"Don't the Girls All Get Prettier at Closing Time" is a song written by

Baker Knight Thomas Baker Knight Jr. (July 4, 1933 – October 12, 2005) was an American songwriter and musician. His best known compositions were "Lonesome Town", "The Wonder of You", and " Don't the Girls All Get Prettier at Closing Time". His songs have ...

, and recorded by American

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

artist

Mickey Gilley Mickey Leroy Gilley (March 9, 1936 – May 7, 2022) was an American country music singer and songwriter. Although he started out singing straight-up country and western material in the 1970s, he moved towards a more pop-friendly sound in the 1 ...

. It was released in January 1976 as the first single from the album ''Gilley's Smokin''. The song was Gilley's fifth No. 1 on the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

Hot Country Singles Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States. This 50-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly by collecting airplay data from Nielsen BDS along with digital sal ...

chart. The song's one week atop the chart was part of a 12-week stay in the country chart's top 40.

Content

The song is a lament about loneliness and late-night desperation in finding a desirable significant other in a barroom. As the night progresses, and the singer consumes more drinks, he continuously lowers his standards. Eventually he finds a willing and (what he thinks to be) suitable partner—only to find that when he wakes up, he has taken home one of the ugliest women in the bar and vows never to "do that anymore." It caught the attention of

social psychologist Social psychology is the scientific study of how thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the real or imagined presence of other people or by social norms. Social psychologists typically explain human behavior as a result of the re ...

s who used scientific testing to investigate whether individuals begin to perceive the opposite gender as being more attractive as it gets later into the night. The phenomenon became known as the " closing time effect". The alt-country supergroup The Pleasure Barons included a cover of the song on their Live in Las Vegas CD, with vocals by Dave Alvin.

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

1976 singles 1976 songs Mickey Gilley songs Song recordings produced by Eddie Kilroy Playboy Records singles Songs written by Baker Knight {{1970s-country-song-stub