"Only Daddy That'll Walk the Line" is a song written by Jimmy Bryant. Originally 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, ...

singer Jim Alley, it was made famous by American country music singer and musician

Waylon Jennings Waylon Jennings (June 15, 1937 – February 13, 2002) was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. He pioneered the Outlaw Movement in country music. Jennings started playing guitar at the age of eight and performed at age f ...

Waylon Jennings version

Jennings recorded the song on April 16, 1968, at RCA Victor Studios in Nashville, with

Chet Atkins Chester Burton Atkins (June 20, 1924 – June 30, 2001), known as "Mr. Guitar" and "The Country Gentleman", was an American musician who, along with Owen Bradley and Bob Ferguson, helped create the Nashville sound, the country music ...

producing, with

Wayne Moss Wayne Moss (born February 9, 1938 in Charleston, West Virginia, United States) is an American guitar player, bassist, record producer and songwriter best known for his session work in Nashville. Moss was one of the founders of Area Code 615 and Bar ...

playing the guitar solo. It was released in July 1968 as the second single from Jennings' album ''

Only the Greatest ''Only the Greatest'' is a studio album by American country music artist Waylon Jennings, released in 1968 on RCA Victor. It includes the single " Only Daddy That'll Walk the Line," which Jennings took to #2 on the country music charts that year. ...

''. '' Billboard'', in a review of the album, said that it and "Walk On Out of My Mind" were "typical of the robust, compelling vocal style." Nathan Brackett and Christian Hoard, in ''The New Rolling Stone Album Guide'', wrote that Jennings began to "really assert his rough-hewn sensibility" on the song. The song was featured in season seven episode five of ''

Mad Men ''Mad Men'' is an American period drama television series created by Matthew Weiner and produced by Lionsgate Television. It ran on the cable network AMC from July 19, 2007, to May 17, 2015, lasting for seven seasons and 92 episodes. Its f ...

''.

Chart positions

The song spent eighteen weeks on the

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 sa ...

charts, peaking at #2 and holding that peak for five weeks. In Canada, it reached Number One on the ''

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 charts for the week ending September 30, 1968.

Linda Ronstadt version

Linda Ronstadt Linda Maria Ronstadt (born July 15, 1946) is a retired American singer who performed and recorded in diverse genres including rock, country, light opera, the Great American Songbook, and Latin. She has earned 11 Grammy Awards, three American ...

included a gender-reversed version of the song (sung as "The Only Mama That'll Walk the Line") on her 1969 album '' Hand Sown ... Home Grown;'' The song became a staple of Ronstadt's set lists at her concerts during the late 1960s and early '70s. She performed it on ''

The Johnny Cash Show ''The Johnny Cash Show'' is an American television music variety show hosted by Johnny Cash. The Screen Gems 58-episode series ran from June 7, 1969, to March 31, 1971, on ABC; it was taped at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee. ...

'' in June 1969, nearly a year before Jennings performed it on the same show.

Hank Williams Jr. version

Hank Williams Jr. Randall Hank Williams (born May 26, 1949), known professionally as Hank Williams Jr. or Bocephus, is an American singer-songwriter and musician. His musical style is often considered a blend of southern rock, blues, and country. He is the son of ...

included a version of the song on his album '' Family Tradition'', which was released in 1979.

The Kentucky Headhunters version

In 1991,

The Kentucky Headhunters The Kentucky Headhunters are an American country rock and Southern rock band originating in the state of Kentucky. The band's members are Doug Phelps (vocals, bass guitar), Greg Martin (vocals, lead guitar), and brothers Richard Young (vocals, rhy ...

recorded a cover version for the album '' Electric Barnyard''. Also released as a single that year, this version spent seven weeks on the same chart and peaked at #60.

Chart positions

References

{{Authority control Songs about fathers 1968 singles 1991 singles Waylon Jennings songs The Kentucky Headhunters songs Song recordings produced by Chet Atkins RCA Records Nashville singles Mercury Records singles 1968 songs