George Jones and Tammy Wynette had an infamously tumultuous relationship.
Though they were affectionately known as “Mr. & Mrs. Country Music” in the ’70s, their marriage was far from perfect with constant rumors of fighting and abuse. Tammy even claimed that George once fired a shotgun at her, though he denies that ever happened.
And, on this date in 1971, they released their first album as a duo called We Go Together.
They were married in 1969 and toured together for years prior, but contract restraints kept them from being able to record a full-length studio album together for a chunk of time early in their six-year marriage.
Producer Billy Sherrill said the whole process of working with the difficult couple drove him to drink even more than he already did:
“[It] did increase my scotch intake some.
We started out trying to record the vocals together, but George drove Tammy crazy with his phrasing.
He never, ever did it the same way twice. He could make a five-syllable word out of ‘church.'”
I wonder why it didn’t work out…
The record was an overall success, though, peaking at #3 on the country albums chart.
It even produced top ten single with “Take Me,” which was their first single together. George had released a solo version of the track years prior in 1966, which also peaked in the top ten on the country music charts.
Tammy and George wrote two out of the 11 songs on the tracklist, including “Its So Sweet” and “Never Grow Cold.” They would go on to record nine studio albums in total together between 1971 and 1995, including three which were released after their very public divorce in 1975.
“Take Me”
“Its So Sweet”
“Never Grow Cold”
