George Jones

For other people named George Jones, see George Jones (disambiguation).

George Jones

George Glenn Jones (born September 12, 1931), nicknamed The Possum, is an American country singer known for his distinctive voice and phrasing that frequently evoke the raw emotions caused by grief, unhappy love, and emotional hardship. He has had more songs than any other singer on the country charts – 167 as of November, 2005. He has also had the most Top 40 Hits – 143 – and is second to Eddy Arnold with the most Top 10 Hits – 78. Over the past twenty years or so, Jones has frequently been referred to as "the greatest living country singer" and "the Rolls-Royce of country singers." Frank Sinatra once called him "the second best white male singer." The country music scholar Bill C. Malone writes, "For the two or three minutes consumed by a song, Jones immerses himself so completely in its lyrics, and in the mood it conveys, that the listener can scarcely avoid becoming similarly involved."

Early Life and Career

Jones was born with a broken arm in Saratoga, Texas to a religious mother and an alcoholic father. He grew up in the settlements north of Beaumont around the Big Thicket. By age 24, he had served in the Marines, and developed his skills as a country musician and singer. Jones started off singing for local radio and in 1954 recorded his first record, "No Money In This Deal."

In 1955 he had his first top 10 hit with "Why, Baby, Why." He had his first country No. 1 on Mercury Records in 1959 with "White Lightning." After Elvis Presley's success, Jones half-heartedly took a stab at rockabilly in the hopes of getting noticed, recording under the name "Thumper Jones," but returned to country almost immediately. In his autobiography, Jones claims that when he encountered these rock and roll records years later he would use them as frisbees. On his earliest recordings Jones imitated his idols Hank Williams, Lefty Frizzell, and Roy Acuff, but as the 1960s began, his voice matured and he developed a unique style that continued to evolve throughout his long career.

He wrote or co-wrote many of his early hits on Mercury Records as well as hits for others, such as "Tender Years," "Life To Go" (a smash for Stonewall Jackson), "Seasons Of My Heart" (a hit for Johnny Cash) and "The Window Up Above," a tune that has since become a standard.

Marriages

File:Jones wynette.jpg

Jones With Third Wife, Tammy Wynette.

Jones was married twice before he turned 24. His first marriage was to Dorothy Bonvillion in 1950, a marriage that lasted but a year. In 1954, Jones married Shirley Ann Corlea, and this marriage lasted until 1968. He next married fellow country musician Tammy Wynette in 1969. This marriage lasted until 1975. He married his current wife, Nancy Sepulveda, who also became his manager, in 1983. Jones credits Nancy for rescuing him from the bottle and cocaine. The couple currently live in Tennessee.

Drinking and Drug Abuse

Jones' alcohol consumption was legendary. For a great part of his life he woke up to a Bloody Mary and spent the rest of the day drinking bourbon.

Perhaps the best known story of his drinking days is tragiccomic. While married to the former Shirley Coreley, his second wife in the mid 1960's. Jones wrote about it in his 1996 autobiography "I Lived To Tell It All":

Once, when I had been drunk for several days, Shirley decided she would make it physically impossible for me to buy liquor. I lived about eight miles from Beaumont and the nearest liquor store. She knew I wouldn't walk that far to get booze, so she hid the keys to every car we owned and left.

But she forgot about the lawn mower.

I can vaguely remember my anger at not being able to find keys to anything that moved and looking longingly out a window at a light that shone over our property. There, gleaming in the glow, was that ten-horsepower rotary engine under a seat. A key glistening in the ignition.

I imagine the top speed for that old mower was five miles per hour. It might have taken an hour and a half or more for me to get to the liquor store, but get there I did.

There are other stories that he was actually arrested by the highway patrol for driving while intoxicated, though those may be apocryphal.

The riding mower doesn't seem to be a one-time event. Wife Tammy Wynette told her own riding mower story in her 1979 autobiography "Stand By Your Man":

About 1 am I would wake up and look over to find he was gone. I got into the car and drove to the nearest bar 10 miles away.

When I pulled into the parking lot there sat our rider-mower right by the entrance. He'd driven that mower right down a main highway. He looked up and saw me and said, `Well, fellas, here she is now. My little wife, I told you she'd come after me'.

There are other stories that he was actually arrested by the highway patrol for Driving Under The Influence, though those may be apocryphal.

In the 1970s, Jones was introduced to cocaine by a manager before a show in which he was too tired to perform. This accelerated his already unpredictable actions. His self-destructive bent brought him close to death and to the inside of a mental hospital in Alabama at the end of the decade. Although somewhat celebrated by some of his fans as the hard-drinkin', fast-livin' spiritual-son of his idol, Hank Williams, he missed so many booked engagements that he became known as "No-Show Jones." He was often broke and later admitted that friends Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash came to his aid financially during this period. Jones' drinking contributed to the dissolution of several of his marriages.

Stardom

Throughout the 1960s, Jones dominated the country charts with a string of hits. Songwriters fell over themselves to get their songs to him because he was, quite simply, money in the bank. Jones himself remained remarkably aloof from fame and fortune while his managers signed him to various recording deals with different record labels. Although he stuck to country with a vengeance, his recordings lost some of their earlier Williams/Frizzell honky-tonk rawness and became more stylized with the emergence of the Nashville Sound. By the end of the decade, however, he was becoming increasingly unhappy with his recordings on Musicor, and began looking around for a new deal. He found it at Epic Records and was signed by legendary producer Billy Sherrill. Despite a shaky start, the Jones/Sherrill partnership would go on to become one of the most legendary in the history of the business.

Jones was introduced to Sherrill by Tammy Wynette, who had co-written "Stand By Your Man" with the producer. She was, at that time, one of the biggest stars in country music. Jones' third wife, Wynette became the passion of his life and he even curbed his by now legendary drinking. The pair were married in 1969 and performed a string of duets together, including "Take Me" (co-written by Jones with Leon Payne, who had written "Lost Highway" for Hank Williams years earlier), "We're Gonna Hold On," and "Golden Ring." Wynette could not keep Jones from drinking, however, and after a turbulent relationship, the couple divorced in 1975.

During the 1970s, Jones began to use cocaine. There were few hits because Jones' voice was often in shambles from his binges and he was unable to record. This period is probably best summed up in a spellbinding song called "I Just Don't Give A Damn," a by now rare co-written tune by Jones and Jimmy Peppers that is on his Memories Of Us LP. However, when Jones did record, it was evident that his singing was actually getting better and he began to be recognized as a first-rate improvisational vocalist. Journalist Nick Tosches noted in the Texas Monthly that Jones "possesses a unique sound and stands alone in country music: a well of pure natural power, capable of swooping from high tenor to deep baritone, of articulating emotion like no other, of weaving the tapestries of hard-core honky-tonk, buoyant rockabilly, and back-country gospel."

In 1980 Jones released the album I Am What I Am,Which included Jones' biggest hit, "He Stopped Loving Her Today," which is often considered to be the greatest country song of all time. It was recorded in the depths of his bad days and literally made fools out of everyone who had previously written him off. It was an instant sensation, going to number one and staying there for 18 weeks. According to Sherrill, the last words an unethusiastic Jones said about the song before bolting from the studio was "Nobody'll buy that morbid son of a bitch." Throughout the 1980s Jones and Sherrill continued to pump out albums, including Shine On, Who's Gonna Fill Their Shoes, andWine Colored Roses.

Jones continued recording throughout the 1990s despite being ignored by modern country radio, a state of affairs that has long been a source of annoyance to him. In his biography I Lived to Tell It All, published in 1996, Jones set out a chronicle of his life and his bad behaviour.

In March 1999 Jones was in a near-fatal car crash and later admitted to driving while impaired. He later recorded a double album of Gospel songs to critical acclaim. Billy Sherrill, who had retired from producing in the early 1990s, came out of retirement to produce the album. Jones still spends up to 165 days a year on the road.

