It Took George Jones More Than 80 Takes To Record His First No. 1 Hit

In 1959, George Jones had his first No. 1 single, with “White Lightning”. Written by J.P. Richardson, better known as The Big Bopper, “White Lightning” appears on Jones’s third studio album, White Lightning And Other Favorites.

The fun, uptempo song says, “Well in North Carolina way back in the hills / Me and my old Pappy and he had him a still / He brewed white lightning till the sun went down / Then he’d fill up a jug and he’d pass it around. Mighty mighty pleasing my Pappy’s corn squeezing / Well, the G men, T men, revenuers too / Searching for the place where he made his brew  / They were lookin’, tryin’ to book him / But my Pappy kept on cookin’ / Whew, white lightning.”

At the time Jones was recording the song, he was also deep in the throes of alcoholism. In Jones’s I Lived To Tell It All memoir, he recalls the challenges of recording “White Lightning” while intoxicated. Buddy Killen, who played guitar on the song, was less than amused by Jones’s drunken antics.

“I was drinking heavily throughout the session, and Killen later said we did 83 takes before we got one we could use,” Jones writes. “Killen said he wore the skin off his fingers playing that same opening, and had to wear Band-Aids to cover raw blisters. Years later, he said he could still remember the pain from playing that kickoff over and over the stiff, woven-wire strings of an upright bass.”

The Story Behind “White Lightning” by George Jones

“White Lightning” not only became Jones’s first song to land at the top of the charts, but it also became one of his signature songs. Perhaps surprisingly, after all of the takes in the studio, they ended up using the third version Jones recorded of “White Lightning”.

It was after the 11th take that Killen not only threatened to quit the recording session, but also to inflict injury on Jones for making everyone redo the song over and over again.

Before Jones released “White Lightning”, he and Richardson together wrote “Treasure Of Love”, the single Jones released right before “White Lightning”. Jones asked Richardson if he could also record “White Lightning”, with Richardson telling Jones that he was saving the song for him.

Sadly, Jones continued to struggle with his alcohol addiction. When recording his 1980 single, “He Stopped Loving Her Today”, Jones also showed up to the session inebriated.

Interestingly, “White Lightning” was released as a single on February 9, six days after Richardson passed away in a plane crash, along with Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens.

Photo by Gems/Redferns