1017. Busted (Harlan Howard)

Harlan Howard was a country singer who wrote more than 100 Top 10 hits, including "I Fall To Pieces", "I've Got a Tiger By the Tail", "Call Me Mister In-Between", "Mary Ann Regrets" and "Heartaches By the Number." Artists who sang his songs include Kitty Wells, Patty Loveless, Patsy Cline, Buck Owens, Waylon Jenning, Dolly Parton, Glen Campbell, Conway Twitty, Ray Charles, Brenda Lee, Burl Ives and The Kingston Trio.

This song was a hit for Johnny Cash (1963), and has since been recorded many times, some notable renditions being by Ray Charles (1963), John Conlee (1982) and Patty Loveless. The story goes that Loveless's husband (and producer), Emory Gordy Jr. had once said to Howard that "Busted" was such a great song, it would have been a nice twist if it had been about coal miners. Howard replied, 'You're not even going to believe this, but the original lyrics were about coal miners." He had actually rewritten the lyrics for Johnny Cash, removing the references to coal-mining as Johnny Cash knew more about cotton than coal.

Patty Loveless, then, was the first to record Howard's original coal-mining song.

You can see a playlist of my mining songs here: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=CF909DA14CE415DF

For lyrics and chords of my songs, see my website: http://www.raymondcrooke.com

Category:

Music

Tags:

• folk
• song
• coal
• mining
• country
• johnny
• cash
• patty
• loveless

[DMEB]

BRILLIANT!!!!... love the johnny cash version of this on live at folsom prison..  great tune.. your a talent mate!!!

[raymondcrooke]

Thanks. I love his version too.

[COOLHANDUKE]

Very nicely done. Hadn't heard all those lyrics before. Thanks. Where are you? I'd like to jam!

[raymondcrooke]

A bit far from you, I think. I'm in Melbourne, Australia.

[oldtones]

GOOD  SONG GREAT SINGER

TONY

[raymondcrooke]

Thank you.

[raymondcrooke]

You'll probably catch up to me now that I'm slowing down. Thanks for watching.

[hellodarkness84]

Excellent! Lol, I'm like 1015 songs behind you on my channel, lol. I'm actually starting off with a goal of 50 in 30 days or less. I should just lock myself in my room for 12 hours a day and start churning them out :D

[raymondcrooke]

Thanks for coming back. I'm not finished - just slowing down since I reached my goal of 1001 videos. Hope you'll catch up with the ones you've missed!

[agrlfmtx]

I haven't been tuning in. I thought you were finished. YOU are stuck aren't you?? LOL I enjoyed this!! GReat jOb!!! I can relate man! t:)