What Am I Worth

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"What Am I Worth"
"What I'm Worth"
Single by George Jones
from the album Grand Ole Opry's New Star
B-side "Still Hurtin'"
ReleasedJanuary 14, 1956
RecordedAugust 27, 1955
Gold Star Studios, Houston, TX
Genre Country
Length2:34
Label Starday
Songwriter(s) George Jones, Darrell Edwards
Producer(s) Pappy Daily
George Jones singles chronology
"Why Baby Why"
(1955)
"What Am I Worth"
"What I'm Worth
"
(1956)
"I'm Ragged But I'm Right"
(1956)

"What Am I Worth" is a 1956 country music song released by George Jones, co-written by Jones and Darrell Edwards. The song was released on January 14, 1956 and was one of the fourteen songs included on Jones' debut album with Starday Records in 1957.

Contents

Composition

"What Am I Worth" was written by Jones and Darrell Edwards, who had also collaborated on Jones previous single "Why Baby Why," which became the singer's first national chart hit. According to Bob Allen's book George Jones: The Life and Times of a Honky Tonk Legend, Edwards had grown up just across the road from Jones near Saratoga, Texas, and, after a stint in the Coast Guard, tracked Jones down after a show in Beaumont and showed him several poems he had written, instigating a songwriting partnership. [1] Jones and Edwards would collaborate on some of George's biggest early hits, including his second #1 hit "Tender Years." "What Am I Worth" peaked at #7 on the country singles chart. Years later, Jones would recut the song again during his tenure with the Musicor label.

Discography

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"We're Gonna Hold On" is a 1973 duet single by George Jones and Tammy Wynette. The duo, who were a married couple at the time, had their first of three number-one songs on the U.S. country chart. "We're Gonna Hold On" was the most successful of these releases spending fourteen weeks on the chart. George Jones co-wrote the song with Earl Montgomery.

"The Window Up Above" is a song written and originally recorded by American country music artist George Jones. The version recorded by Jones peaked at number #2 on the country charts and spent a total of 34 weeks on the chart. It became a #1 smash for Mickey Gilley in 1975.

"Same Ole Me" is a song written by Paul Overstreet and recorded by American country music artist George Jones with The Oak Ridge Boys. It was released in January 1982 as the second single and partial title track from Jones' album Still the Same Ole Me. The song reached number 5 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart and number 1 on the RPM Country Tracks chart in Canada. The song, an anthem of survival that celebrates the companionship of true love, was released when Jones was at his hell-raising worst; the same month of the single's release, he caused a minor riot when he failed to show for a performance in Jackson, Tennessee, resulting in the police being called when causing enraged fans stormed the box office to demand their money back. He was also accused of throwing a bottle through the sliding glass doors of his room at the Holiday Inn Rivermont in Memphis. Jones later commented in 1995, "I could not help but be astonished about the reverse parallel of my career and life. The more anguish I underwent in my personal life, the more my career flourished."

"I Don't Need Your Rockin' Chair" is a song written by Billy Yates, Frank Dycus and Kerry Kurt Phillips, and recorded by George Jones. It was the first single from his 1992 album Walls Can Fall.

"Let's Invite Them Over" is a song written by Onie Wheeler, which was recorded as a duet by American country artists George Jones and Melba Montgomery. The song was released as the pair's second single in 1963.

"You Gotta Be My Baby" is a song written and recorded by George Jones. It was his second Top 10 hit on Starday Records, peaking at #7 on the country singles chart. That same year, he sang "You Gotta Be My baby" at his first appearance on The Grand Ole Opry. According to Bob Allen's book George Jones: The Life and Times of a Honky Tonk Legend, Jones nearly walked off the Opry show when one of the WSM officials told him he could not take his guitar with him onstage but relented after Opry regular George Morgan handed him a guitar owned by Little Jimmy Dickens and promised he would take responsibility. In the video biography Same Ole Me, George recalled, "I was just so nervous. This was the biggest thing that could ever happen to anybody in the world and I was just shakin'. I mean just truly shakin' all over."

References

  1. Allen, Bob (1996). George Jones: The Life and Times of a Honky Tonk Legend. St Martin's Press. pp. 102–103. ISBN   978-0312956981.