Ear Worm of the Day

This one comes from Larry Gatlin and the Gatlin Brothers Band.

It was released in 1983 on a single and on the album 'Houston to Denver' and went to #1.

The song is credited to Larry Gatlin, but there has been a long standing rumor he came about the song in a rather dubious manner.

Hard to describe this without giving away the song, but the story goes the song was originally written about the city of Huntsville instead of Houston!

More specifically, about the Texas Department of Corrections unit at Huntsville. From what I gather (no personal experience) Huntsville is where all prisoners are processed in, evaluated, and sent to whatever unit the officials deem proper. Then when it is time for release, they are brought back to Huntsville for the transition to freedom.

Supposedly, an incarcerated fan of Larry Gatlin wrote this song while he was in prison, and sent it to him. Gatlin liked it, and used it, but changed the name from Huntsville to Houston and made a few other adjustments to give it a wider appeal. The original writer never got any acknowledgment or received any royalties.

Now this could be complete urban legend, not saying any of this is fact. If anyone has heard this before or has any other information, please feel free to comment.

But as you listen, substituting the name Huntsville does fit rather well!
Larry Gatlin & The Gatlin Brothers

Sorry, wrong forum , again...

Even though the original song wrighter was never acknowledged. Every time he heard the song, he can say I wrote that. Stan

I can see/hear the possibility that the song was originally wrote relating to a Huntsville inmate.

Wouldn't of been to hard to change the lyrics to relating to an entertainer out on the road. If that's the case of what happened.

I play fiddle, and dabble in song writing myself. Coming up with a new original tune, is the incredibly hard part for me. The words/story line comes easy. So, most of my song writing is completely altering or changing words to existing songs. I wish I was more fluent at coming up with new musical tunes. Probably why I don't right songs as a profession. LOL.

I know what you mean about the difficulty of coming up with original material!

Amazing how some of them do it, write thousands of original songs over a lifetime! And then be able to remember them, plus thousands more cover songs!