Old Violin

Last updated
"Old Violin"
Single by Johnny Paycheck
from the album Modern Times
B-side "Come to Me" [1]
Released1986
RecordedFebruary 1986 (1986-02)
Genre Country
Length3:42
Label Mercury
Songwriter Johnny Paycheck
Producer Stan Cornelius
Johnny Paycheck singles chronology
"Sexy Southern Lady"
(1986)		"Old Violin"
(1986)		"Don't Bury Me 'til I'm Ready"
(1986)

"Old Violin" is a song by American country music singer Johnny Paycheck. It is a single from his 1986 album Modern Times .

Contents

Content

"Old Violin" was recorded in the mid-1980s during Paycheck's tenure with Mercury Records. The song was among his first recordings after Paycheck had been imprisoned for aggravated assault at a bar in Hillsboro, Ohio. [2] [1] [3]

Kurt Wolff, in Country Music: The Rough Guide, describes "Old Violin" as a song in which Paycheck "faces old age with genuine trepidation". [4] The lyric features the narrator comparing himself to an "old violin, soon to be put away and never played again". [5]

Other versions

In 2002, Daryle Singletary covered "Old Violin" for his covers album That's Why I Sing This Way . Singletary wanted to include Paycheck on his recording, and had a then-ill Paycheck deliver the song's closing recitation from his hospital bed. This recording was Paycheck's last before his death in early 2003. [5] [6] George Strait covered the song on his 2019 album Honky Tonk Time Machine . [7]

Charts

Weekly chart performance for "Old Violin"
Chart (1986)Peak
position
Canada RPM Country Tracks [8] 36
US Hot Country Songs ( Billboard ) [9] 21

References

  1. 1 2 Whitburn, Joel (2017). Hot Country Songs 1944 to 2017. Record Research, Inc. pp. 293–294. ISBN   978-0-89820-229-8.
  2. ↑ Dan Cooper. "Johnny Paycheck biography". AllMusic . Retrieved September 8, 2023.
  3. ↑ Rick Schluep (May 23, 1986). "Singer Johnny Paycheck is free on bond". Greenfield Daily Times. p. 1. Retrieved September 8, 2023.
  4. ↑ Kurt Wolff (2000). Country Music: The Rough Guide. Rough Guides. p. 319.
  5. 1 2 Robert K. Oermann (2008). "Johnny Paycheck". Behind the Grand Ole Opry Curtain: Tales of Romance and Tragedy. Center Street. ISBN   978-1-59995-184-3.
  6. ↑ Phyllis Stark (March 1, 2003). "Johnny Paycheck dead at 64". Billboard. p. 6.
  7. ↑ "Everything We Know About George Strait's New Album, 'Honky Tonk Time Machine'". The Boot. Retrieved March 11, 2019.
  8. ↑ "RPM Country Tracks" (PDF). RPM: 12. August 16, 1986.
  9. ↑ "Johnny Paycheck Chart History (Hot Country Songs)". Billboard.
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