On This Day in 1968, Porter Wagoner Recorded a Signature Hit With a Plot Twist Better Than Most Movies, Then Dolly Parton and Ernest Tubb Covered It

On this day (September 18) in 1968, Porter Wagoner recorded “The Carroll County Accident” at RCA Studio in Nashville. He released it as a single from the album of the same name in October 1968. The song reached No. 2 on the Hot Country Songs chart and became one of Wagoner’s signature songs. His version inspired several covers from artists like Dolly Parton, Ernest Tubb, and Mel Tillis.

Wagoner had established himself with more than a decade of hits before he released “The Carroll Count Accident.” During the 1950s and early ’60s, he populated the country top 10 with “Company’s Comin’,” “A Satisfied Mind,” “Misery Loves Company,” and “I’ve Enjoyed as Much of This as I Can Stand.” Interestingly, this signature hit came near the end of the most commercially successful period of his career. He only scored two more top-10 hits–“The Big Wind” reached No. 3 in 1969 and “What Ain’t to Be Just Might Happen” reached No. 8 in 1972.

A Highway Sign Inspired This Porter Wagoner Hit

“The Carroll County Accident” is one of the best examples of the storytelling element that sets country music apart from other genres. The narrator explains that life in Carroll County is so boring that a wreck on the highway just inside the county line was huge news. Several residents came to look at “the bloody seats, the broken glass, the tangled mess” that the accident left behind.

A happily married man named Walter Browning died in the crash. The driver, Mary Ellen Jones, almost died in the crash. After regaining consciousness, she explained that she was giving Mr. Browning a ride into town. However, the narrator later reveals that he found Browning’s wedding ring hidden in a matchbox in the wreckage. In the twist ending, he drops the ring down the well to protect his father’s reputation.

One would think that an affair, a devastating car crash, or both inspired the song that became Porter Wagoner’s signature hit. That wasn’t the case, though. “I was driving through Tennessee on my way to Mississippi when I passed an interstate sign that said Carroll County,” recalled songwriter Bob Ferguson. “I said to myself, ‘If I don’t slow down, I’ll be the Carroll County accident. Then, I thought if that isn’t a song title, I’ve never heard one.”

[RELATED: On This Day in 2007, Porter Wagoner Said His Final Farewell With a Marty Stuart-Produced Classic Country Album]

Tennessee and Mississippi are two of the 13 states that contain a Carroll County. By the time he reached Carroll County, Mississippi, he had finished the song.

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