And The Crowd Went Wild – Sort Of

There are a lot of great musical origin stories, but the Waylon Jennings classic “Good Hearted Woman” has one that is for the ages.

“Good Hearted Woman” was the title track on a 1971 Waylon Jennings album. RCA Records put the song out and it went to No. 3 in 1972. That sort of song success is what everyone dreams of when they come to Nashville. Doing it twice with the same song – with a twist - is a double dream. But that’s exactly what Jennings did. And then it happened a third time with Jennings and his frequent partner, Willie Nelson.

Let’s start with a little backstory.

In 1969, Waylon Jennings was staying at a motel in Fort Worth, Texas. While reading the morning newspaper he saw an ad for a Tina Turner concert that was coming to town. The ad described Turner as a good-hearted woman loving a two-timing man. This line was in reference to Turner’s relationship with her famously volatile husband Ike Turner.

Like any good song writer, Jennings found himself inspired and did what he did best - he started writing the song. Jennings later joined up with Willie Nelson, who was in the middle of an all-night poker game, told Willie about the idea and what he was writing.

Now just how much Nelson contributed to the song is still uncertain. The poker game continued and the lines that Willie produced were written down by Connie Nelson, his wife at the time. In the authorized Waylon Jennings video biography, “Renegade Outlaw Legend,” Nelson admitted that his contribution to the tune may have been minimal.

"I think he had most of that song written,” Nelson said. “We were in a poker game, and he said, 'Hey, I'm writing a song,' so we laid out of the poker game for a few hands. I think I gave him a line or two and wound up with half the song." 

So, while Nelson admitted to not really having a big hand in the song, Waylon didn’t want to upset his friend and gave Willie half the writing credit and half the publishing. They both did well on the original song.

But the history of this song doesn’t end there.

In September of 1974, Jennings recorded three Texas concerts for his “Waylon Live” album. It featured a lot of his big hits, such as “Rainy Day Woman,” “I’m A Ramblin’ Man,” and “Good Hearted Woman.” The “Good Hearted” story still was not over, however.

With the outlaw movement taking over country music, Jennings, Nelson, Jessi Colter, and Tompall Glaser were about to make country music history with “Wanted: The Outlaws.” The album, released in January 1976, was full of hits from all four artists as well as new songs – such as the Nelson’s “My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys.” Having garnered creative control from the label, Jennings wanted to do something unexpected on the album. He wanted to include “Good Hearted Woman,” and he wanted Nelson on the track. In the studio Jennings took his vocals from the “Waylon Live” album, had Nelson record the two lines that he wrote at the poker game, and added “fake” live concert sounds to make it sound like a live recording.

The song that Jennings couldn’t quite bear to see go away was re-released to country radio and became the biggest song off the album. It went on to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles Chart for three weeks and peaked at No. 25 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It was later named Single of the Year at the 1976 Country Music Association Awards.

The album “Wanted: The Outlaws” won the Album of the Year award and became the first country record to go platinum by selling one million copies. Waylon believed in so much, was inspired by Tina Turner and finished the song over a few hands of cards. All that led to the biggest hit of Waylon’s career and helped make country music history.

So, what about Tina Turner? She also loved the song and recorded it for her 1988 “Tina Goes Country” album.