Best George Jones #1 Hit

wow. i thought it would have been a lot more. i was hoping for "the window up above." as it is, i'm torn between "the grand tour" and "he stopped loving her."

I'm kind of shocked He Stopped Loving Her Today is from 1980, seems much older.

I'll vote for "Still Doin' Time," because it needs more love.

I can't think of a sadder song than "He Stopped Loving Her Today".

"Still Doin' Time"?

the best-of i've got has 13 of these, gotta put em all in a playlist tonight and get my thoughts in order

i was hoping for "the window up above."

Yes. Or Why Baby Why.

I'm fond of "(I Was Country) When Country Wasn't Cool", because Mandrell's part is fine, good even, but then Jones comes in and sings the shit out of the song; the contrast is breathtaking. The lyric is pretty hard to relate to, because country doesn't seem particularly cool now; in fact it seems off to talk about country being cool at all.

But I voted for "He Stopped Loving Her Today". I think I posted a performance of this song from Hee Haw in the early 80s on some other thread, maybe the jukebox thread. The look in his eyes changes through the performance, from smiling to absolute dread; it kills me, but this song'll do that.

I'm going for "Walk Through This World With Me" in lieu of my favorite, "We Must Have Been Out of Our Minds."

http://blog.wfmu.org/./photos/uncategorized/2008/09/12/jones_rifle_01.jpg

how many of these fourteen were #1 with a bullet?

No Treasure of Love?! White Lightning then, I guess

Looks like "Treasure of Love" peaked at #6: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Jones_discography

"Good Year For The Roses" peaked at 2 and "The Race Is On" at 3... they probably would have grabbed a couple of votes too.

yeah Race Is On probably would've gotten my vote. here he is killin it on the Porter Wagner show

Here's the Hee Haw thing I mentioned earlier:

Definitely "The Grand Tour." "He Stopped Loving Her Today" is indeed one of the all-time great vocals and I'm surprised Hee Haw didn't implode after that performance. My problem with the song is that it's sung in the third person. And lest anyone riposte that it can't be sung in the first person, 1. Well, no. Tons of songs have been sung from The Beyond. and 2. Would "I Stopped Loving Her Today" have been any weirder or impossible than "Her Name Is..." or "Old King Kong" or "The King Is Gone (So Are You)?" No. In fact, it would have been the crown jewel in the fucked-up, disturbing oeuvre of the greatest singer alive.

I like George as a kind of Rod Serling host, though.

so many good songs, but "white lightning" is just too much fun

Kevin: The fact that it's sung in the third-person makes it all the more affecting -- the better for Jones' voice to fill it to bursting, so that it's impossible to deny that it's about HIM.

How about some love for "The Door"? The opening line of that alone is worthy of a vote or two...

Almost voted for it!

The first time I heard "He Stopped Loving Her Today," I realized where Nick Lowe got his sincerity.

She Thinks I Steal Cars

after putting all these in a playlist (except the Mandrell collab), here's how I'm gonna rank 'em:

"Tender Years" - chorus on this is like the perfect distillation of what GJ can do with his voice that noone else can
"Still Doin' Time"
"The Grand Tour" - this is the part where I somewhat embarrassingly admit that I got into Jones via the Geraldine Fibbers
"He Stopped Loving Her Today"
"We're Gonna Hold On" - never paid much attention to this one before, killer intro
"I Always Get Lucky With You"
"Walk Through This World With Me" - I put this on the reception playlist for my wedding last year, along with George & Tammy's "Ceremony"
"The Door" - that sound effect kills me
"White Lightening"
"Golden Ring"
"She Thinks I Still Care"
"Near You"
"Yesterday's Wine"

granted, i could probably put them on another day and throw them in an almost completely different order. they're all winners.

Seconding "Tender Years." Some Dude OTM, the swell in Mr Jones's voice as he heads into the chorus is awesome.

"He Stopped Loving Her Today" might be my favorite country music song ever.

Favorite George Jones song is probably "Who Shot Sam," but that's not to denigrate lots of these. Hard to choose...but "The Grand Tour, I guess. George did divorce music with the best of them.

yeah "Who Shot Sam" is a hoot...we could totally do more Jones polls after this, but I dunno what criteria would be best to use, maybe top tens or just take a best-of and remove the #1s...

the actual noise of a door slamming in "the door" is goofily sublime.

i have to admit that i wondered for a long time whether his wife had left him or died in "the grand tour."

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

can't argue with these results really

From the tour bus EP with Wynette/Jones was solid

I got my Old Possum list right here.

prompted me to check out a mid-80s bio of him, "Ragged But Right" and hoooboy, lot of interesting stuff right out the gate. I was previously entirely unaware of the Big Thicket.

been on a George Jones bender since readin that bio (which is okay and def interesting but v much of it's time)

don't think I quite got the haunted stare, kinda hard to capture
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DOz-14aUQAE2cqj.jpg:large