This week’s Featured Lyrics are to “He Stopped Loving Her Today”, written by Bobby Braddock and Curly Putman, and made most famous by George Jones. We’re posting lyrics of hit songs so that our songwriters can study them to see how winning songs are constructed. Of course a lot depends on the melody, the rhythm and the artist as to whether or not the song will sell… and whether or not it is in the right place at the right time!
“He Stopped Loving Her Today” is a song recorded by American country music artist George Jones. It has been named in several surveys as the greatest country song of all time. It was released in April 1980 as the lead single from the album I Am What I Am. The song was Jones’s first No. 1 single in six years. The melancholy song was written by Bobby Braddock and Curly Putman. The week after Jones’ death the song re-entered the Hot Country Songs chart at No. 21. As of November 13, 2013, the single has sold 521,000 copies in the United States. Since 2008 it has been preserved by the Library of Congress into the National Recording Registry.
Alan Jackson sang the song during George Jones’ funeral service on May 2, 2013. George Strait and Jackson sang the song as a tribute during the 2013 CMA Awards on November 6, 2013.
Producer Billy Sherrill introduced Jones to the song in 1978 but, according to Sherrill and Jones himself, the singer hated the song when he first heard it. In Bob Allen’s biography of the singer, Sherrill states, “He thought it was too long, too sad, too depressing and that nobody would ever play it… He hated the melody and wouldn’t learn it.” Sherrill also claims that Jones frustrated him by continually singing the song to the melody of the Kris Kristofferson hit “Help Me Make It Through the Night”. In the Same Ole Me retrospective, Sherrill recalls a heated exchange during one recording session: “I said ‘That’s not the melody!’ and he said ‘Yeah, but it’s a better melody.’ I said ‘It might be — Kristofferson would think so too, it’s his melody!'”
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The success of “He Stopped Loving Her Today” led CBS Records to renew Jones’ recording contract and sparked new interest in the singer. Jones earned the Grammy Award for Best Male Country Vocal Performance in 1980. The Academy of Country Music awarded the song Single of the Year and Song of the Year in 1980. It also became the Country Music Association’s Song of the Year in both 1980 and 1981. The song became so synonymous with Jones that few singers dared to cover it. Jones recorded the song again with producer Keith Stegall for the 2005 album Hits I Missed… And One I Didn’t. A recording of Johnny Cash performing the song is featured on the 2003 collection Unearthed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/He_Stopped_Loving_Her_Today
Lyrics to “He Stopped Loving Her Today”
He said “I’ll love you till I die”
She told him “you’ll forget in time”
As the years went slowly by
She still preyed upon his mind
He kept her picture on his wall
Went half-crazy now and then
He still loved her through it all
Hoping she’d come back again
Kept some letters by his bed
Dated nineteen sixty-two
He had underlined in red
Every single “I love you”
I went to see him just today
Oh, but I didn’t see no tears
All dressed up to go away
First time I’d seen him smile in years
He stopped loving her today
They placed a wreath upon his door
And soon they’ll carry him away
He stopped loving her today
You know, she came to see him one last time
Aww, and we all wondered if she would
And it kept runnin’ through my mind
“This time he’s over her for good”
He stopped loving her today
They placed a wreath upon his door
And soon they’ll carry him away
He stopped loving her today
Songwriters Bobby Braddock and Claude “Curly” Putman, Jr.
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Comment by Gerrydarling: The saddest song love I have ever heard. I can’t stop playing it.
http://www.metrolyrics.com/he-stopped-loving-her-today-lyrics-george-jones.html