40 Years Ago: Ricky Van Shelton Records a New Hit with a Very Old Song
You see it time and time again when looking back through the history of country music. There is a song that was written years ago with a timeless sentiment and an iconic melody that has withstood the test of time, and probably always will with the way it resonates universally, tapping into something inherent about the human experience.
When Willie Nelson recorded “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain” in 1975 that was written by Fred Rose in the 1940s, the song had already been recorded by a dozen different artists. Willie just happened to be the one to take it to #1 on his magnum opus, Red Headed Stranger. When Chris Stapleton decided to do a more soulful version of “Tennessee Whiskey” by Dean Dillon and Linda Hargrove, it had already been recorded by David Allan Coe as an album’s title track, and been a #2 for George Jones.
When Ricky Van Shelton stepped into the studio to record “Life Turned Her That Way” 40 years ago today (October 14th, 1986), the song had already been covered by scores of performers previously. Written by the “Dean of Nashville Songwriters” Harlan Howard, it was Opry star “Little” Jimmy Dickens who first recorded the song in 1965. Mel Tillis would follow it up with a version in early 1967 that would see the song’s first chart success, making it to #11.
Two of the greatest voices in all of country music—Charley Pride and George Jones—decided to do their own treatment of the track in 1967 after the Mel Tillis success. Ernest Tubb, Willie Nelson, and hitmaker Conway Twitty would also record their own versions. By 1986, you might imagine the song had seen it all, and been given its best shot at hitting #1. But Ricky Van Shelton and producer Steve Buckingham saw it differently.
“Life Turned Her That Way” might be one of the truest specimens of Harlan Howard’s “Three chords and the truth” maxim that has gone on to become the most well-cited definition of country music, even if a G7 and D7 thrown into the G C D chord structure complicate the matter slightly. What makes the song even more interesting is that it was a true country music love and heartbreak story that inspired it.
In 1957, Harlan Howard met country singer Jan Howard in California, who at the time was a single mother with three children. They would eventually marry in Las Vegas. Then in 1967 when Jan and Harlan Howard were getting a divorce, “Life Turned Her That Way” emerged. Listening through the 2nd verse and chorus, it all starts to make sense.
She’s been walked on
And stepped on
So many times
And I hate to admit it
But the last footprint’s mine
She was crying when I met her
She cries harder today
So don’t blame her
Life turned her that way
Fast forward some 30+ years, instead of trying to dramatically modernize the song, or to try and make it rock or swing, Ricky Van Shelton played it pretty much straight. It was his performance, and the timeless story and melody that did the rest. In the mid and late ’80s, country music in some ways was adrift, searching for its next definitive sound, and superstars to carry it forward. That moment was still a couple of years away.
But neotraditionalists like George Strait, Randy Travis, and Keith Whitey were already laying the groundwork for what was to come with the “Class of ’89” and superstars like Garth Brooks and Alan Jackson. Though he doesn’t get nearly as much credit, Ricky Van Shelton was doing the same thing through #1 songs like “Life Turned Her That Way,” and his followup, “Don’t We All Have The Right” that was an old song from Roger Miller.
Whether it was in 1967, or 1987 when “Life Turned Her That Way” officially went #1, or heading into 2027 as we are now, a timeless song can still resonate like it was written and recorded yesterday. That remains the case for “Life Turned Her That Way,” with Ricky Van Shelton’s version arguably being the definitive one.
– – – – – – – – – – –
If you found this article valuable, consider leaving Saving Country Music A TIP.
October 14, 2026 @ 10:07 am
Man, I haven’t heard (or even thought about) that song in a long, long time. Thanks for reminding me. Will be getting a ton of plays at my house now.
October 14, 2026 @ 10:08 am
I saw Little Jimmy Dickens sing it on the Opry and that was the best rendition I ever heard.
Good on you for taking the time to remember Ricky Van Shelton and a fantastic country song.
October 14, 2026 @ 12:28 pm
The Dickens original is killer and the Tillis version is excellent. Although Tillis had a hit with it it shoulda gone higher in my opinion. Both records had the misfortune of being released around the time the the Nashville Sound was exploding which caused some of the more traditional sounds to be lost in the shuffle.
October 14, 2026 @ 10:45 am
My eyes lit up when I saw a post about Ricky Van Shelton! I grew up on ’90s country as a kid, and I still put his music on every now and then. He’s such an underrated artist, and I’m hoping we get to hear from him at least one more time. It goes without saying he deserves a spot in the Country Music Hall of Fame!
October 14, 2026 @ 11:07 am
I’ll never understand why Ricky didn’t have the staying power. He had some very solid material. But his versions “Life Turned Her That Way” and “Statue of a Fool” are some the best damn covers of classic country you’ll ever listen to.
