I Always Get Lucky with You
"I Always Get Lucky with You" | ||||
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Single by George Jones | ||||
from the album Shine On | ||||
B-side | "I'd Rather Have What We Had" | |||
Released | April 1983 | |||
Genre | Country | |||
Length | 3:18 | |||
Label | Epic | |||
Songwriter(s) | Merle Haggard Freddy Powers Gary Church Tex Whitson | |||
Producer(s) | Billy Sherrill | |||
George Jones singles chronology | ||||
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"I Always Get Lucky With You" is a song written by Merle Haggard, Freddy Powers, Gary Church, and Tex Whitson. It was first recorded by Haggard on his 1981 album Big City and then covered by American country music artist George Jones in April 1983 as the second single from the album Shine On. The song was Jones' ninth and final number one on the country chart as a solo artist . The single stayed at number one for one week and spent thirteen weeks on the country chart.[1]
Background
Co-writer Merle Haggard recorded the song first on his 1981 hit LP Big City but did not release it as a single. According to the Stephen L. Betts Rolling Stone article "George Jones Gets 'Lucky' with Merle Haggard Song" published online on February 13, 2015, Haggard's manager, Tex Whitson, first pitched it to Jones' producer Billy Sherrill because Jones and Haggard were on the outs at the time. "I'd get mad at him over the years because of his self-damage, but everything I said to him was out of love," Haggard wrote in an article for Rolling Stone after his friend died. "Imagine you're George Jones, and every night you're expected to sing as good as you did on a song like 'She Thinks I Still Care.' He was a shy country boy from East Texas walking around with that on his shoulders. He knew people expected him to be the greatest country singer that ever lived. He was the Babe Ruth of country music, and people expected a home run every time." Sherrill, who had produced Jones and Haggard on their first duet album together A Taste of Yesterday's Wine the year before, still possessed his instincts for a great song and persuaded Jones to cut it. In the 1994 video retrospective Golden Hits, Jones recalled that he "sung it around Nashville at some of the clubs to try and get used to it before I went into the studio and it came off great. It's a great song. Merle Haggard wrote a good one there." Jones, who was about to hit rock bottom after spending most of the previous decade in a booze and drug-crazed wasteland, delivered a sterling performance, which became the last chart topper of his career, ironically bumping off "Pancho and Lefty," Haggard's hit duet with Willie Nelson. Haggard would record the song again in 2006 as part of the second Jones/Haggard release Kickin' Out the Footlights...Again. A duet version featuring Jones and Shelby Lynne was made available on the 2009 Jones LP Burn Your Playhouse Down – The Unreleased Duets.
Charts
Weekly charts
| Year-end charts
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References
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- "No Money in This Deal"
- "Play It Cool, Man"
- "You All Goodnight"
- "Why Baby Why"
- "What Am I Worth"
- "I'm Ragged But I'm Right"
- "Rock It"
- "You Gotta Be My Baby"
- "Just One More"
- "Don't Stop the Music"
- "Too Much Water"
- "Tall, Tall Trees"
- "Seasons of My Heart"
- "Too Much Water"
- "Treasure of Love"
- "White Lightning"
- "Who Shot Sam"
- "Big Harlan Taylor"
- "Accidentally on Purpose"
- "Out of Control"
