| "Ballad of Forty Dollars" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by Tom T. Hall | ||||
| from the album Ballad of Forty Dollars and His Other Great Songs | ||||
| B-side | "Highways" | |||
| Released | October 28, 1968 | |||
| Recorded | September 1, 1968 Columbia Studio, Nashville, Tennessee | |||
| Genre | Country | |||
| Length | 3:09 | |||
| Label | Mercury 72863 | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Tom T. Hall | |||
| Producer(s) | Jerry Kennedy | |||
| Tom T. Hall singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
"Ballad of Forty Dollars" is a song written and recorded by American country music artist Tom T. Hall. It was released in October 1968 as the fourth and final single from the album of the same name, Ballad of Forty Dollars. The song was Hall's first top 10 on the U.S. country singles chart, peaking at number 4 on both the U.S. chart and the Canadian country singles chart. [1]
 |
The song is narrated by a cemetery caretaker. He observes the funeral of a man and the people coming bid him farewell, the preacher, the great-uncle’s limousine, his grieving wife, the military "Taps" (as he probably was a war veteran), and the gossip about his estate.
Hall took this song, as many of his hits, from personal experience; he was working with his aunt on a cemetery and was observing many funerals and the people coming, then talking about the guy who owed him 40 dollars. He said: “You're certainly not going to go to the widow and collect it. I guess it's lost.” [2]
| Chart (1968) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| US Hot Country Songs ( Billboard ) [3] | 4 |
| Canadian RPM Country Tracks | 4 |
Carl Lee Perkins was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. A rockabilly great and pioneer of rock and roll, he began his recording career at the Sun Studio, in Memphis, beginning in 1954. Among his best-known songs are "Blue Suede Shoes", "Honey Don't", "Matchbox" and "Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby".
"Great Balls of Fire" is a 1957 popular song recorded by American rock and roll musician Jerry Lee Lewis on Sun Records and featured in the 1957 movie Jamboree. It was written by Otis Blackwell and Jack Hammer. The Jerry Lee Lewis 1957 recording was ranked as the 96th greatest song ever by Rolling Stone. It is written in AABA form. It sold one million copies in its first 10 days of release in the United States making it one of the best-selling singles in the United States at that time.
"Without You" is a song written by Pete Ham and Tom Evans of British rock group Badfinger, and first released on their 1970 album No Dice. The power ballad has been recorded by over 180 artists, and versions released as singles by Harry Nilsson (1971) and Mariah Carey (1994) became international number one hits. The Nilsson version was included in 2021's Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. Paul McCartney once described it as "the killer song of all time".
Ronnie Lee Milsap is an American country music singer and pianist.
Neil Sedaka is an American singer, songwriter and pianist. Since his music career began in 1957, he has sold millions of records worldwide and has written or co-written over 500 songs for himself and other artists, collaborating mostly with lyricists Howard "Howie" Greenfield and Phil Cody.
Ray Peterson was an American pop singer who is best remembered for singing "Tell Laura I Love Her". He also scored numerous other hits, including "Corrine, Corrina" and "The Wonder of You".
"Three Times a Lady" is a 1978 song by American soul group Commodores for their album Natural High, written by lead singer Lionel Richie. It was produced by James Anthony Carmichael and Commodores.
"Wind Beneath My Wings" is a song written in 1982 by Jeff Silbar and Larry Henley.
"When a Man Loves a Woman" is a song written by Calvin Lewis and Andrew Wright and first recorded by Percy Sledge in 1966 at Norala Sound Studio in Sheffield, Alabama. It made number one on both the Billboard Hot 100 and R&B singles charts. Country singer John Wesley Ryles had a minor hit with his version of the song in 1976. Singer and actress Bette Midler recorded the song and had a Top 40 hit with her version in 1980. In 1991, Michael Bolton recorded the song and his version peaked at number one on both the Billboard Hot 100 chart and the Billboard Adult Contemporary Singles chart.
