music.wikisort.org - Composition

"Only Daddy That'll Walk the Line" is a song written and originally recorded by American country music singer Jim Alley and was also co-written by his father Gene Alley.[2] It was made famous by American country music singer and musician Waylon Jennings.

"Only Daddy That'll Walk the Line"
Single by Waylon Jennings
from the album Only the Greatest
B-side	"Right Before My Eyes"[1]
Released	July 13, 1968
Recorded	April 16, 1968 RCA Victor studios, Nashville, Tennessee
Genre	Country
Length	2:23
Label	RCA Victor #9561
Songwriter(s)	Jim Alley Gene Alley
Producer(s)	Chet Atkins
Waylon Jennings singles chronology
"I Got You" (1968) "Only Daddy That'll Walk the Line" (1968) "Yours Love" (1968)

Waylon Jennings version

Jennings recorded the song on April 16, 1968, at RCA Victor Studios in Nashville, with Chet Atkins producing, with Wayne Moss playing the guitar solo.[3] It was released in July 1968 as the second single from Jennings' album Only the Greatest.[4]

Billboard, in a review of the album, said that it and "Walk On Out of My Mind" were "typical of the robust, compelling vocal style."[5] Nathan Brackett and Christian Hoard, in The New Rolling Stone Album Guide, wrote that Jennings began to "really assert his rough-hewn sensibility" on the song.[6]

The song was featured in season seven episode five of Mad Men.

Chart positions

The song spent eighteen weeks on the Hot Country Singles charts, peaking at #2 and holding that peak for five weeks.[1] In Canada, it reached Number One on the RPM Country Tracks charts for the week ending September 30, 1968.[7]

Chart (1968)	Peak position
US Hot Country Songs (Billboard)[8]	2
Canadian RPM Country Tracks	1

Linda Ronstadt version

Linda Ronstadt included a gender-reversed version of the song (sung as "The Only Mama That'll Walk the Line") on her 1969 album Hand Sown ... Home Grown; The song became a staple of Ronstadt's set lists at her concerts during the late 1960s and early '70s. She performed it on The Johnny Cash Show in June 1969, nearly a year before Jennings performed it on the same show.

Hank Williams Jr. version

Hank Williams Jr. included a version of the song on his album Family Tradition, which was released in 1979.

The Kentucky Headhunters version

"Only Daddy That'll Walk the Line"
Single by The Kentucky Headhunters
from the album Electric Barnyard
B-side	"Walk Softly on This Heart of Mine"[9]
Released	1991
Genre	Country
Length	3:10
Label	Mercury #866134
Songwriter(s)	Jimmy Bryant
Producer(s)	The Kentucky Headhunters
The Kentucky Headhunters singles chronology
"It's Chitlin' Time" (1991) "Only Daddy That'll Walk the Line" (1991) "Let's Work Together" (1992)

In 1991, The Kentucky Headhunters recorded a cover version for the album Electric Barnyard. Also released as a single that year, this version spent seven weeks on the same chart and peaked at #60.

Chart positions

Chart (1991)	Peak position
US Hot Country Songs (Billboard)[10]	60

References

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