File:George No Show Jones2.jpg

George Jones.

Jones appeared on the latest album by Jerry Lee Lewis that was released in September of 2006. He also released a duet album with Merle Haggard on October 24 called Kickin' Out The Footlights... Again, a sequel to their A Taste Of Yesterday's Wine LP from 1983. The album is advertised as "Haggard sings Jones, Jones sings Haggard."

On October 20, 2006, Jones broke his right wrist in a fall at his producer's studio in Nashville, Tennessee. He was taken to orthopedic surgeon Jane Siegel of the Tennessee Orthopedic Alliance, who performed surgery on October 23, 2006. Eight days later, in spite of his bandaged wrist, the 75-year-old Jones gave his first concert at Carnegie Hall in New York in 44 years. He was unable to play his guitar and, according to The New York Times appeared as if he were in "apparent agitation throughout the concert, which rarely found him engaging with a song." Its review summed up the concert as being "something other than a resounding success." [1]

This year, 2006, marks Jones' 51st year in country music as well as his 37th year at the Grand Ole Opry.

Awards

Year	Award	Awards	Notes
1956	Most Promising New Country Vocalist	Billboard
1962	Most Promising New Country Vocalist	Country Music D.J. Convention
1962	Male Vocalist of the Year	Cash Box
1962	Male Vocalist of the Year	Billboard
1963	Male Vocalist of the Year	Country Music D.J. Convention
1963	Male Vocalist of the Year	Cash Box
1963	Male Vocalist of the Year	Billboard
1970	Walkway of Stars at the Country Music Hall Of Fame	Country Music Hall of Fame
1972	Top Vocal Duo	Cash Box	with Tammy Wynette
1973	Top Vocal Duo	Cash Box	with Tammy Wynette
1976	Top Duet	Cash Box	with Tammy Wynette
1980	Grammy for Best Male Country Vocal Performance for "He Stopped Loving Her Today"	Grammy
1980	Male Vocalist of the Year	Academy of Country Music
1980	Male Vocalist of the Year	CMA
1980	"He Stopped Loving Her Today" Song of the Year	CMA
1981	Male Vocalist of the Year	CMA
1981	"He Stopped Loving Her Today" Song of the Year	CMA	Won "Song of the Year" two years in a row.
1981	Male Vocalist of the Year	Music City News
1981	"He Stopped Loving Her Today" Single of the Year	Music City News
1986	Music Video of the Year	CMA
1987	Living Legend	Music City News
1992	"He Stopped Loving Her Today" Voted All-Time Country Song
1992	Inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame	Country Music Hall of Fame
1993	The Pioneer Award	Academy of Country Music
1993	Vocal Event of the Year	CMA	with Garth Brooks, Joe Diffie, Pam Tillis, T. Graham Brown, Mark Chesnutt, Travis Tritt, Vince Gill, Alan Jackson, Patty Loveless, and Clint Black
1995	Vocal Collaboration of the Year	TNN/Music City News
1998	Hall of Fame Award	Grammy
1998	Vocal Event of the Year	CMA	with Patty Loveless
1999	Grammy for Best Male Country Vocal Performance for "Choices"	Grammy
2003	Ranked #3 of the 40 greatest men in country music	CMT

Discography

Year	Album	Record Label	Notes
1965	Famous Country Duets	Musicor
1965	George Jones and Gene Pitney: For the First Time! Two Great Singers	Musicor	with Gene Pitney
1965	George Jones and Gene Pitney (Recorded in Nashville!)	Musicor	with Gene Pitney
1965	Mr. Country & Western Music	Musicor
1965	New Country Hits	Musicor
1965	Old Brush Arbors	Musicor
1966	Country Heart	Musicor
1966	I'm a People	Musicor
1966	It's Country Time Again!	Musicor
1966	Love Bug	Musicor
1966	We Found Heaven Right Here on Earth at "4033"	Musicor
1976	Hits by George	Musicor
1967	Walk through This World with Me	Musicor
1968	If My Heart Had Windows	Musicor
1968	Sings the Songs of Dallas Frazier	Musicor
1969	I'll Share My World with You	Musicor
1969	Where Grass Won't Grow	Musicor
1970	Will You Visit Me on Sunday?	Musicor
1971	George Jones with Love	Musicor
1971	George Jones Sings the Great Songs of Leon Payne	Musicor
1971	We Go Together	Epic Records	with Tammy Wynette
1972	A Picture of Me (Without You)	Epic Records
1972	George Jones (We Can Make It)	Epic Records
1972	Me and the First Lady	Epic Records	with Tammy Wynette
1972	We Love to Sing About Jesus	Razor & Tie
1973	Let's Build a World Thogeter	Epic Records
1973	Nothing Ever Hurt Me (Half as Bad as Losing You)	Epic Records
1973	We're Gonna Hold On	Epic Records	with Tammy Wynette
1974	In a Gospel Way	Razor & Tie
1974	The Grand Tour	Razor & Tie
1975	George & Tammy & Tina	Epic Records	with Tammy Wynette
1975	Memories of Us	Epic Records
1976	Alone Again	Epic Records
1976	Golden Ring	Razor & Tie	with Tammy Wynette
1976	The Battle	Epic Records
1978	Bartender's Blues	Razor & Tie
1979	My Very Specail Guests	Epic Records
1980	Double Trouble	Razor & Tie	with Johnny PayCheck
1980	I Am What I Am	Epic Records
1981	Together Again	Epic Records	with Tammy Wynette
1981	Still The Same Ole Me	Epic Records
1982	A Taste of Yesterday's Wine	Epic Records	with Merle Haggard
1982	Anniversary - 10 Years Of Hits	Epic Records
1983	Jones Country	Epic Records
1983	Shine On	Epic Records
1984	You've Still Got a Place in My Heart	Epic Records
1984	Ladies' Choice	Epic Records
1984	By Request	Epic Records
1985	First Time Live	Epic Records
1985	Who's Gonna Fill Their Shoes?	Epic Records
1986	Wine Colored Roses	Epic Records
1987	Too Wild Too Long	Epic Records
1987	Super Hits	Epic Records
1989	One Woman Man	Epic Records
1990	You Oughta Be Here with Me	Epic Records
1991	Friends in High Places	Epic Records
1991	And Along Came Jones	MCA Nashville Records
1992	Walls Can Fall	MCA Nashville Records
1993	High Tech Redneck	MCA Nashville Records
1993	Super Hits, Vol. 2	Epic Records
1994	Bradley Barn Sessions	MCA Nashville Records
1995	One	MCA Nashville Records	with Tammy Wynette
1996	I Lived to Tell It All	MCA Nashville Records
1998	It Don't Get Any Better Than This	MCA Nashville Records
1999	Cold Hard Truth	Asylum Records
1999	Live With the Possum	Asylum Records
2001	The Rock: Stone Cold Country 2001	Bandit Records
2003	The Gospel Collection	Bandit Records
2004	50 Years Of Hits	Bandit Records
2005	Hits I Missed...And One I Didn't	Bandit Records
2006	Kickin' Out the Footlights...Again	Bandit Records	with Merle Haggard

Gold & Platinum Albums

Certification Date	Album	Certified	Label
09/18/81	I Am What I Am	Gold	Epic Records
12/29/83	I Am What I Am	Platinum	Epic Records
09/11/89	Anniversary - 10 Years Of Hits	Gold	Epic Records
12/18/90	Still The Same Ole Me	Gold	Epic Records
02/13/92	Super Hits	Gold	Epic Records
02/03/94	Super Hits	Platinum	Epic Records
10/04/94	Walls Can Fall	Gold	MCA Nashville Records
12/05/94	Wine Colored Roses	Gold	Epic Records
09/12/95	George Jones and Tammy Wynette's Greatest Hits	Gold	Epic Records
03/07/00	Cold Hard Truth	Gold	Asylum Records
07/03/01	High Tech Redneck	Gold	MCA Nashville Records
11/05/02	16 Biggest Hits	Gold	Legacy Recordings/Epic Records
11/05/02	Super Hits	2x Platinum	Epic Records
10/25/05	50 Years Of Hits	Gold	Bandit Records

Music Videos

Year	Video	Notes
1985	"Who's Gonna Fill Their Shoes?"
1991	"She Loved A Lot In Her Time"
1991	"You Couldn't Get the Picture"
1992	"Walls Can Fall"
1993	"I Don't Need Your Rockin' Chair"
1993	"High Tech Redneck"
1995	"One"	with Tammy Wynette
1996	"Honkey Tonk Song"
1998	"Wild Irish Rose"
1999	"Choices"
2001	"Beer Run (B Double E Double Are You In?)"	with Garth Brooks
2002	"50,000 Names"
2005	"The Blues Man"	with Dolly Parton
2006	"Funny How Time Slips Away"

Songs In Top 100 Since 1955 — (In parentheses: weeks at #1, #2, or #3)

No.	First Charted	Peak Position	Weeks Charted	Title
1	10/29/55	4	18	Why Baby Why, co-written by Jones
2	1/28/56	7	7	What Am I Worth, co-written by Jones
3	7/14/56	7	8	You Gotta Be My Baby, written by Jones
4	10/20/56	3 (1)	11	Just One More, written by Jones
5			5	Gonna Come Get You (Juke Box flip side hit, apparently, of Just One More), written by Jones
6	1/26/57	10	1	Yearning (with Jeanette Hicks), co-written by Jones
7	3/9/57	10	2	Don't Stop The Music, written by Jones
8			1	Uh, Uh, No (Juke Box flip side hit, apparently, of Don't Stop The Music), written by Jones
9	6/10/57	13	6	Too Much Water, co-written by Jones
10	4/14/58	7	10	Color of the Blues, co-written by Jones
11	11/17/58	6	16	Treasure of Love, co-written by Jones
12	12/8/58	29	1	If I Don't Love You (Grits Ain't Groceries), flip side, apparently, of Treasure of Love, co-written by Jones
13	3/9/59	1 (5)	22	White Lightning
14	7/20/59	7	13	Who Shot Sam, co-written by Jones
15	11/23/59	15	12	Money To Burn
16	11/23/59	19	12	Big Harlan Taylor, flip side, apparently, of Money To Burn
17	4/4/60	16	12	Accidentally On Purpose, co-written by Jones
18	4/25/60	30	1	Sparkling Brown Eyes, flip side, apparently, of Accidentally On Purpose
19	8/22/60	25	2	Out Of Control, co-written by Jones
20	11/7/60	2 (1)	34	The Window Up Above, written by Jones
21	5/29/61	16	2	Family Bible
22	6/19/61	1 (7)	32	Tender Years
23	9/18/61	15 (1)	3	Did I Ever Tell You (with Margie Singleton)
24	2/24/62	5	12	Aching, Breaking Heart
25	4/14/62	1 (6)	23	She Thinks I Still Care Grammy: Hall of Fame
26	4/28/62	17	5	Sometimes You Just Can't Win, flip side, apparently, of She Thinks I Still Care
27	6/16/62	11	10	Waltz Of The Angels (with Margie Singleton)
28	7/21/62	13	11	Open Pit Mine
29	8/25/62	28	1	You're Still On My Mind
30	10/6/62	3 (4)	18	A Girl I Used To Know (& The Jones Boys)
31	10/13/62	13	9	Big Fool Of The Year (& The Jones Boys), flip side, apparently, of A Girl I Used To Know
32	2/9/63	7	18	Not What I Had In Mind (& The Jones Boys)
33	4/6/63	29	1	I Saw Me (& The Jones Boys), co-written by Jones
34	5/4/63	3 (1)	28	We Must Have Been Out Of Our Minds (with Melba Montgomery)
35	7/13/63	5	22	You Comb Her Hair
36	11/30/63	20	5	What's In Our Heart (with Melba Montgomery), co-written by Jones
37	12/7/63	17	7	Let's Invite Them Over (with Melba Montgomery), flip side, apparently, of What's In Our Heart
38	2/1/64	5	18	Your Heart Turned Left (And I Was On The Right)
39	2/8/64	15	9	My Tears Are Overdue, flip side, apparently, of Your Heart Turned Left (And I Was On The Right)
40	3/28/64	39	3	The Last Town I Painted
41	6/6/64	31	7	Something I Dreamed
42	6/20/64	10	16	Where Does A Little Tear Come From, flip side, apparently, of Something I Dreamed
43	9/5/64	31	5	Please Be My Love (with Melba Montgomery)
44	9/26/64	3 (6)	28	The Race Is On
45	12/12/64	25	15	Multiply The Heartaches (with Melba Montgomery)
46	1/30/65	15	15	Least Of All
47	3/13/65	9	21	Things Have Gone To Pieces
48	4/24/65	16	10	I've Got Five Dollars And It's Saturday Night (George & Gene) (with Gene Pitney)
49	6/5/65	14	12	Wrong Number, co-written by Jones
50	7/3/65	25	7	Louisiana Man (George & Gene) (with Gene Pitney)
51	8/28/65	6	18	Love Bug
52	10/9/65	40	3	What's Money, co-written by Jones
53	11/6/65	8	18	Take Me, co-written by Jones
54	11/20/65	50	2	Big Job (George & Gene) (with Gene Pitney)
55	3/12/66	6	17	I'm A People
56	3/12/66	46	3	World's Worse Loser
57	6/4/66	47	3	That's All It Took (George & Gene) (with Gene Pitney), co-written by Jones
58	6/25/66	30	7	Old Brush Arbors
59	7/30/66	5	16	Four-O-Thirty-Three, co-written by Jones
60	11/19/66	70	3	Close Together (As You And Me) (with Melba Montgomery)
61	1/21/67	1 (2)	22	Walk Through This World With Me
62	5/20/67	5	17	I Can't Get There From Here
63	9/9/67	24	10	Party Pickin' (with Melba Montgomery)
64	10/7/67	7	18	If My Heart Had Windows
65	2/3/68	8	14	Say It's Not You
66	4/13/68	35	11	Small Time Laboring Man, co-written by Jones
67	7/6/68	3 (1)	13	As Long As I Live
68	9/28/68	12	12	Milwaukee, Here I Come (With Brenda Carter)
69	11/23/68	2 (2)	17	When The Grass Grows Over Me'
70	3/29/69	2 (2)	18	I'll Share My World With You
71	7/19/69	6	14	If Not For You
72	11/15/69	6	14	She's Mine
73	11/22/69	72	13	No Blues Is Good News, flip side, apparently, of She's Mine
74	3/14/70	28	10	Where Grass Won't Grow
75	7/4/70	13	14	Tell Me My Lying Eyes Are Wrong (And The Jones Boys)
76	11/21/70	2 (1)	1	A Good Year For The Roses
77	3/20/71	10	13	Sometimes You Just Can't Win, new version of his 1962 hit
78	6/12/71	7	14	Right Won't Touch A Hand
79	10/2/71	13	12	I'll Follow You (Up To Our Cloud)
80	12/25/71	9	13	Take Me (with Tammy Wynette), new version of his 1965 hit, co-written by Jones
81	2/12/72	6	14	We Can Make It
82	2/12/72	30	8	A Day In The Life Of A Fool
83	5/20/72	2 (1)	14	Loving You Could Never Be Better
84	7/8/72	6	15	The Ceremony (with Tammy Wynette)
85	10/14/72	46	7	Wrapped Around Her Finger, co-written by Jones
86	10/28/72	5	16	A Picture Of Me (Without You)
87	11/25/72	38	9	Old Fashioned Singing (with Tammy Wynette)
88	3/3/73	6	14	What My Woman Can't Do, co-written by Jones
89	4/7/73	32	9	Let's Build A World Together (with Tammy Wynette)
90	6/23/73	7	13	Nothing Ever Hurt Me (Half As Bad As Losing You)
91	9/1/73	1 (2)	17	We're Gonna Hold On (with Tammy Wynette), co-written by Jones
92	11/24/73	3 (1)	16	Once You've Had The Best
93	2/9/74	15	13	(We're Not) The Jet Set (with Tammy Wynette)
94	4/6/74	25	12	The Telephone Call (with stepdaughter Tina)
95	6/8/74	1 (1)	17	The Grand Tour
96	7/27/74	8	12	We Loved It Away (with Tammy Wynette)
97	10/26/74	1 (1)	13	The Door
98	3/22/75	10	14	These Days (I Barely Get By), co-written by Jones
99	5/17/75	25	13	God's Gonna Get'cha (For That)
100	7/26/75	21	11	Memories Of Us
101	11/1/75	92	4	I Just Don't Give A Damn, flip side, apparently, of Memories Of Us, co-written by Jones
102	2/7/76	16	12	The Battle
103	5/22/76	37	9	You Always Look Your Best (Here In My Arms)
104	6/5/76	1 (1)	15	Golden Ring (with Tammy Wynette)
105	9/4/76	3 (2)	16	Her Name Is
106	12/11/76	1 (2)	16	Near You (with Tammy Wynette)
107	5/21/77	34	8	Old King Kong
108	7/16/77	5	13	Southern California (with Tammy Wynette)
109	8/13/77	24	10	If I Could Put Them All Together (I'd Have You)
110	1/7/78	6	14	Bartender's Blues (James Taylor vocal harmony)
111	7/1/78	11	13	I'll Just Take It Out In Love
112	12/9/78	7	13	Mabellene (with Johnny PayCheck)
113	5/26/79	14	11	You Can Have Her (with Johnny PayCheck)
114	6/30/79	22	11	Someday My Day Will Come
115	3/1/80	2 (1)	14	Two Story House (with Tammy Wynette)
116	4/12/80	1 (1)	18	He Stopped Loving Her Today, CMA Award for Single of the Year two years in a row, 1980 and 1981; 1980 Grammy for Best Country Vocal Performance, Male
117	6/2/80	31	9	When You're Ugly Like Us (You Just Naturally Got To Be Cool) (with Johnny PayCheck)
118	8/23/80	2 (1)	17	I'm Not Ready Yet
119	9/6/80	19	11	A Pair Of Old Sneakers (with Tammy Wynette)
120	12/13/80	18	12	You Better Move On (with Johnny PayCheck)
121	1/17/81	8	15	If Drinkin' Don't Kill Me (Her Memory Will)
122	10/3/81	1 (1)	17	Still Doin' Time
123	2/6/82	5	19	Same Ole Me (Oak Ridge Boys backing vocals)
124	8/7/82	1	15	Yesterday's Wine (with Merle Haggard)
125	12/4/82	10	19	C. C. Waterback (with Merle Haggard)
126	1/15/83	3 (2)	19	Shine On (Shine All Your Sweet Love On Me)
127	5/7/83	1 (1)	18	I Always Get Lucky With You
128	9/10/83	2 (1)	22	Tennessee Whiskey
129	12/17/83	6	18	We Didn't See A Thing (with Ray Charles and Chet Atkins)
130	4/7/84	3 (2)	19	You've Still Got A Place In My Heart
131	9/22/84	2 (3)	23	She's My Rock
132	12/22/84	15	16	Hallelujah, I Love You So (with Brenda Lee)
133	4/27/85	19	18	Size Seven Round (Made Of Gold) (with Lacy J. Dalton)
134	8/3/85	3 (1)	20	Who's Gonna Fill Their Shoes
135	11/23/85	3 (2)	22	The One I Loved Back Then (The Corvette Song)
136	4/19/86	9	21	Somebody Wants Me Out Of The Way
137	9/13/86	10	23	Wine Colored Roses
138	1/17/87	8	20	The Right Left Hand
139	5/16/87	26	18	I Turn To You
140	12/19/87	26	14	The Bird
141	2/26/88	52	10	I'm A Survivor
142	6/4/88	63	6	The Old Man No One Loves
143	9/3/88	43	10	If I Could Bottle This Up (with Shelby Lynne)
144	12/17/88	5	20	I'm A One Woman Man
145	4/29/89	26	13	The King Is Gone (So Are You)
146	7/29/89	31	16	Writing On The Wall
147	11/11/89	62	6	Radio Lover
148	9/8/90	8	20	A Few Ole Country Boys (with Randy Travis)
149	8/31/91	32	20	You Couldn't Get The Picture
150	1/11/92	55	14	She Loved A Lot In Her Time
151	4/11/92	60	7	Honky Tonk Myself To Death
152	10/17/92	34	20	I Don't Need Your Rockin' Chair (with Vince Gill, Mark Chesnutt, Garth Brooks, Travis Tritt, Joe Diffie, Alan Jackson, Pam Tillis, T. Graham Brown, Patty Loveless, and Clint Black) 1992 CMA Award for Vocal Event of the Year
153	3/20/93	65	6	Wrong's What I Do Best
154	11/13/93	24	20	High Tech Redneck
155	3/12/94	52	10	Never Bit A Bullet Like This (with Sammy Kershaw)
156	11/12/94	56	7	A Good Year For The Roses (with Alan Jackson)
157	7/1/95	69	4	One (with Tammy Wynette)
158	9/14/96	66	6	Honky Tonk Song
159	9/20/97	14	20	You Don't Seem To Miss Me (with Patty Loveless) 1997 CMA Award for Vocal Event of the Year
160	5/80/99	30	20	Choices 1999 Grammy for Best Country Vocal Performance, Male
161	11/6/99	45	20	The Cold Hard Truth
162	11/20/99	30	13	A Country Boy Can Survive (Y2K Version) (with Chad Brock and Hank Williams, Jr.)
163	5/13/00	55	12	Sinners And Saints
164	8/4/01	47	9	The Man He Was
165	10/13/01	24	20	Beer Run (B Double E Double Are You In?) (with Garth Brooks)
166	3/30/02	55	1	50,000 Names
167	4/23/05	26	23	4th Of July (with Shooter Jennings)

