Golden Ring (song)

Infobox Single
Name = Golden Ring


Artist = George Jones and Tammy Wynette
from Album = Golden Ring
Released = May 1976 (U.S.)
Format = 7"
Recorded = 1976
Genre = Country
Length = 3:02
Label = Epic Records 50235
Writer = Bobby Braddock, Rafe VanHoy
Producer = Billy Sherrill
Certification =
Last single = "God's Gonna Get'cha For That"
(1975)
This single = "Golden Ring"
(1976)
Next single = "Near You"
(1976)

"Golden Ring" is a song made famous by country music singers George Jones and Tammy Wynette. Originally released in 1976, the song was the title track to their duet album released that same year. It was a Number One hit on the "Billboard" country charts.

Background

The song was conceived by songwriter Bobby Braddock, whom had seen a television drama about the life of a handgun. The story showed the gun changing hands several times, with a hunter, police officer, criminal and a father of a 2-year-old child all owning the gun at one point, with the consequences played out in each segment. [Roland, Tom, "The Billboard Book of Number One Country Hits" (Billboard Books, Watson-Guptill Publications, New York, 1991 (ISBN 0-82-307553-2)), p. 103]

Braddock applied the same concept to a song about the life of a wedding ring. [ibid] Here, a young couple from Chicago - apparently very much in love - goes to a pawn shop to shop for a ring for their upcoming wedding. The man (both characters are unnamed in the song) laments that he is unable to pick out a more expensive band, but he's willing to buy it to show how much he loves his bride-to-be, whom - in the song's second verse - he marries in a hidden wedding chapel later on that afternoon.

In the third verse, the couple becomes embroiled in what is their final in what is obviously a long series of fights. The man accuses his wife of planning to leave town; the woman retorts by telling her husband she doesn't love him anymore, "and throws down the ring as she walks out the door."

The refrain between each verse speaks about the different meanings of the ring at is stages in life. The first refrain speaks of the promise of lifelong love shown in the glittering ring; the second verse talks about how "at last, it's found a home," and the finale tells of how the ring has been cast aside "like the love that's dead and gone." Each refrain ends with the lyrics of how a wedding band is meaningless without true love ("By itself, it's just a cold metallic thing/Only love can make a golden wedding ring").

Chart performance

Released in May 1976 - 14 months after their real-life divorce - "Golden Ring" became the second George Jones-Tammy Wynette duet to reach No. 1 on the "Billboard magazine" Hot Country Singles chart that August.

Cover versions

Country music artists Jason Sellers and Pam Tillis recorded a cover version in 1999. This version can be found on Sellers' 1998 album "A Matter of Time".

Canadian country music artist Allen Christie also made a cover version for his 2006 self-titled album. The cover song also features Amber Williams.

References and sources

References

ee also

*Whitburn, Joel, "Top Country Songs: 1944-2005," 2006.

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