October 14, 2026 @ 12:46 pm
He had solid material but a lot of it were covers which caused some criticism. Where he really shines were on new songs like “Somebody Lied” or the “Rocking Years” duet with Dolly. Some of them were album cuts for others but they weren’t singles.
The other thing that hurt him was his ego which led to charges of diva behavior. There was a nationally televised awards show where he backed out of performing because of a dispute with the producers supposedly over the key a song was going to be played in. That sounded flimsy because most artists would dictate the key their material would be played in. And he was the only artist in 25 years to bail on performing at the annual July 4th charity concert the Statlers had in their mutual home state of Virginia. Again he cited a dispute over performing requirements. A lot of his home state supporters were upset by this and some radio stations stopped playing his records for a time.
Although not his fault, he got caught into controversy surrounding his song “I’ll Leave This World Loving You” where the songwriter borrowed lyrics from a gospel song which caused copyright issues.
This was all a shame because he did have a great voice and did breathe new life into old songs even if they didn’t quite match the originals. The best of his original material still holds up well today.
As far as I know he’s retired with his wife in Virginia. Hope he’s well and enjoying life.
October 15, 2026 @ 2:57 am
He blew his chance on drugs and drinks, like countless others. By the time he got his shit together, he was too old for the teenyboppers who embraced the mid/late-90’s so-called country music.
Shelton should – and could – have been one of the latter days legends, he sang much better than most of his peers. Sadly, thay’s not how his story goes.
October 20, 2026 @ 11:29 am
He chose to retire back in 2006 and moved back to his hometown in Virginia where he and his wife Bettye and living their best and quiet life; had he been willing to play Nashville’s game, he could and probably would have had a much longer career but he got tired of the industry politics
October 14, 2026 @ 11:17 am
Now we’re talking …
October 14, 2026 @ 12:25 pm
Ricky Van Shelton love! We talk about someone like Clint Black losing some of his relevance because his career did a disappearing act, but in Ricky’s case, he really did just disappear into privacy and retirement. He is due for some reappraisal; I’d put him up there as one of the greatest vocalists in country music history. Glad to see you shine some light on this classic, Trigger. He sure could cover a classic country song.
October 14, 2026 @ 1:13 pm
Great article. I really like how you go back to the original reason for the song.
October 14, 2026 @ 1:19 pm
I never understood why RVS was ghosted by radio, seemingly overnight.
October 20, 2026 @ 11:33 am
He wouldn’t play Nashville’s game and finally decided he wanted out of the rat race and retired
October 14, 2026 @ 1:35 pm
Here I thought you were going to talk about “Hole in My Pocket” coincidentally recorded first by Little Jimmy.
Recently discovered that Ricky cut Foster & Lloyd’s “Crazy Over You.”
October 14, 2026 @ 2:35 pm
Really? Before or after? I’m the biggest Radney Foster fan in the world.
October 14, 2026 @ 1:54 pm
Great song. Ricky Van Shelton recorded some great songs. “Backroads” and “I am a Simple Man” are my personal favorites. I always liked the dobro work on the second verse of simple man
October 14, 2026 @ 4:35 pm
That’s a good question
October 14, 2026 @ 5:44 pm
When whomever pitched that video script to RVS, he had to be like “WTF?!”
That rendition is Solid Country Gold.
October 15, 2026 @ 3:19 am
You should look up George Strait’s video for the song ‘You Look So Good in Love’. He comes across as a psychopathic stalker targeting his ex and her new love, Douchey McBeard.
It’s no wonder Strait avoided making videos as often as he could after that.
October 14, 2026 @ 5:54 pm
If I recall correctly, didn’t RVS become super religious and then make some negative comments towards country music and radio? I’m not sure how this went down, but something did happen. It seemed like overnight he was off of country radio.
October 20, 2026 @ 11:36 am
He just got tired of the politics in Nashville and at radio; I’m not sure how much religion played into it although he did re-dedicate his life to God in the early 90’s
October 14, 2026 @ 6:06 pm
He is on my short list of “if he sings the phone book, I’ll listen” – level voices. His voice is stellar. The cream of the crop.
Fun trivia: his middle name is Van, and his last name is Shelton. It’s not “Van Shelton”.
Trigger, as far as your opening sentences, I am reminded that “A Legend In My Time” was recorded by its writer, Don Gibson, and many other singers both recorded it as non-singles, and sang it live. But nobody had a real hit with it until Ronnie Milsap in 1975.
October 14, 2026 @ 6:35 pm
It seems that today’s performers don’t go back into country music history often enough to find “lost songs” that deserve a new interpretation. Either they write themselves (fine if you have the gift for it) or they only search for songs that have seven co-writers. Am I over-thinking this?