Trivia

• Jones is known as "No-Show Jones" as a result of his missing many performances during his days of drug and alcohol abuse.

• Jones has had more individual songs than any other singer on the country charts, 167 as of November, 2005. He has had the most Top 40 Hits, 143. He is second to Eddy Arnold for the most Top 10 Hits, 78.

• According to a formula derived by Joel Whitburn, Jones is second to Eddy Arnold in his overall ranking for hits and their time on the charts.

• Jones has had four wives and was married twice before he was 24.

• Jones was married to fellow country legend Tammy Wynette. They were married from 1969 until 1975

• Frank Sinatra once called Jones “the second best white male singer.”

• Jones’ 1980 hit, "He Stopped Loving Her Today," is considered by many to be the greatest country song of all time.

Further reading and Reference

• In The Country of Country: A Journey to the Roots of American Music, Nicholas Dawidoff, Vintage Books, 1998, ISBN 0-375-70082-X

• Country Music U.S.A., Bill C. Malone, University of Texas Press, 1985, ISBN 0-292-71096-8

• Joel Whitburn's Top Country Songs, 1944 to 2005, Record Research, Inc., Menomonee Falls, WS, 2005, ISBN 0-89820-165-9

See also

• Academy of Country Music

• List of country musicians

• Country Music Association

• List of best-selling music artists

• Inductees of the Country Music Hall of Fame

External links

• Official Website
• Official MySpace
• George Jones Country Sausage
• Record Label
• at the Country Music Hall of Fame
• at the Grand Ole Opry