50 Years Ago: George Jones Records Overlooked Country Classic
Many regard George Jones as the greatest country singer of all time. It’s due to the incredible studio performances he turned in with songs like “The Grand Tour” and “The Door” in 1974, and of course “He Stopped Loving Her Today” from 1980—a song that many regard as the greatest country song of all time.
But one of the most remarkable things about the George Jones legacy is how you can go up and down through the songs, albums, and eras of his catalog and find incredible moments and stellar performances, even with songs that didn’t exactly perform well on the charts, or that are not immediately named along with his other top tracks. The song “The Battle” is definitely a great example of this, which George Jones recorded 50 years ago today, October 24th, 1975.
As the eventual title track to George’s February 1976 album, “The Battle” came out in the aftermath of George’s divorce from Tammy Wynette, and at a time when his career was in a commercial slide. George’s drinking and other demons were manifesting themselves in very public ways in the mid and late ’70s. It was around this time period when the nickname “No Show Jones” began to emerge due to missed tour dates, and souring sentiment on him in the public.
But when it came to the songs and albums George Jones was recording at this time with producer Billy Sherrill, they were still second to none. It really was George Jones at his creative peak, even if it wasn’t his commercial one.
Written by Norro Wilson, Linda Kimball, and Tammy Waynette’s manager George Richey who would go on to marry Wynette later on, “The Battle” interpolates scenes from a battlefield with scenes from a lover’s spat in a bedroom in a way that’s immediately relatable to an audience. Billy Sherrill’s use of snare drum gives the song that Civil War aspect. Sherrill’s signature string/choral arrangements and modulating chords leading to a rising crescendo before a lyrical resolution allows the song to symbolize all the seasons of a lover’s quarrel in under three minutes.
Like so many of George’s most iconic songs, “The Battle” feels like a song that only George Jones could sing and make work. The way it highlights the contours of The Possum’s voice, brings the pain out in his tone, and was married to his real life experiences at the time makes it so starkly believable and deeply touching in a way that few if any other performers could achieve.
Tammy Wynette said it best in a quote included in the 1999 reissue of The Battle album that is full of songs that feel inspired by their breakup, including a song George and Tammy wrote together called “Wean Me.” “It’s funny, George and I have lived our life in our music,” Wynette remarked. “It’s all there…the fans don’t have to ask.”
It wasn’t that “The Battle” was completely overlooked in its era. The song hit #16 on the country singles chart, which wasn’t terrible. But it had to feel like a disappointment for a title track, and for a song that feels so epic-sounding today.
The membrane between love and war feels incredibly thin and delicate. Few songs capture this truth, the whims of the heart, and the swirling emotion of moments like “The Battle.”
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October 24, 2025 @ 12:04 pm
As I get older, these anniversary articles are cutting too close to reality.
The Battle:
Songwriting: C
Production: F (Sherril got way too gimmicky)
Vocals: A+
October 24, 2025 @ 12:14 pm
Its a weird song to be sure, but Ol’ George pulled it off. I make no apologies about Sherrill, I liked what he did in general. I see this as a cool deep cut from George.
October 24, 2025 @ 3:08 pm
Sorry Trigger, but the most overlooked George Jones song is “The King is Gone (So are You). That first line (Last night, I broke the seal on a Jim Beam decanter that looks like Elvis…) is classic. The following lyrics tell the story of a man who is heartbroken and uses the Elvis-shaped bottle of Jim Beam and a Flintstones Jelly Bean jar to drink his sorrows away.
Gotta love it ! LOL
October 24, 2025 @ 3:40 pm
I firmly believe that he stopped loving her today is the greatest song ever written and he sings it magnificently no one would dare to ever try to sing that song because he’s saying it so well the first time around
October 24, 2025 @ 5:38 pm
I can live without pretty much all George Jones after starday and into the early 80s, a few notable exceptions like his “King of Broken Hearts” album and Walk Through this World with Me. The Corvette song, the king is gone, I don’t need your rocking chair…. that’s when he sounded good again. I agree with Jones’s opinion on “He Stopped Loving her today”, aka “that morbid son of a bitch”…
October 24, 2025 @ 8:04 pm
The best song on this album is “I still Sing the Old Songs”.
Trig,
What inspired you to write an article about this song? I love that you did, but it seems really random.
October 24, 2025 @ 8:36 pm
Well specifically, I keep tabs on historical dates in country, and try to highlight cool things that happened on those dates when I have the time and inclination. Specific to this song, I’ve always been intrigued why “The Door,” “The Grand Tour,” etc. are considered signature songs from George Jones, but this title track isn’t. I understand why some said above that the songwriting and production is overwrought. This song wouldn’t work with anyone else. But it works perfectly for George.
October 24, 2025 @ 8:57 pm
Well, David Allan Coe, had a song called “Love Is a Never Ending War.” I heard it on a CD, and I’m not in the mood to go Goggling as to how it did–or even if it was a single, but he did a great job with it.
October 24, 2025 @ 9:50 pm
Yeah, it’s on “Son of the South,” which is the album with DAC rockin’ the most atomic mullet ever known to man, and holding his son Tyler Mahan Coe as a baby.
Coe also wrote “I Still Sing the Old Songs” that appears on the album “The Battle.”
Both Jones and Coe used Billy Sherrill as a producer, so there’s close ties there.
October 25, 2025 @ 6:02 am
Everybody wishes they could sing like George Jones, but nobody can.