2:35
single, 1960
Written by Billy Mize, 1956
This song has been recorded by several country acts, from Jerry Lee Lewis to Porter Wagoner to Merle Haggard. Heck, even Jim Croce did a version in his early years that never got a wide release. That alone tells you something: it's sturdy, serviceable country stock, the kind of tune that slides easily into different voices without changing much shape. This song is a typical sad sack, accusatory story set to a basic honky-tonk melody that has been reused countless times in country music. The narrator more or less calls the lady a loose woman, saying her love is blind, transactional, and implicitly shameful: "You'll never know whose lips you'll soon be kissing / And it all depends on who will buy the wine." It feels less like heartbreak you'd sympathize with and more like bitterness you'd avoid. I do like the line "Whoever sets 'em up and tips the waitress." She may be a floozy, but she's not going to sleep with some cheap deadbeat!
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