3 Country Ballads From 1963 That Remain Timeless Tearjerkers

If a country ballad isn’t a tearjerker, then you’re probably not doing it right. The whole point of country music is to share real stories of real people. It’s a direct descendant of folk music, which used the oral tradition to communicate—among other things—culture, identity, struggle, and protest. And I think you’ll agree that these three country ballads from 1963 remain timeless tearjerkers because they each speak to desire, misfortune, loss, and heartbreak. All things each generation endures.

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“Sweet Dreams (Of You)” by Patsy Cline

Patsy Cline’s rendition of “Sweet Dreams” is especially heartbreaking. Cline recorded Don Gibson’s aching tune in February 1963, and the following month, she died in a plane crash at age 30. The posthumous release became a crossover hit for Cline, who wasn’t comfortable with the track’s string embellishments. She feared the song might alienate her country audience. Instead, it helped further define her turbulent life, which later became the title of Cline’s 1985 biopic starring Jessica Lange.

You don’t love me, it’s plain,
I should know I’ll never wear your ring.
I should hate you the whole night through,
Instead of having sweet dreams about you.

“Another Man Done Gone” by Johnny Cash and Anita Carter

Johnny Cash and Anita Carter’s haunting reading of the traditional “Another Man Done Gone” appears on Cash’s 1963 album, Blood, Sweat And Tears. Their voices ping-ponging back and forth in ghostly reverb and echo. It recalls the folklorist Alan Lomax’s 1948 recording of Vera Hall. Lomax invited Hall to New York, the first and only time she ever left her home state of Alabama. He captured Hall’s voice using an echo machine. Like generations of lost souls for whom prison traditions were written, so the nameless wouldn’t be forgotten.  

“We Must Have Been Out Of Our Minds” by George Jones and Melba Montgomery

Country duets existed before George Jones and Melba Montgomery, but few sounded like this. Of course, Jones recorded many iconic duets with Tammy Wynette and others. But on “We Must Have Been Out Of Our Minds”, Jones and Montgomery helped establish the standard for woozy, honky-tonk, coed ballads. This old love story finds a couple regretting their breakup. And while a dobro and pedal steel guitar trade sad licks, Jones and Montgomery sing, “Let’s forgive and forget the past we’ve known / And reap together the wild seeds we’ve sown.”

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