Merle Haggard and Marty Robbins were known to be great friends throughout their careers, and Haggard used to have crowds rolling on the floor with his insanely good impressions of Robbins, along with a number of others.
In fact, many people don’t know that Haggard wrote his 1968 song “Today I Started Loving You Again” for Robbins to record, until he decided to cut the song himself for the B-Side of his number one hit, “The Legend of Bonnie and Clyde.”
Although the song didn’t receive immediate success, it has since been recorded by the likes of Al Martino, Waylon Jennings, Conway Twitty, Jerry Lee Lewis, Martina McBride, Dolly Parton, and more.
I was digging through the vaults and found this old video of the two famed country singers on The Ralph Emery Special back in 1969, singing “Today I Started Loving You Again,” with Haggard on the acoustic guitar, and Robbins on the piano.
In the clip, Haggard explains that the song’s pattern was inspired by Robbins’ song, “Begging To You.”
He explained:
“After I wrote it, and sang it, the melody and everything fell together the first time I sang it, and it just sounded to me like it was Marty’s song.”
Check it out:
