On August 9, 1967, one of the most famous country duos ever, Tammy Wynette and George Jones, released the album Golden Ring. The country record would quickly race up to No. 1 on the Billboard Country Albums chart. However, it wasn’t the most celebratory occasion. The pair had to be coaxed into putting the album together following their very public divorce in 1975.
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Golden Ring was the duo’s seventh studio album, and it was a pretty massive success. The record yielded two singles, “Near You” and “Golden Ring”, which both hit No. 1 on the Country Singles chart.
The album was likely put in motion specifically to capitalize on the public interest in the pair that remained after their divorce. Their post-divorce album would be the pair’s only No. 1 album together.
Recording ‘Golden Ring’ Must Have Been an Awkward Affair for One of the Most Famous Divorced Country Duos Out There
According to Bob Allen, author of the biography George Jones: The Life And Times Of A Honky Tonk Legend, the whole process of putting the album together and promoting it bordered on toxic. The couple’s bitter divorce had sparked so much public interest that their separate concerts as individual performers “fell off drastically.”
“Tammy found herself strangely ill at ease in front of disappointed and often angry audience members, a few of whom never failed to holler and scream, even in the middle of one of her songs, ‘Where’s George!?’” wrote Allen.
Jones was dealing with the same thing at the time. His 1975 solo record, Memories Of Us, barely made it to the Top 50. According to Jones, getting back together with Wynette to record Golden Ring was far from what he wanted to do. He was left with few alternatives.
“That wasn’t my idea,” said Jones of the proposal to work with Wynette on Golden Ring. “In fact, I hated to work with her. It brought back too many unpleasant memories, and when some fans saw us together, they got it in their heads that we were going to get back together romantically.”
The reunion of the two country stars ended up giving them a career boost. But at what cost? They were one of the most famous married country duos in the genre, and even after they had split, the demand for the two to be together seemed to never end. The former couple would not release another album together until four years later in 1980.
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