October 14, 2026 @ 6:39 pm
Some folks hate him, but Charley Crockett is actually really great for digging up old songs, including ones that deserved to be be classics. His catalog is full of them.
October 14, 2026 @ 7:10 pm
Totally agree Trigger! The folks that hate on Charley and act like he is fake…I just don’t understand. When you look at his entire body of work, there is no one in our time who has brought more old songs from country music’s past alive again than Charley.
October 14, 2026 @ 6:37 pm
Great topic. Just wanted to show some love to the spectacular late 60’s R&B cover by the superlative Memphis soul singer James Carr, who might have been the greatest of them all except he was criticized for sounding too much like Otis Redding…had he been five years earlier he would be the innovator, five years later the throwback, but I would say his voice has a little more muscle in it than Otis anyway, if that’s the right word. I think he even threw some steel guitar on there, I know there was some on a couple tracks of his.
October 15, 2026 @ 12:36 am
Was strange to find out that Little Jimmy Dickens had biggest record of “Life Turned Her” before RVS: The song was totally outside LJD’s wheelhouse of country-boy pride and over-the-top novelty songs, i.e. “Bird of Paradise.”
RVS turned reviving old country hits into a specialty, taking “From a Jack to a King” to #1 after it had been a career song and #2 hit for Ned Miller. And then “Statue of a Fool,” which was a #1 hit for Jack Greene, in the ’60s and RVS took it to #2. Ricky Van also had a top 5 hit with “Life’s Little Ups and Downs” (“Like ponies on a merry-go-round”), which had been a non-hit single for Charlie Rich, but is notable for being written (solo) by Charlie’s wife, Margaret Ann Rich.
October 15, 2026 @ 9:03 am
Jimmy Dickens wasn’t really known as a novelty singer until “Paradise” and then Columbia had him record a bunch of novelty songs. Where he really excelled was in ballads and he recorded many excellent sides before “Paradise”.
Dickens recorded very early versions of “We Could” and “Farewell Party” before Charley Pride and Gene Watson. He had a hit with “Violet and the Rose” written by Mel Tillis. Late in his recording career when he was with Decca he recorded what became his eventual show closer: “Raggedy Ann”. It charted briefly but is recognized as one of the best performances of his career.
October 20, 2026 @ 11:45 am
Actually, several early songs by Dickens were novelty songs; Sleepin’ At The Foot Of The Bed, Take An Old Cold Tater And Wait, Little But I’m Loud, Out Behind The Barn among several others, but Marty Robbins once said that no one could sing a Ballad quite like Dickens
October 15, 2026 @ 3:54 am
A great singer and a great song. I don’t think anyone has done it better.
October 15, 2026 @ 5:35 am
Ricky Van Shelton also had a country #1 hit with his cover of the Ned Miller’s 1957 song, “From A Jack to A King” in 1989.That’s my favorite RVS cover.
October 15, 2026 @ 11:03 am
Ouch,that is a good one! I was 7ish? when RVS had it as a hit. My old @$$ soul felt it, living life w/ country music & candy cigarettes.
October 15, 2026 @ 8:40 pm
Closest parallel I can think of to Ricky Van Shelton–as far a male country superstar who quit the business at a young age while seemingly physically healthy–would be Carl Smith, But Smith, though he was only 51 when he stepped away, in 1978 still had a very long and successful career in the business: Some 30 top-10 hits in the 1950s, including nine that went to #1 or #2 and around 50 more singles in the 1960s and 70s. But by the mid-1960s his records were generally no longer making the top 20 and in 1972, he was dropped by Columbia Records and was never signed to a major label after that. Smith’s music career seemed complete when he retired to a second career with his wife. Goldie Hill, living on and running an equestrian horse farm in Tennessee.
Van Shelton–er, Shelton–was also dropped by Columbia Records and had been without a major label or any hit singles or charting albums for over ten years when he retired from touring in the early 2000s, while in his early 50s.
Carl Smith, was also married to June Carter for a time–and they had Carlene Carter, a good singer and country artist in her own right. Carl Smith was inducted into the Country Music HoF in 2003–seven years before he died–and after Waylon was quoted saying “I don’t wan to be in a hall of fame that doesn’t have Carl Smith in it.”
It doesn’t look like Shelton will be inducted, given the current landscape.
Here’s Carl Smith doing one of his biggest songs.
The guy had tremendous stage presence.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lddSvO-WyBw
October 16, 2026 @ 3:06 pm
I always liked “Deep Water”.
And that’s some Waylon wisdom there, isn’t it?
October 15, 2026 @ 8:40 pm
Thanks for this article, Trigger. I always enjoy hearing about a storied song’s story.
October 17, 2026 @ 2:45 am
One of the things I like most about country music is the regret, and this song has an especially powerful twist on that feeling. Wow.