"Hole in My Pocket" is a song co-written by Boudleaux and Felice Bryant, 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

Ricky Van Shelton Ricky Van Shelton (born January 12, 1952) is an American retired country music singer. Active between 1986 and 2006, he charted more than 20 singles on the ''Billboard'' Hot Country Songs charts. This figure includes 10 Number One hits: "Somebod ...

. It was released in March 1989, as the third single from his album '' Loving Proof''. The song reached number 4 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 & Tracks 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 and became a number 1 hit in Canada. Shelton's version was an updated rendition of the original recording by

Grand Ole Opry The ''Grand Ole Opry'' is a weekly American country music stage concert in Nashville, Tennessee, founded on November 28, 1925, by George D. Hay as a one-hour radio "barn dance" on WSM. Currently owned and operated by Opry Entertainment (a divis ...

artist

Little Jimmy Dickens James Cecil Dickens (December 19, 1920 – January 2, 2015), better known by his stage name Little Jimmy Dickens, was an American country music singer and songwriter famous for his humorous novelty songs, his small size (4'11" 50 cm, and h ...

, recorded in Nashville on April 16, 1958 with a small group of Nashville session players including guitarists Grady Martin and

Harold Bradley Harold Ray Bradley (January 2, 1926 – January 31, 2019) was an American guitarist and entrepreneur, who played on many country, rock and pop recordings and produced numerous TV variety shows and movie soundtracks. Having started as a session ...

. Though Dickens was known for his earthy hard country songs, this one was a hard rocker in the Chuck Berry mode. While the Dickens version was not a hit, Shelton's recording, despite some modern touches, closely followed the 1958 arrangement.

Content

The narrator has a hole in his pocket so all his money is gone and he can't buy his girlfriend anything.

Chart performance

"Hole in My Pocket" reached number 4 on the ''

Hot Country Songs 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 and number 1 on the Canadian ''

RPM Revolutions per minute (abbreviated rpm, RPM, rev/min, r/min, or with the notation min−1) is a unit of rotational speed or rotational frequency for rotating machines. Standards ISO 80000-3:2019 defines a unit of rotation as the dimensionl ...

'' Country Tracks chart.

Year-end charts

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hole In My Pocket 1989 singles 1958 songs Little Jimmy Dickens songs Ricky Van Shelton songs Songs written by Felice and Boudleaux Bryant Song recordings produced by Steve Buckingham (record producer) Columbia Nashville Records singles