JPF Home Page Forums General Messages General Message Forum He Stopped Loving her Today?

I have seen this song heralded as the best song ever written in country music. I recall John Rich mentioning on Nashville Star that choosing to cover that song would be an example of taking HUGE risk because it is on sacred ground and far above anything else in comparison.

I have listened to this song a few times now, and, frankly, I just don't see what all the fuss is about. I won't argue that is isn't a good song with an emotional, heartfelt lyric, and a good hook, but the BEST COUNTRY SONG EVER WRITTEN? Not by a longshot, in my ADMITTEDLY NON-EXPERT opinion.

'Live Like You Were Dyin' is head and shoulders better, IMHO, but I will defer to those who are life-long country music fans for a more informed opinion about this, not wanting to ruffle any feathers. I learned a long time ago in college (Western Kentucky University) never to say anything bad about Elvis around southern folk.

I can still remember the first time I heard "He Stopped Loving Her Today." We were in an old schoolbus painted blue, on our way to play at Tyndall Air Force Base in the Florida Panhandle. We had a country station on the radio, and the d.j. announced George Jones' new single. We were stunned. We heard the song twice more on the trip. The way the story is set up is just amazing. It gave me chills.

He said "I'll love you 'til I die" right there in the first line, that sets up the whole song. He's the classic lovelorn, heartbroken old fool who never got over her. Then the set up..."I went to see him yesterday, oh but I didn't see no tears, all dressed up to go away, first time I'd seen him smile in years." Then the hook hit..."He stopped loving her today." Of course, he told her. He'd love her 'til he died...well...he stopped loving her today. The song never says he died, it just lets you figure it out. He made a promise and he kept it.

Absolutely amazing song and an absolutely amazing performance by George Jones. Yes, it might not be the best song in country music, but it's way ahead of whatever's second.

I heard the song in 76' I think. I was sitting in a 72' Pontiac Bonneville with my father. He picked me up from work at a solar water heating company where I worked because my own car (Fiat Spider) didn't run. That was the last real country song of his generation. Only because "The Outlaws" overshadowed it for us young bucks. When we heard Waylon and Willie, things changed. Ben

OK! I can see the cleverness of it when you pay closer attention to the lyric. I guess knowing that he was dead before you hear the song takes away some of the impact. It is a song that is designed to hook you on the first listen, which is likely one reason it was so successful.

Those damn country music lyricists. They think of everything, don't they?

I don't do very many covers. Matter of fact I have never done covers in public. Except one.
He Stopped Loving Her Today.
I don't remember when I first heard that song.
I was probably sitting on a Bar stool listening to Country music in My favorite Saloon. I probably got a tear in my beer when I heard it.
Just listen to it. Close your eyes. When George goes up a Half a step it will give you shivers.
You can't put any other Country song in the same Category...well maybe I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry might come close.

Live Like You Were Dying is a great song. The first time I heard it I was stunned. But nothing like hearing George sing that song.

Argue it all you want but NOBODY is doing that kind of Country anymore.
Well I am trying, I just ain't very good at it.

Mike & Bill,

I agree 100% with both of you.

"He Stopped Loving Her Today", by George Jones, and "Easy Loving", by Freddy Hart, are the only two country songs to ever have won "Song Of The Year" twice. "He Stopped Loving Her Today" is a far better song. And Bill, that half step modulation just brings more power and passion to the song. Very few songs in country music modulate keys these days. Too bad, because it brings new energy and passion to the song.

My Trad Country song on OurStage is currently #20. After the first chorus, I modulate a half step from "d" to "E-Flat". I have received as many positive comments about that modulation as I have about anything else regarding that cut.

Bill, you're good enough that I listen to your CD at least once a week. So, take that!

Alan

OK, I admit now that the more Listen to this song, the more I am starting to like it. I guess it grows on you. I can see why it is considered such a classic. The lyrics (posed below for reference) tell the story very well.


