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.
Heartaches by the Number
George Jones Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I never knew that I could hurt this way
And heartache number two was when you come back again
You came back and never meant to stay
[Chorus]
Now I've got heartaches by the number, troubles by the score
Everyday you love me less, each day I love you more
But the day that I stop counting, that's the day my world will end
Heartache number three was when you called me
And said that you were coming back to stay
With hopeful heart I waited for your knock on the door
I waited but you must have lost your way
[Chorus]
The song Heartaches by the Number by George Jones is about a painful and complicated love story. The lyrics deal with the heartache and pain of a man who has been hurt several times by his lover. In the first verse, the singer talks about his first heartache when his lover left him. He did not know that he could hurt so much. In the second verse, the lover comes back to him, but it was not for the right reasons. He came back knowing that he would not stay. The singer then laments about the countless heartaches and troubles he has experienced as a result of loving someone who does not love him back. The chorus of the song talks about his plight in counting the heartaches he has been through, and how his love is one he can never win. The chorus also highlights how he loves her more every day, but she loves him less.
In the third verse, his lover calls and tells him she is coming back to stay. The singer waits with a hopeful heart, but she never shows up, and he assumes she lost her way. This verse demonstrates the false hope that many people experience when they are in love with someone who keeps breaking their heart. Overall, the song is about unrequited love and the pain and heartache that are often associated with it.
Line by Line Meaning
Heartache number one was when you left me
The first heartbreak occurred when you broke up with me, which I never thought would cause me this much emotional pain.
I never knew that I could hurt this way
I was not aware that separation from you could make me suffer from such a deep emotional trauma.
And heartache number two was when you come back again
The second heartbreak happened when you returned, but left without intending to stay for good.
You came back and never meant to stay
Even though you came back, you did not have any intention of continuing the relationship.
Now I've got heartaches by the number, troubles by the score
My misery and challenges have increased and piled up since you started loving me less and less every day.
Everyday you love me less, each day I love you more
Your love for me has decreased with each passing day, while my love for you has amplified.
Yes I've got heartaches by the number, a love that I can't win
My pain and sorrow have multiplied over time, as I love you unconditionally but can never seem to win your love.
But the day that I stop counting, that's the day my world will end
If I stop keeping track of these heartaches, it will signify that I have lost all hope and will be the end of the world as I know it.
Heartache number three was when you called me
The third heartbreak transpired when you called me, and I was filled with hope that you came back to me.
And said that you were coming back to stay
I was overjoyed when you told me that you had returned to stay with me.
With hopeful heart I waited for your knock on the door
I eagerly awaited your arrival and hoped that you would come knocking on my door.
I waited but you must have lost your way
Sadly, you must have gotten lost as you did not show up despite my eagerness and anticipation.
Lyrics © Kanjian Music, BMG Rights Management, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: Harlan Howard
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Judy Diaz
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Love this country at its finest judy diaz
CHECK MY BIO
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Ruby Hobock
Why would the world end you know I do love you you know I have been dying to be with you don't that tell you enough a woman that doesn't love a man she doesn't want to be with them I am entirely different because I do love you with all my heart I don't know what else to say you got to understand if I never loved you I wouldn't have been back and I have never been gone two or three days I always come back to you you know why because I am madly crazy in love with you but you just don't realize how much I do love you you really don't you think I'm going to say these words absolutely not if I don't mean what I'm saying I would never say them to you I'm too much in love with you James that's the truth
Buttermilkjug
You're a basket case~ Run James!~
Marion Moskalyk
Is this a secret message site?
Richard Watts
Haha, why did you ask?
Linda Kristine Kjølibråten
I doubt it because I can see this, but don't worry your secret is safe with me!
RedRebelNeck
Yee yee