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.
Wedding Bells
George Jones Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
You wanted me to see you change your name
I couldn't stand to see you wed another
But dear, I hope you're happy just the same
Wedding bells are ringing in the chapel
I hear the children laughing now with plea
Down the aisle with someone else you're walking
I planned a little cottage in the valley
I even brought a little band of gold
I knew someday I'd place it on your finger
But now the future looks so dark and cold
I fancy that I see a bunch of roses
A blossom from an orange tree in your hair
And while the organ plays I'll love you truly
Please won't you let me pretend that I am there?
Wedding bells are ringing in the chapel
That should be ringing now for you and me
And home alone I hang my head in sorrow
Those wedding bells will never ring for me
The lyrics of George Jones's song, Wedding Bells, express the heartache and regret that come with the end of a romantic relationship. The singer has received an invitation to his former lover's wedding, and while he cannot bear to witness her marrying someone else, he expresses the wish that she finds happiness in her marriage. He had dreams of a future with her, one in which he would give her a little cottage, a band of gold, and place it on her finger, but those dreams have vanished now that she is marrying someone else. As the wedding bells ring in the chapel, he imagines flowers in her hair and pretends to be there with her. The song speaks to the pain and sadness of unrequited love, but also to the importance of letting go and moving on.
Line by Line Meaning
I've got the invitation that you sent me
I received the invitation that you sent me
You wanted me to see you change your name
You wanted me to witness you taking someone else's last name
I couldn't stand to see you wed another
I couldn't bear to watch you marry someone else
But dear, I hope you're happy just the same
But my love, I truly hope that you find happiness
Wedding bells are ringing in the chapel
The sound of wedding bells can be heard coming from the chapel
I hear the children laughing now with plea
I can hear the children laughing and playing nearby
Down the aisle with someone else you're walking
You are walking down the aisle with someone other than me
Those wedding bells will never ring for me
I will never get to hear those wedding bells ring for me
I planned a little cottage in the valley
I had plans to build a small cottage in the valley for us to live in
I even bought a little band of gold
I even purchased a small, golden ring
I knew someday I'd place it on your finger
I knew one day I would slide that ring onto your finger
But now the future looks so dark and cold
Sadly, the future seems bleak and depressing
I fancy that I see a bunch of roses
In my mind's eye, I can see a bouquet of roses
A blossom from an orange tree in your hair
I can picture a single orange blossom tucked into your hair
And while the organ plays I'll love you truly
As the organ music fills the air, I will love you with all my heart
Please won't you let me pretend that I am there?
Can't you allow me to imagine that I am by your side?
That should be ringing now for you and me
Those bells should be ringing for both of us
And home alone I hang my head in sorrow
I am alone at home, feeling nothing but sadness
Those wedding bells will never ring for me
I know that I will never get to experience the joy of hearing wedding bells for myself
Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: CLAUDE BOONE
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind