On This Day in 1974, George Jones Gave Us “The Grand Tour” of a Broken Marriage With the Saddest Song in Country History

In January 1956, George Jones recorded his first-ever single, “No Money in This Deal,”  in a small living room of a house on a highway near Beaumont, Texas. It marked an inauspicious beginning to a career that was anything but. Still widely regarded as the greatest country singer of all time, Jones trafficked in real human emotion, sending 13 songs to No. 1 throughout his nearly seven-decade career.

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Following his death in 2013 at age 81, Slate writer David Cantwell described Jones as “a kind of singing method actor, creating an illusion of the real.” And on this day (Jan. 22), he recorded “The Grand Tour,” one of the finest examples of his artistry.

This George Jones Classic Hit a Little Too Close to Home

Written by Norro Wilson, Carmol Taylor, and George Richey, our narrator of “The Grand Tour” is taking inventory of a bygone marriage. It opens with the deceptively upbeat line Step right up, come on in / If you’d like to take the grand tour. Then George Jones takes us through the home that once belonged to him and his wife—who, we learn in the final verse, “left me without mercy / Taking nothing but / Our baby and my heart.“

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♬ original sound – Jerri Senn

At the time of the song’s recording, Jones’ own marriage to country music legend Tammy Wynette was on the rocks. The pair would divorce the next year—and in a grim twist of fate, Wynette would later marry Richey, one of the song’s writers.

[RELATED: On This Day in 1958, George Jones Released a Self-Pity Heartbreak Anthem Later Recorded by Loretta Lynn, Elvis Costello, Patty Loveless, and John Prine]

Back on Top

Like the best pieces of music, “The Grand Tour” is open to interpretation. Some believe that the lyrics don’t depict a divorce at all; but rather a wife and baby both lost in childbirth. However, the song’s resounding impact on George Jones’ career is certainly not up for debate.

The title track to his fifth album for Epic Records, “The Grand Tour” put Jones back on the top of the country charts for the first time in seven years. It marked the sixth No. 1 hit of his career (or fifth, if you only count solo singles.) And today, more than five decades after its release, “The Grand Tour” still stands out as a masterpiece in a career seemingly full of nothing but.

Featured image by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images