On This Date: Waylon Jennings And Willie Nelson Were Topping The Country Charts With “Mamas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys” In 1978

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Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson are my favorite duo in all of country music.

And on this date in 1978, they were topping the country charts with their hit “Mamas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys”.

The song was originally written by Ed Bruce with his wife Patsy Bruce and recorded by Ed, and the song was featured on his 1976 self-titled album. Chris LeDoux also covered it for his 1976 album, Songbook of the American West.

Of course, it was made extremely popular by Waylon and Willie, when they covered it for their 1978 duets album Waylon & Willie. It became a classic, peaking at #1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs chart later that same year, in addition to reaching the #42 spot on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart.

The pair won a Grammy award for the duet in 1979 for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal.

And you have to check out the performance of the song by the Highwaymen at their American Outlaws: Live at Nassau Coliseum show in 1990… it’s incredible to that much talent and charisma on one stage together:

The studio version:

Shooter Jennings & Lukas Nelson Duet Their Fathers’ Hit

When Danny Masterson, who was eventually removed from the show for other reasons, approached Shooter Jennings about doing a theme song for a new sitcom about ranchers in Colorado, I can’t imagine he knew The Ranch would blow up to become the show it was.

Of course, that theme song was a cover of his father’s “Mammas Don’t Let You Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys.”

Originally written by the late great Ed Bruce, “Mammas” was eventually recorded by Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson for their 1978 duets album, Waylon & Willie.

So naturally for The Ranch theme song, Shooter had to get together with Willie’s son Lukas for the remake.

At the time of this performance, the show had only been out for a couple weeks, but years later, The Ranch would go on to become one of Netflix’s most popular shows and a recording was eventually released right before the series finale.

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