He said I'll love you 'til I die
She told him you'll forget in time
As the years went slowly by
She still preyed upon his mind

He kept her picture on his wall
Went half crazy now and then
He still loved her through it all
Hoping she'd come back again

Kept some letters by his bed
Dated 1962
He had underlined in red
Every single I love you

I went to see him just today
Oh but I didn't see no tears
All dressed up to go away
First time I'd seen him smile in years

(Chorus)
He stopped loving her today
They placed a wreath upon his door
And soon they'll carry him away
He stopped loving her today

(Spoken)
You know she came to see him one last time
Oh and we all wondered if she would
And it kept running through my mind
This time he's over her for good

He stopped loving her today
They placed a wreath upon his door
And soon they'll carry him away
He stopped loving her today

I would more than agree!

Alan
It's good to have you back.
You are far too kind my friend.
Sorry you couldn't make it to Nashville last week. Next time.

Oh just so you know when I was voting the Traditional Channel your song came up against mine. You won. It was close though. HA.

Four verses before it gets to the chorus??? Where'd this knucklehead learn to write?

Midnite

Very simple words but tells a story and plays with your emotions, the makings of a great traditional country song. Too bad we don't get many like it any more.

blight, I'm glad you finally got it. I thought I was gonna have to hunt you down and make you listen until you got it!!

The story goes that George Jones did not want to record this song, and he put it off, and put it off. Finally he was talked into it and when released was surprised at how well it did.

I have loved this song from the first time I heard it. Not the lyric, not the vocal, but the emotion in both.

Live Like You Were Dying IS a great song, BUT the emotion in George Jones' vocal here put to shame anything around today. He may not have the purest, smoothest voice, but he can put the tears in my eyes quickly!

I got so tired of "Live Like You Were Dying" after a while that I turned off the radio every time it came on.
Never turn off "He Stopped Loving Her Today."

Well,
I have been listening to Country Music since about 1950. The song is good but not great in my opinion. Too many others that I would put above that song. George had some good songs.
An old song RAGED BUT RIGHT by George is better.
THE WINDOW UP ABOVE
TENDER YEARS
SOMETIMES YOU JUST CAN'T WIN
All by George. To George's credit he does like and do Traditional Country. Something that is missing in todays (Country) music.

I have always held this song in my mind as a pinnacle.

1) the song
2) the performance


Tom

I think for me the emotion just blows anything else out of the water. You just don't get that anymore. There have only been a handful of songs that I have actually had to pull off the road when I hear them because of the tears. He Stopped Loving Her was one of those. I don't do it every time but there are still times it torches me so deep inside I must stop what I'm doing. Jesus Take The Wheel did this to me but only for the first few times and then I moved on and still like it but it doesn't hit that soul in me.

It's a great song. But if I was making a top 20 list, I don't think it would win the top spot.
I mean, just think of all of those great old classics...by Acuff, Hank Williams, Hank Snow, Tex Ritter, Tex Williams, Lefty Frizzel, Jim Reeves, Eddy Arnold, Red Sovine, Johnny Cash, etc.
That's some pretty tough competition.

I was never impressed with "Live Like You Were Dying". I think it's because I'm not much of a McGraw fan. He recorded a couple of songs I like (Angry All The Time and Please Remember Me), but overall I've never thought of him as a credible country star...since he started out with that "buffalo underwear" song.

Bill,

I'll be in and out; but "in" for a little while. Good to hear from you. And yeah, you do classic country about as good as a lot of artists from the era.

Helen and I were terribly disappointed not to have made it to Nashville. We finally got everything rearranged to go to California at a later date to settle her mother's estate, got permission from the doctor for Helen to ride as far as Nashville in a car, et., etc. We had the Explorer packed (clothes, 4 guitars, a guitar amp, a mic, a laptop, so and so on. Two hours before we we going to leave, the dogsitter called and said she couldn't watch our two cockers. The only kennel that would watch them was icredably expensive ($28.00 per day for each day). Most kennels wouldn't because the one almost died last month Mediated Immune Histolic Anemeia and wasn't 100% healthy and the other one has a ton of medical issues (it was badly abused as a pup). So, we were left stranded with no dogsitter. That's the last thing I thought would be a problem.

Same with me on the songs...I voted yours over mine.

BTW, is your brother going to your house or somewhere else once he's releaded?

Hope all is well with you and Sylvia. All our best to both of you.

Oh, the ringtone thing...interesting they brought that on board and didn't make a big deal of it. I don't have a CD Baby account, but I have moved my personal music site over to Host Baby. It's the link iun my signature block that says "Al David's Music Web Site".

You guys take care!

Alan

Interesting sentiments, guys.

I actually never listened to that song until a couple of years ago. George Jones I considered a very good singer, but singers weren't what I was interested in emulating--I will *never* be able to sing.

It was the *writing* that impressed me, and still does. The thing actually has a *plot*--and plot *twists*. All in 3 or so minutes. I don't think anybody else hnas ever done that. That's why when I did the "Something's Missing" challenge, the first person I thought of to emulate was George Jones.

I don't know as I'd put it on a top-anything list, but that's primarily because I don't do lists like that. I do like the song. And yes, it is one of the few that will bring tears to my eyes. George did a good job on the presentation, but it's the writing I find impressive.

joe

Hey Rblight


I must admit in my 20s when I first heard this song (quite by accident as I couldn't get a modern country station to tune in) I missed the point. I felt the same like so what he finaly stopped loving her.. who cares? Then I listened deep to the meaning and got what Samuel mentioned... Now everytime (not just when I hear it) I hear it read the lyrics or think about the story...It sends chills down my spine... I don't know that I'd say it's the best song or lyric ever, but I know of no other song that does that too me everytime without fail.. I gotta rest a moment as reading the lyric's got me all broken up now.
Derek

My sentiments, exactly. George's song is a true MASTERPIECE. Not many songs fit that bill. I agree... it is THE best country song of all time! You statement says it all. I could name you 20 songs better (to me) than you mentioned, but his song puts goosebumps on my arm. Wow!

I agree with you. Like, what? But it's the overall mood, the story. It's a masterpiece. 1 out of 1 million song. Really. It's perfect. Almost. (Yep, I could improve it, haha.) Nah, it's perfect.

Nice to read this article about music. After reading this I also wanted to listen to the song callded 'He stopped loving her today.' Because while reading this it made me cry. It is full of emotion. Really it is a heart touching song.

===============================================

maddy

"http://www.alcoholaddiction.org/alabama"

I read an article about this a while back. Don't know how true it is. It said George thought the song was to sad to be a hit. But the label insisted he do the song. Go figure.

While we're on the subject of country songs that tug at your heart strings, what about the Wayne Newton version of "Daddy don't you walk so fast" recorded in 1972?

Bill,

I have read that same story, too, on several occasioons. I'm glad the label insisted!

Alan

Hi Alan!!! Missed you & Helen!!! Really!!!!

After reading all this .. i have to go find this song and have a listen! I will be back!
Joanne

Tom I remember that song. I'll have to find it and have a listen.
I was never a big Newton fan but he did some good songs.

Joanne...

HI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And we missed you, too! If we win our litigation and get semi-rich, we'll go to R.I. and visit with ya!

Luve & Hugs To Ya!

Alan & Helen

I never liked listening to Wayne Newton very much, but I can remember seeing him on the Tonight show when he was still a boy and playing maybe three or four instruments during his first song and really kicking tail on every one of them! I knew he was destined for greatness, even if I didn't like his voice at all.

I try very hard not to list greatest, best, or any of that about artistic endeavors because I believe it diminishes the art, but I really love the song "He Stopped Loving Her Today". I do think it is a great song, but I choose not to compare it to anything else. The modulation is brilliant. Most songs do not modulate that early in the development and it helps to elevate the suspense of the story.

Also, there are only two verses before the chorus, but there are eight short lines to the verse, not four.

I nerver liked his voice much either, but it worked for that particular song.

Here is the article you mentioned', with source link.


