george jones grand tour live

5 George Jones Performances You Must Watch (Videos)

Jones' greatest, sung live, including a duet with his legendary wife, the late Tammy Wynette

George Jones, who died on Friday at the age of 81, was in many ways the quintessential country singer.

A hard-living, hard-drinking troubadour with a career full of ups-and-downs and a discography that included 150 hits, Jones released his first album in 1957 and his last in 2011 – and when he wasn’t showing why he got the nickname “No-Show Jones,” he showcased one of the classic voices in country history in thousands of live performances.

Also Read:   Notable Celebrity Deaths of 2013

It is nearly impossible to boil down a six-decade career into a handful of performances. But these five, from his first big hit to the ballad widely acclaimed as the greatest country song ever, will serve as an introduction of sorts to an inimitable talent.

“White Lightning”  – Jones’ first No. 1 hit was written by J.P. Richardson, who recorded under the name the Big Bopper and died in a plane crash two months before the song was released. In his autobiography, Jones said he showed up to the studio drunk and took 80 takes to get his vocal right.

“She Thinks I Still Care”  – The classic country weepie spent six week at No. 1 in 1962. It was later recorded by a variety of artists, including Connie Francis, Anne Murray, Elvis Presley and James Taylor.

“We’re Gonna Hold On”  – Jones and Tammy Wynette had a stormy five-year marriage that ended in 1975, but the union produced a number of duets that landed on the country charts. “We’re Gonna Hold On” was the first, getting to the top of the charts in 1973.

“He Stopped Loving Her Today”  – Jones’ career was at a low point when he reluctantly recorded the mournful ballad often called the greatest country song ever – but he was back on top when it was released in 1980. “A four-decade career had been salvaged by a three-minute song,” he later said.

“The Grand Tour”  – A room-by-room trip through a house left empty after a man’s wife leaves him, “The Grand Tour” was Jones’ greatest divorce song – even though it was released a year before the end of his marriage to Wynette.

Spotify is currently not available in your country.

Follow us online to find out when we launch., spotify gives you instant access to millions of songs – from old favorites to the latest hits. just hit play to stream anything you like..

Listen everywhere

Spotify works on your computer, mobile, tablet and TV.

Unlimited, ad-free music

No ads. No interruptions. Just music.

Download music & listen offline

Keep playing, even when you don't have a connection.

Premium sounds better

Get ready for incredible sound quality.

• Country Music
• George Jones
• Tammy Wynette

The Meaning Behind “The Grand Tour” by George Jones Hit a Bit Too Close to Home

by Jim Beviglia January 23, 2024, 6:47 am

Country music has always been associated with songs of sadness. It makes sense then that George Jones was such a legend of the genre,. Nobody has ever been able to transmit sadness across the airwaves quite like he did.

Videos by American Songwriter

Getting deep inside the tragedies and misfortunes of his songs might have been a little easier for Jones than most. He was often living through some circumstance in his own turbulent life that related almost directly to the lyrics. Case in point: “ The Grand Tour ,” a masterpiece of melancholy that features Jones hitting every nuance and twist in a brilliantly crafted piece of material. Let’s look back at how this country classic came to be and learn the meaning behind “The Grand Tour” by George Jones.

Getting Grand Again

George Jones dominated the ’60s in terms of the country music charts. But by the time the decade turned over, he was scuffling a bit to find the touch. While many blamed the never-ending drama in his personal life for the dip, Jones himself felt that his work wasn’t getting properly handled by his producers and record executives, which is why he decamped for Epic Records.

Jones thought that Epic’s Billy Sherrill was just the guy to transform his work, but their first few records together didn’t do much. To make matters worse, Jones’ wife at the time, Tammy Wynette, was pretty much the queen of the genre. In an interview with Billboard in 2006, Jones spoke about how it took Sherrill a while to understand just how to approach Jones’ vocal stylings.

“He just came up with that sound like he got with Tammy [Wynette], [sings] ‘Ba bum ba bum ba bum,’ build-ups, and it was a little more updated, I guess,” Jones remembered. “He tried to do that with me, but I finally had a talk with him. I said, ‘Billy, I’m country, I’m traditional, I know you’re wanting to cross over with me like you have with Tammy, Charlie Rich and those people, but I’m hardcore and I can’t help it. That’s what I feel, and I can’t do a good job for the label, you or anybody else if I don’t feel it myself.’ I had no problem after that, we’d go in and he got me a good sound. I used my fiddle and steel and good country pickers, and I guess I really just lucked up a little bit on finding the songs.”

Stranger Than Fiction

One of those songs that Jones found was a beauty written by Norro Wilson, George Richey, and Carmol Taylor. And, as was so often the case with Jones, he found himself singing about a subject that hit very closet to home. “The Grand Tour” is a song about a breakup, and, about the time he recorded it with Sherrill, his own marriage to Wynette was crumbling. Bizarrely enough, co-writer Richey would later marry Wynette in a twist that not even Jones’ most devastating songs of woe could have imagined.

If Sherrill had struggled initially producing Jones, he certainly got it just right with “The Grand Tour.” It’s clever how each section begins with Jones singing a cappella, only to be answered by a piano that almost seems to be mocking him before the whole band kicks into gear. Pete Drake provides inimitable support on steel guitar. As for Jones, listen to how he sounds genial at the beginning of each verse as he talks to the stranger, before his emotions get the better of him as he talks about his wife’s departure.

What Is “The Grand Tour” About?

“The Grand Tour” is structured as if the narrator were a real estate agent conducting an open house for potential buyers. But it quickly turns into something different when he explains that, Some things I know will chill you to the bone are waiting inside. From there, he goes through the inventory: a chair, a bed, a photo of the pair, and finally, her rings, all her things/And her clothes are in the closet .

To each of these is attached a bittersweet memory of happier times. When he shows the stranger the picture of her, he can’t help but ruminate on what might have been: Don’t it look like she’d be able/Just to touch me and say, ‘Good morning, dear.’ But since she’s gone forever , that’s an impossibility.

[RELATED: Behind the Song: George Jones, “He Stopped Loving Her Today”]

Alternative Take

It should be noted that some fans of the song believe that “The Grand Tour” doesn’t depict a divorce, but instead a scenario where the wife has died along with their child in some accident. That’s a bit of a gruesome take on it in our opinion, but the important thing is the emotion conveyed by Jones as he brings it all home: As you leave you’ll see the nursery/Oh, she left me without mercy .

“The Grand Tour” proved a massive comeback hit for Jones upon its release in 1974, and helped point the way to another monumental collaboration with Sherrill in “ He Stopped Living Her Today .” You don’t need to have lived through that kind of sadness to relate to the song, because George Jones’ performance made sure we could wallow in it with him for the course of those gloriously sorrowful three minutes.

Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Only members can comment. Become a member . Already a member? Log In .

New Video Emerges of Elle King’s Controversial Dolly Parton Tribute

© 2024 American Songwriter

We will keep fighting for all libraries - stand with us!

Internet Archive Audio

• This Just In
• Grateful Dead
• Old Time Radio
• 78 RPMs and Cylinder Recordings
• Audio Books & Poetry
• Computers, Technology and Science
• Music, Arts & Culture
• News & Public Affairs
• Spirituality & Religion
• Radio News Archive

• Flickr Commons
• Occupy Wall Street Flickr
• NASA Images
• Solar System Collection
• Ames Research Center

• All Software
• Old School Emulation
• MS-DOS Games
• Historical Software
• Classic PC Games
• Software Library
• Kodi Archive and Support File
• Vintage Software
• CD-ROM Software
• CD-ROM Software Library
• Software Sites
• Tucows Software Library
• Shareware CD-ROMs
• Software Capsules Compilation
• CD-ROM Images
• ZX Spectrum
• DOOM Level CD

• Smithsonian Libraries
• FEDLINK (US)
• Lincoln Collection
• American Libraries
• Canadian Libraries
• Universal Library
• Project Gutenberg
• Children's Library
• Biodiversity Heritage Library
• Books by Language
• Additional Collections

• Prelinger Archives
• Democracy Now!
• Occupy Wall Street
• TV NSA Clip Library
• Animation & Cartoons
• Arts & Music
• Computers & Technology
• Cultural & Academic Films
• Ephemeral Films
• Sports Videos
• Videogame Videos
• Youth Media

Search the history of over 866 billion web pages on the Internet.

Mobile Apps

• Wayback Machine (iOS)
• Wayback Machine (Android)

Browser Extensions

Archive-it subscription.

• Explore the Collections
• Build Collections

Save Page Now

Capture a web page as it appears now for use as a trusted citation in the future.

Please enter a valid web address

• Donate Donate icon An illustration of a heart shape

Grand Tour: The Life and Music of George Jones

Bookreader item preview, share or embed this item, flag this item for.

• Graphic Violence
• Explicit Sexual Content
• Hate Speech
• Misinformation/Disinformation
• Marketing/Phishing/Advertising
• Misleading/Inaccurate/Missing Metadata

Inherent obscured text

plus-circle Add Review comment Reviews

Better World Books

DOWNLOAD OPTIONS

No suitable files to display here.

IN COLLECTIONS

Uploaded by station20.cebu on March 26, 2023

SIMILAR ITEMS (based on metadata)