Tuesday songs are classic country songs by two country music artists who show us the angst and heartache that accompanies the threat of a rival taking the person they love away from them.
She’s All I Got by Johnny Paycheck
and
Jolene by Dolly Parton
She’s All I Got was written by Gary “U.S.” Bonds and Jerry Williams, Jr. Johnny Paycheck covered the song in 1971, and it made it to No. 2 on the country music charts.
The basic plea in the song She’s All I Got is the narrator begging the other person not to take his lover/wife from him, because she’s all he’s got.
Dolly Parton wrote and recorded Jolene. She released the song on October 15, 1973. It proved to be a huge hit for her. In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked the song at No. 217 and then re-ranked it at No. 63 in 2021 on the magazine’s list of 500 Greatest Hits of All Time.
The narrator in Jolene implores a beautiful woman not to steal her lover/husband just because she can.
Until next time,
Kaye Spencer
Lasterday Stories
writing through history one romance upon a time