Classic Tracks: George Jones' "He Stopped Loving Her Today"
Jul 1, 2001 12:00 PM, by Barbara Schultz

'He Stopped Loving Her Today' It's the saddest song, and the most mournful voice, and the most histrionic production and the cruelest punchline in the history of country music. But what a magnificent cry America had in 1980 when the first track of George Jones' album I Am What I Am became the brilliant, infamous superstar's first Number One single in six years

By 1980, the career and life of George Glenn Jones had already been a roller coaster of epic proportions. Born in 1931 in Saratoga, Texas, Jones was the youngest of eight children. During the Depression, his family was the kind of poor that no one born post-World War II can really imagine; the kind of poor at the deepest roots of American blues and country music.

'One Christmas, I got a guitar that was about six inches long,' Jones recalls in his 1997 autobiography, I Lived To Tell It All. 'It wasn't really a guitar at all, just an imitation. But we children were as happy as larks.' He describes a life 'rich in love as it was poor in possessions,' until one of his sisters died, probably of pneumonia, and his father turned to alcohol and began a cycle of pain for the Jones family that George would perpetuate.

Jones left home at 16 and began his recording career in 1953, when he was discovered by Starday Records founder/producer Pappy Daily. He had his first hit in 1955 with “Why Baby Why,” which went to Number 4. Jones' early recordings, including sensational up-tempo songs such as 'White Lightning' and 'The Race Is On' and duets with Melba Montgomery, were very much in the Hank Williams hard-core country style.

In the late '60s, Jones met and fell in love with Tammy Wynette, who also became his third wife. In order to record with Wynette, Jones left his current label, Musicor, in 1971, and joined Wynette's, Epic, where he also began recording with Wynette's producer Billy Sherrill, who was known for his “countrypolitan” sound.

It's impossible to talk about George Jones' years at Epic without mentioning the artist's well-documented battle with alcohol and drugs. By the time he met Wynette, Jones already had a serious drinking problem. While he and his wife were professing love and fidelity in their hit records, such as 'We Can Make It' and 'The Ceremony,' their famous union was unfortunately troubled almost from the beginning, largely because of Jones' excessive drinking, tirades, and occasional disappearances. Wynette filed for divorce in 1974, but the couple was persuaded by Epic to continue touring and recording together. This was extremely demoralizing for Jones, and, not surprisingly, his drinking only got worse.

'In the 1970s, I was drunk the majority of the time,' Jones writes. 'I had drunk heavily for years and had pitched benders that might last two or three days, but in the 1970s, I was drunk the majority of the time for half a decade. If you saw me sober, chances are you saw me asleep. It was a five-year binge laced with occasional sickness from sobriety… Some folks think they're in pain if they've had one too many cocktails the night before. They have no idea how it feels to have one too many pints. It's like going through a violent food poisoning with an ax in your skull.'

During this period, Jones fell in with a new manager, 'Shug' Baggott, who gave Jones his first line of cocaine, in an effort to rouse the singer from his drunken stupor and give him the 'energy' to perform. Then things really got ugly. By the end of the decade, Jones was psychologically and physically a shadow of his former self; he was broke and alone, and his pitiable condition was being perpetuated by managers and pushers who were living off of what was left of him. It took a career record — this month's 'Classic Track' — to help Jones begin to climb out of that hole.

In his book, Jones commends Billy Sherrill for continuing to cut hit records with him, even through some of those really rough years. The veteran producer never gave up on Jones' talent, and he continued to offer him top-shelf material to record. 'He Stopped Loving Her Today,' which was written by Curly Putnam and Bobby Braddock, was a song that Sherrill felt was meant for George Jones.

'The song is about a man who loved a woman so much, it killed him when she left,' Jones writes in his book. 'He said he would love her until he died, and only on his deathbed did he stop… Billy loved ‘He Stopped Loving Her Today.’ He said he was unable to sleep the night after first hearing the song. But he thought it was incomplete… Putnam and Braddock killed the song's main character too soon in their early versions. Billy kept telling them to kill the guy at a different time and then have the woman come to his funeral. The writers thought that might be too sad, and Billy did, too. But he knew the song, on a scale of one to 10, was about an eight. He saw it as a potential 11.'

Jones says that Sherrill had a notebook 'about an inch thick' full of possible rewrites of the song. When the producer was finally satisfied with a version, he brought Jones into CBS Studio B in Nashville, the old Quonset Hut, to record.

In 1979, when tracking for this song began, Studio B was mostly run by veteran engineer Lou Bradley (Tammy Wynette, Merle Haggard, Charlie Rich, etc.), who had joined CBS as a staff engineer a decade earlier. Bradley worked in Studio B for 13 years all told, but his memories of this tracking date are still vivid. 'What I remember most was that we'd gone through a difficult year with George, but he was beginning to straighten out his problems, and he came in to record, and I turned to Billy Sherrill and said, ‘Boy, it's good to have him back,’ and he said, ‘Ninety percent, but I'll take it.’'

Bradley says that in '79, songs were mostly recorded live in Studio B, though the strings and some of Jones' vocals on this track were overdubbed in Studio A by its resident engineer, Ron “Snake” Reynolds. Bradley says he can still picture where all the musicians were situated: 'Say you've got the piano, and to the left of the piano player is a wall about as high as the piano, and beside that's the bass player right even with him. Then the drums are behind that, but it's open; it's just a shed up over him. Two acoustic guitar players would sit nestled right next to the piano, and then across from them were the electric and the steel, and then the vocal and the background were right looking at the piano.

'Normally, we worked the room with the singer away from the band a little bit,' Bradley continues, 'but we did Charlie Rich in there and cut ‘Behind Closed Doors’ and those hits. Charlie played piano, but Pig Robbins would play the piano [on the sessions], and Charlie would like to stand near the piano, and so Billy got to cut everybody standing by the piano, right in the middle of the band, and that's how we cut Jones that day.'

Like most engineers who worked in CBS Studio B before the label closed it in 1982, Bradley remembers the room as practically ideal. 'It was a neutral room,' he recalls, 'but I knew all the sweet spots if you wanted to liven something up a little bit, or you needed something not as reflective. That room was just great. We cried when we lost it.'

'Studio B, in particular, was such a great-sounding room that all the leakage you got just sounded warm and rich,' Reynolds says. 'It was like recording in a concert hall or something. The musicians sometimes wouldn't use headphones, because it sounded so good in the room.'

Gear-wise, the studio was equipped with a custom console that Bradley says arrived for duty in Studio B on the same day he did in 1969. 'They built it at Columbia in New York,' he explains. 'The original console in that studio had Langevin EQs and faders, so when they designed the one to replace it, they used the Langevin EQ and faders again. It was a 16-bus, 24-in console, and we had seven echo sends and returns. I'd keep six EMTs and one live room, and I was probably one of the first guys there to quit printing reverb. The guys that preceded me came from mono 3-track days, and I did too, but I'd probably done more multitrack recording.'

Bradley also remembers all of his microphone selections for the date — mostly lots of Neumanns. The Jordanaires with Millie Kirkham sang the backing vocals into a Neumann U47. Instrument mics were a U67 on electric guitar, a 249 on the steel and KM84 on piano. Drum mics were KM84s on snare, hi-hat and toms, a pair of U67s as overheads and an E-V RE20 on the bass drum. On Jones' vocal, Bradley used a U87 on this session, though they'd used a U67 on some earlier dates. 'That mic complemented his voice, and Tammy's, too, when we did the duet records. And that's what he always sang into, so that's a psychological thing, too.'

'He Stopped Loving Her Today' was recorded 15 ips Dolby to an Ampex tape machine. The string overdubs were recorded by Reynolds at a later tracking date, and some of Jones' vocals took many more dates to secure. 'It took them awhile, but they were striving for something a bit out of the normal,' Reynolds says. 'They knew they had something special, especially Billy, I think. One thing kind of funny about it was that the melody was so close to ‘Help Me Make It Through the Night’ [by Kris Kristofferson] that George kept singing the melody to ‘Help Me Make It Through the Night.’ He couldn't get that out of his head. That gave him a bit of a problem early on, and they took their time to get the narration just right.'

The narration part of the song consists of four lines Jones speaks rather than sings: 'She came to see him one last time/And we all wondered if she would/And it kept running through my mind/This time he's over her for good.'

'Pretty simple, eh?' Jones asks in his book. 'I couldn't get it. I had been able to sing while drunk all of my life. I'd fooled millions of people. But I could never speak without slurring when drunk. What we needed to complete that song was the narration, but Billy could never catch me sober enough to record four simple spoken lines. It took us about 18 months to record a song that was approximately three-minutes long.'

Reynolds says that Jones may actually have been overly self-deprecating in this case. 'George will knock you out every time,' he says. 'He is one of the last few artists that I can remember who would give you chill bumps while he was singing with the band. Billy and I would just look at each other and shiver when George would hit some of those crazy licks that he does, so every time he sings, it's unusual and it's good, but it might not be exactly what they were looking for at the time.'

In any event, Sherrill, Jones and the engineers stuck with it over many months before they had the song completed. On the day they finished, Jones writes, 'I looked Billy square in the eye and said, ‘Nobody will buy that morbid son of a bitch.’ Then I marched out the studio door.'

The song is fairly depressing, but Jones had turned in an absolutely brilliant performance, and Sherrill's production was nothing short of genius. 'A lot of people tried to copy what Billy did,' Bradley says, 'and they'd hire that studio, they'd hire the same engineer, and they'd hire the same musicians and background singers, but they wouldn't get it, because they were listening to the end result, and the end result was what you heard after you walked the path to get there. To really understand it, you'd have to isolate some aspects of the recordings, like the dynamics. I pulled the record out and listened to it today, and you can hear that in the rhythm section, and you can also hear subtle things like the strings come in and you can tell that they're muted. [Sherrill] did that a lot. He'd make the strings mute on their entrance, particularly if it came in under a verse; it was soft, because the singer was having to sing it soft and low to interpret the lyric, and then the mutes come off when it kicks into the bridge. It just made sense to him to keep them out of the way but let their presence be known.

'I felt like people misinterpreted how he got his sound. He got his sound trying to make the song come off and the singer singing it. That was the most important thing in the room. Not anything technical, not anything musical, not anything but that singer and the song, and all his juices flowed to make that happen.'

In his autobiography, George Jones writes more about the recording of 'He Stopped Loving Her Today' than he does about any other song. 'I went from a twenty-five-hundred-dollar act who promoters feared wouldn't show up to an act who earned twenty-five thousand dollars, plus a percentage of the gate receipts. That was big money for a country artist 16 years ago… To put it simply, I was back on top. Just that quickly. I don't want to belabor this comparison, but a four-decade career had been salvaged by a three-minute song.'

'He Stopped Loving Her Today' earned Jones a Grammy Award for Best Country Male Performance in 1980. It also resulted in CMA Awards for Best Male Vocalist of the Year in 1980 and 1981, and it was the Academy of Country Music Single of the Year and Song of the Year in 1980. Even more importantly, while on tour supporting the Platinum album I Am What I Am, Jones met his current wife, Nancy Sepulvada, whom he married in 1983. Nancy Jones helped her husband work toward sobriety.

The great producer Billy Sherrill is retired now, but Lou Bradley says, 'I'd like to get into the studio with him just one more time, because I don't think anybody cutting records now understands how to cut a ballad any better than he did.' Bradley and Reynolds both went independent when CBS Studios closed in 1982. Both still have very successful careers. Reynolds recorded Shania Twain's smash The Woman In Me album and is currently in the studio recording Earl Scruggs and a host of famous musical guests. Bradley recorded Merle Haggard's beautiful 2000 album If I Could Only Fly and is working with the legend on a follow-up.

George Jones was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1992 and the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998. And he is still doing beautiful work today; he recorded a back-to-hardcore country album in 1999, Cold Hard Truth, for which he won another Best Country Male Vocalist Grammy.


http://mixonline.com/mag/audio_george_jones_stopped/