Watch Loretta Lynn Belt Her Signature Song to a Nationwide Audience on ‘The Ed Sullivan Show’

Loretta Lynn released “Coal Miner’s Daughter” as a single in October 1970. By the end of the year, the song had climbed to the top of the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. While it only stayed atop the survey for a week, its impact on Lynn’s career is immeasurable. The autobiographical hit became her signature song and inspired a movie of the same name about the country legend’s life.

Videos by American Songwriter

However, on May 30, 1971, when Lynn appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show, likely to promote her new album Coal Miner’s Daughter, it wasn’t the iconic song it is today. Instead, it was her latest No. 1 and the title track of the album that dropped months earlier, in January. Watch her perform what would become her musical calling card for a nationwide TV audience below.

[RELATED: On This Day in 1968, Loretta Lynn Started a Long Line of Hit Records with ‘Fist City’]

Loretta Lynn Reflects on “Coal Miner’s Daughter”

Loretta Lynn isn’t just singing about hard times in “Coal Miner’s Daughter.” She’s telling the story of her childhood. Poverty, hard work, and love were seemingly the cornerstones of her upbringing. In an interview, Lynn looked back on writing and recording the song and why she had to omit several verses.

“I wrote it on a little $17 guitar,” she recalled. “It didn’t stay in tune, and $17 was a lot of money, because at the time we didn’t have any money,” she added. Then, she focused on the song’s content. “Every word is true. My daddy would work all night in the coal mines. During the day, he would work in the cornfields. There were ten of us. He had to make a living for us,” she explained.

“The song doesn’t tell half of it,” she admitted. “If I told the whole story, nobody would believe it now anyway,” Lynn added. “Owen Bradley heard me writing it. It had about ten verses, and he said it was too long. He said there’s already been an ‘El Paso,’ and there didn’t need to be another one. He knew it was about my life, and he didn’t care about my life, and figured nobody else would,” she said of her producer’s initial reaction to the song. “So I cut out, I think, four verses, and I cried the whole time. I have lost those verses, I do not remember them, I wish I did.”

Featured Image by MediaPunch/Shutterstock