"Everything I Own" is a song written by American singer-songwriter David Gates. It was originally recorded by Gates's soft rock band Bread for their 1972 album Baby I'm-a Want You. The original reached No. 5 on the American Billboard Hot 100. Billboard ranked it as the No. 52 song for 1972. "Everything I Own" also reached No. 5 in Canada and No. 12 in Australia.
"Coming Out of the Dark" is a song by Cuban-American singer and songwriter Gloria Estefan. It was released on January 10, 1991, worldwide by Epic Records as the leading and first single from her second album, Into the Light (1991). It was written by Estefan with her husband Emilio Estefan, Jr. and Jon Secada, and produced by Estefan Jr., Jorge Casas and Clay Ostwald. It became the singer's third number one in the United States and second number one in Canada. The song is a soul ballad which includes the use of a choir. Among the voices in the choir are Estefan's colleague, the Cuban singer Jon Secada, and the R&B singer Betty Wright. The song's accompanying music video received heavy rotation on MTV Europe.
"Don't Break the Heart That Loves You" is an American song written by Benny Davis and Murray Mencher. The song was a success for two artists in two different genres: Connie Francis in the pop field in 1962 and Margo Smith as a country version in 1978.
"Solitary Man" is a song written by American musician Neil Diamond, who recorded the song for Bang Records in late January 1966. It has since been covered many times, notably by T. G. Sheppard, Gianni Morandi, Chris Isaak, Johnny Cash and HIM.
"Teddy Bear" is a song co-written and recorded by American country music singer Red Sovine. It was released in June 1976 as the title track to Sovine's album of the same name.
"There Goes My Everything" is a popular song written by Dallas Frazier and published in 1965. "There Goes My Everything" is now considered a country music standard, covered by many artists.
"The House of the Rising Sun" is an American traditional folk song, sometimes called "Rising Sun Blues". It tells of a person's life gone wrong in the city of New Orleans. Many versions also urge a sibling or parents and children to avoid the same fate. The most successful commercial version, recorded in 1964 by the British rock band the Animals, was a number one hit on the UK Singles Chart and in the US and Canada. As a traditional folk song recorded by an electric rock band, it has been described as the "first folk rock hit".
"I Love" is a song written and recorded by American country music artist Tom T. Hall. It was released in October 1973 as the only single from the album For the People in the Last Hard Town. The song would be Hall's most successful single and was his fourth number one on the US country singles chart, spending two weeks at the top and a total of 15 weeks on the chart. Additionally, "I Love" was Hall's sole entry on the Top 40, peaking at number 12.
"I Care" is a song written and recorded by American country music artist Tom T. Hall. It was released in December 1974 as the only single from the album Songs of Fox Hollow. "I Care" was Hall's sixth number one on the U.S. country singles chart. The single had a one-week stay at number one and remained on the chart for a total of ten weeks.
"That's How I Got to Memphis", sometimes titled "How I Got to Memphis", is a country music standard written by American country music artist Tom T. Hall. The song tells a man's story of coming to Memphis to look for a former lover. The song first appeared on Hall's 1969 album Ballad of Forty Dollars & His Other Great Songs. It has been widely covered, most notably by Bobby Bare in 1970, Deryl Dodd in 1996, and Charley Crockett in 2018.
When Love is New is an album by soul singer Billy Paul. It was produced by Kenny Gamble & Leon Huff; arranged by Bobby Martin, Dexter Wansel, Norman Harris, and Jack Faith; and engineered by Joe Tarsia. Released in December 1975, it reached #139 on the Billboard Pop Album chart and #17 on the Soul chart. It includes the singles "Let's Make a Baby" which hit #83 on the Pop singles chart, #18 on the Soul chart, and #30 in the UK and "People Power" which reached #82 on the Soul chart and #14 on the U.S. Dance chart. The album was reissued on CD in 2010 by the U.K.'s Edsel Records. This was the final album where Paul was backed by MFSB, the house band of Philadelphia International Records (PIR).
 | This 1960s country song-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |