Born in Texas, Jones first heard country music when he was seven, and was given a guitar at the age of nine. He married his first wife, Dorothy Bonvillion, in 1950, and was divorced in 1951. He served in the United States Marine Corps and was discharged in 1953. He married Shirley Ann Corley in 1954. In 1959, Jones recorded "White Lightning", written by J. P. Richardson, which launched his career as a singer. His second marriage ended in divorce in 1968; he married fellow country music singer Tammy Wynette a year later. Years of alcoholism compromised his health and led to his missing many performances, earning him the nickname "No Show Jones". After his divorce from Wynette in 1975, Jones married his fourth wife, Nancy Sepulvado, in 1983 and became sober for good in 1999. Jones died in 2013, aged 81, from hypoxic respiratory failure.
George Jones has been called "The Rolls Royce Of Country Music" and had more than 160 chart singles to his name from 1955 until his death in 2013. Johnny Cash once said, "When people ask me who my favorite country singer is, I say, 'You mean besides George Jones?'"
Jones tirelessly defended the integrity of country music, telling Billboard in 2006, "It's never been for love of money. I thank God for it because it makes me a living. But I sing because I love it, not because of the dollar signs." Jones also went out of his way to promote younger country singers that he felt were as passionate about the music as he was. "Everybody knows he's a great singer," Alan Jackson stated in 1995, "but what I like most about George is that when you meet him, he is like some old guy that works down at the gas station...even though he's a legend!"
Shortly after Jones' death, Andrew Mueller wrote about his influence in Uncut, "He was one of the finest interpretive singers who ever lifted a microphone...There cannot be a single country songwriter of the last 50-odd years who has not wondered what it might be like to hear their words sung by that voice." In an article for The Texas Monthly in 1994, Nick Tosches eloquently described the singer's vocal style: "While he and his idol, Hank Williams, have both affected generations with a plaintive veracity of voice that has set them apart, Jones has an additional gift—a voice of exceptional range, natural elegance, and lucent tone. Gliding toward high tenor, plunging toward deep bass, the magisterial portamento of his onward-coursing baritone emits white-hot sparks and torrents of blue, investing his poison love songs with a tragic gravity and inflaming his celebrations of the honky-tonk ethos with the hellfire of abandon." In the New Republic essay "Why George Jones ranks with Frank Sinatra and Billie Holiday," David Hajdu writes:
"Jones had a handsome and strange voice. His singing was always partly about the appeal of the tones he produced, regardless of the meaning of the words. In this sense, Jones had something in common with singers of formal music and opera, though his means of vocal production were radically different from theirs. He sang from the back of his throat, rather than from deep in his diaphragm. He tightened his larynx to squeeze sound out. He clenched his jaw, instead of wriggling it free. He forced wind through his teeth, and the notes sounded weirdly beautiful."
David Cantwell recalled in 2013, "His approach to singing, he told me once, was to call up those memories and feelings of his own that most closely corresponded to those being felt by the character in whatever song he was performing. He was a kind of singing method actor, creating an illusion of the real." In the liner notes to Essential George Jones: The Spirit of Country Rich Kienzle states, "Jones sings of people and stories that are achingly human. He can turn a ballad into a catharsis by wringing every possible emotion from it, making it a primal, strangled cry of anguish". In 1994, country music historian Colin Escott pronounced, "Contemporary country music is virtually founded on reverence for George Jones. Walk through a room of country singers and conduct a quick poll, George nearly always tops it." In the wake of Jones's death, Merle Haggard pronounced in Rolling Stone, "His voice was like a Stradivarius violin: one of the greatest instruments ever made." Emmylou Harris wrote, "when you hear George Jones sing, you are hearing a man who takes a song and makes it a work of art - always," a quote that appeared on the sleeve of Jones' 1976 album The Battle. In the documentary Same Ole Me, several country music stars offer similar thoughts. Randy Travis: "It sounds like he's lived every minute of every word that he sings and there's very few people who can do that"; Tom T. Hall: "It was always Jones who got the message across just right"; and Roy Acuff: "I'd give anything if I could sing like George Jones". In the same film, producer Billy Sherrill states, "All I did was change the instrumentation around him. I don't think he's changed at all."
On June 25, 2019, The New York Times Magazine listed George Jones among hundreds of artists whose material was reportedly destroyed in the 2008 Universal fire.
Don't Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes
George Jones Lyrics
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Don't let the moon break your heart
Love blooms at night in daylight it dies
Don't let the stars get in your eyes
Oh, keep your heart for me for someday
I'll return and you know you're
The only one I'll ever love.
Too many stars
Too many moons to change your mind
If I'm gone too long don't forget where you belong
When the stars come out remember you are mine.
Don't let the stars get in your eyes
Don't let the moon break your heart
Love blooms at night in daylight it dies
Don't let the stars get in your eyes
Oh, keep your heart for me for someday
I'll return and you know you're
The only one I'll ever love.
Too many miles
Too many days
Too many nights to be alone
So please keep your heart while we're apart
Don't you linger in the moonlight while I'm gone.
Don't let the stars get in your eyes
Don't let the moon break your heart
The love blooms at night in daylight it dies
Don't let the stars get in your eyes
Oh, keep your heart for me for someday
I'll return and you know you're
The only one I'll ever love.
You're the only one I'll ever love
The song "Don't Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes" by George Jones is all about the singer's plea to his lover to wait for him and to not let anything come between them while they are apart. The song has a very strong sense of urgency, as the singer is telling his lover that they must be true to one another and not let anything distract them from their love. The song conveys the idea that true love can survive anything as long as the two people involved are committed to each other.
The lyrics are particularly insightful because they speak to the idea that love is often tested by adversity, but if it is real and true, it will survive. The song speaks to the need for commitment and perseverance in love relationships. The singer is asking his lover to be patient and to wait for him, even if it means enduring many long nights without him. He is telling her that their love is worth it and that it will endure.
Overall, the song is a beautiful and heartfelt tribute to the power of love. It reminds us that true love is worth fighting for and that, if we are willing to put in the effort, it can survive anything.
Line by Line Meaning
Don't let the stars get in your eyes
Don't become overly enamored with the glitz and glamour of the night sky, to the point where you lose sight of what truly matters.
Don't let the moon break your heart
Don't let the changing phases of the moon cause you to feel disheartened and lose hope in our relationship.
Love blooms at night in daylight it dies
Our love thrives under the cover of night, but during the harsh light of day, it may struggle to survive.
Oh, keep your heart for me for someday
Please don't give up on our love while I'm away, and hold onto it until we can be together again.
I'll return and you know you're
I promise I will come back to you, and you know with certainty that you are the only one I will ever love.
The only one I'll ever love.
Out of all the people in the world, you are the only one that I will love and cherish forever.
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: SLIM WILLET
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind