George Jones is hailed as the greatest singer in the history of country music. Over the course of his career, he released several timeless songs and sent several to the top of the Billboard country chart. However, “He Stopped Loving Her Today” stands out from the rest. Recently, Keith Urban called the Jones classic the greatest country song ever written.
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It’s a bold statement, for sure. However, one won’t find many classic country fans who would argue too strongly against it. Urban made the statement while talking about Jones on a recent episode of the WTF with Marc Maron Podcast.
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Keith Urban Makes a Bold Statement About the George Jones Classic
“You know that song ‘He Stopped Loving Her Today’ which is a bigger production,” Maron said while discussing Jones’ vocal style and catalog. “If you try to cover that song, you’d better be very sensitive to his phrasing or it’s not going to work,” he added.
“You just don’t do it,” Urban replied firmly. “Just do your own thing, just change the whole song,” he added. After Maron said he’d tried to cover the song in the past, Urban opined, “It’s one of the greatest songs ever written in county music. …What an amazing concept for a song.”
More About “He Stopped Loving Her Today”
The personnel behind “He Stopped Loving Her Today” reads like a who’s who of classic country. Legendary songwriters Bobby Braddock and Curly Putman penned the song, George Jones sang it, and Billy Sherrill produced it. It goes deeper than that, though, The Jordanaires sang backup and it features piano by Pig Robbins and harmonica from Charlie McCoy. So, Keith Urban made a solid point when he said you “just don’t” try to cover it.
More than being a No. 1 single, it was a major comeback for Jones. He had experienced some hard times and faltering chart success throughout the late ‘70s. “He Stopped Loving Her Today” put him back on top. However, he originally had no interest in recording it.
He shared his initial reaction to the song in his autobiography I Lived to Tell It All. “I Looked Billy square in the eye and said, ‘Nobody will buy that morbid son of a b-tch,” Jones wrote. He also shared his reaction to it being a major hit. “I was back on top. Just that quickly,” he wrote. “I don’t want to belabor the comparison, but a four-decade career was salvaged by a three-minute song.”
It just goes to show that even legends can be wrong.
Featured Image by Debra L Rothenberg/WireImage
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