- "The Window Up Above"
- "Family Bible"
- "Tender Years"
- "Aching, Breaking Heart"
- "She Thinks I Still Care"
- "Open Pit Mine"
- "A Girl I Used to Know"
- "Your Heart Turned Left (And I Was on the Right)"
- "I'll Share My World with You
- "The Race Is On"
- "Love Bug"
- "Take Me"
- "I'm a People"
- "Walk Through This World with Me"
- "I Can't Get There from Here"
- "If My Heart Had Windows"
- "Say It's Not You"
- "Small Time Laboring Man"
- "As Long as I Live"
- "Milwaukee, Here I Come" (with Brenda Carter)
- "When the Grass Grows Over Me"
- "I'll Share My World with You"
- "If Not for You"
- "She's Mine"
- "Where Grass Won't Grow"
- "Tell Me My Lying Eyes Are Wrong"
- "A Good Year for the Roses"
- "Sometimes You Just Can't Win"
- "Right Won't Touch a Hand"
- "I'll Follow You (Up to Our Cloud)"
- "We Can Make It"
- "Loving You Could Never Be Better"
- "A Picture of Me (Without You)"
- "What My Woman Can't Do"
- "Nothing Ever Hurt Me (Half as Bad as Losing You)"
- "Once You've Had the Best"
- "The Grand Tour"
- "The Door"
- "These Days (I Barely Get By)"
- "Memories of Us"
- "The Battle"
- "You Always Look Your Best (Here in My Arms)"
- "Her Name Is"
- "Old King Kong"
- "If I Could Put Them All Together (I'd Have You)"
- "Bartender's Blues"
- "I'll Just Take It Out in Love"
- "Someday My Day Will Come"
- "He Stopped Loving Her Today"
- "I'm Not Ready Yet"
- "If Drinkin' Don't Kill Me (Her Memory Will)"
- "Still Doin' Time"
- "Same Ole Me"
- "Shine On (Shine All Your Sweet Love on Me)"
- "I Always Get Lucky with You"
- "Tennessee Whiskey"
- "You've Still Got a Place in My Heart"
- "She's My Rock"
- "Hallelujah, I Love You So" (with Brenda Lee)
- "Who's Gonna Fill Their Shoes" (with Lacy J. Dalton)
- "The One I Loved Back Then (The Corvette Song)"
- "Somebody Wants Me Out of the Way"
- "Wine Colored Roses"
- "The Right Left Hand"
- "I Turn to You"
- "The Bird"
- "I'm a Survivor"
- "The Old Man No One Loves"
- "If I Could Bottle This Up" (with Shelby Lynne)
- "I'm a One Woman Man"
- "The King Is Gone (So Are You)"
- "Writing on the Wall"
- "Radio Lover"
- "Yearning" (with Jeanette Hicks)
- "Did I Ever Tell You" (with Margie Singleton)
- "Waltz of the Angels" (with Margie Singleton)
- "We Must Have Been Out of Our Minds" (with Melba Montgomery)
- "Let's Invite Them Over" (with Melba Montgomery)
- "Please Be My Love" (with Melba Montgomery)
- "What's in Our Heart" (with Melba Montgomery)
- "Things Have Gone to Pieces" (with Gene Pitney)
- "I've Got Five Dollars and It's Saturday Night" (with Gene Pitney)
- "Blue Moon of Kentucky" (with Melba Montgomery)
- "That's All It Took (with Gene Pitney)
- "Maybellene" (with Johnny Paycheck)
- "You Can Have Her" (with Johnny Paycheck)
- "When You're Ugly Like Us (You Just Naturally Got to Be Cool)" (with Johnny Paycheck)
- "You Better Move On" (with Johnny Paycheck)
- "Yesterday's Wine" (with Merle Haggard)
- "C.C. Waterback" (with Merle Haggard)
- "We Didn't See a Thing" (Ray Charles with Chet Atkins and George Jones)
- "A Few Ole Country Boys" (Randy Travis featuring George Jones)
- "You Don't Seem to Miss Me" (Patty Loveless with George Jones)
- "A Country Boy Can Survive (Y2K version)" (Chad Brock featuring George Jones and Hank Williams, Jr.)
- "Country Boy" (Aaron Lewis featuring Charlie Daniels and George Jones)
- "Wrong Number"
- "Money to Burn"
- "Big Fool of the Year"
- "I Saw Me"
- "What's in Our Heart" (with Melba Montgomery)
- "My Tears Are Overdue"
- "I Just Don't Give a Damn"
- "He Stopped Loving Her Today"