The Wild Side of Life

Infobox Single
Name = The Wild Side of Life


Artist = Hank Thompson and His Brazos Valley Boys
from Album =
A-side =
B-side =
Released = March 1952 (U.S.)
Format = 7", 78 rpm
Recorded = December 11, 1951
Los Angeles, California
Genre = Country
Length = 2:44
Label = Capitol Records F1942
Writer = Arlie Carter and William Warren
Producer = Ken Nelson
Last single = "Soft Lips"/"The Grass Looks Greener Over Yonder"
(1949)
This single = "The Wild Side of Life"
(1952)
Next single = "Waiting in the Lobby of Your Heart"
(1952)

"The Wild Side of Life" is a song made famous by country music singer Hank Thompson. Originally released in 1952, the song became one of the most popular recordings in the genre's history, spending 15 weeks at No. 1 "Billboard" country chartsWhitburn, Joel, "Top Country Songs: 1944-2005," 2006.] , solidified Thompson's status as a country music superstar and inspired the answer song, "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels" by Kitty Wells.Malone, Bill, "Classic Country Music: A Smithsonian Collection" ((booklet included with "" 4-disc set). Smithsonian Institution, 1990).]

ong history

"The Wild Side of Life" carries one of the most distinctive melodies of early country music, used in "I'm Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes" by the Carter Family and "Great Speckled Bird" by Roy Acuff. That, along with the song's story of a woman shedding her role as domestic provider to follow the night life, combined to become one of the most famous country songs of the early 1950s.

According to country music historian Bill Malone, "Wild Side" co-writer William Warren was inspired to create the song after his experiences with a young woman — a honky tonk angel, as it were — who "found the glitter of the gay night life too hard to resist." Fellow historian Paul Kingsbury wrote that the song appealed to people who "thought the world was going to hell and that faithless women deserved a good deal of the blame."Kingsbury, Paul, "The Grand Ole Opry History of Country Music: 70 Years of the Songs, the Stars and the Stories," Opryland USA, Villard Books, Random House, New York, 1995.]

Jimmy Heap and His Melody Masters first recorded "Wild Side" in 1951, but never had a hit with the song. Thompson did, and his version spent three and one-half months atop the "Billboard" country chart in the spring and early summer of 1952.

"Wild Side" was Thompson's first charting single since 1949's two-sided hit "Soft Lips"/"The Grass is Greener Over Yonder." Thompson had hooked up with producer Ken Nelson in the interim, and one of their first songs together was "Wild Side." [http://wc09.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:jifexql5ldfe~T1] Huey, Steve, Hank Thompson biography at Allmusic]

Answer song

The lyric, "I didn't know God made honky tonk angels," and the tune's overall cynical attitude — Kingsbury noted the song "... just begged for an answer from a woman" — inspired "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels." Recorded by Kitty Wells and released later in 1952, that song, too, became a No. 1 country hit. In "It Wasn't God ... ," Wells shifts the blame for the woman's infidelity to the man, claiming that for every unfaithful woman there is a man who also has gone astray.

Cover versions

There have been many cover versions of "The Wild Side of Life," several of which became hits in their own right. Burl Ives had a top 10 hit with the song concurrent with Thompson's success, while Freddy Fender reached No. 13 on the "Billboard" Hot Country Singles chart in early 1976. In 1981, "Wild Side" and "It Wasn't God ..." were combined into a duet by Waylon Jennings and Jessi Colter on their album "Leather and Lace"; that version reached No. 10.

Other artists who recorded the song included Moe Bandy, Mickey Gilley, Merle Haggard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Hank Locklin, Willie Nelson, Pirates of the Mississippi, Status Quo, Ray Price, Rod Stewart, Conway Twitty, Bonnie Tyler and Hank Williams, among others. [http://wc09.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=17:1723830] "The Wild Side of Life" at Allmusic.]

References