Song 406: This week on the playlist you can hear It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels by Kitty Wells, written by J.D. Jay Miller, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. In the summer of 1960, my family travelled to visit the Ohio relatives, as we had every summer of my life, and by that point, it had become a regular part of the stay that I would spend some time spinning favorites from the aunt and uncle country music collection. They gave me free rein, with the understanding that I would handle the records and equipment with care, which I did, and among the classics that I enjoyed was an album that included this cut. On that 1960 sojourn, or possibly the 1962 trek, when our yearly visits became once-every-two-years in the 1960s, I sat in the living room beside the console, singing along with this track, and my fervently-religious father said to my aunt, "I don't know if I like hearing my son singing those words." Aunt Mary chuckled and replied, "He doesn't know what it means!" Not wishing to jeopardize my access to the country music stash, I said nothing, but inwardly, I thought, "I do know what it means." In reality, though, as a sheltered pre-teen, I actually didn't get the forbidden implications of the lyrics, comprehending it only in terms of grade-school-level boyfriend/girlfriend tussles, which I had no personal experience with, having only witnessed them as an observer. This 1952 single became the first No. 1 Billboard country music hit for a female solo artist, paving the way for other singers like Patsy Cline and Loretta Lynn. Truly, too many times married men think they're still single, and that has caused many a good girl to go wrong, but in this case, it also caused a talented young woman to top the charts.
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