"The Days of Sand and Shovels" is a song written by Doyle Marsh and George Reneau, 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

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 ...

. It was released in April 1969 as the second single from his compilation album '' The Best of Waylon Jennings''. The song peaked at number 20 on the '' Billboard''

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 ...

chart. It also reached number 1 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 chart in Canada. "The Days of Sand and Shovels" was released as a single in 1969 by

Bobby Vinton Stanley Robert "Bobby" Vinton (born April 16, 1935) is a American former singer and occasional actor, who also hosted his own self-titled TV show in the late 1970s. As a teen idol, he became known as "The Polish Prince", as his music paid trib ...

. Vinton's version spent 8 weeks on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, reaching No. 34, while reaching No. 11 on ''Billboard''s

Easy Listening Easy listening (including mood music) is a popular music genre and radio format that was most popular during the 1950s to 1970s. It is related to middle-of-the-road (MOR) music and encompasses instrumental recordings of standards, hit songs, n ...

chart, No. 16 on Canada's ''RPM'' 100, and No. 13 on ''RPM''s Adult Contemporary chart.Adult
, '' RPM Weekly'', Volume 11, Ed. 21, July 21, 1969. Accessed October 25, 2015

Nat Stuckey Nathan Wright Stuckey (December 17, 1933 – August 24, 1988) was an American country singer. He recorded for various labels between 1966 and 1978, charting in the top 10 of Hot Country Songs with " Sweet Thang", "Plastic Saddle", "Sweet Than ...

released a cover of the song in 1978. His version peaked at number 26 on the ''Billboard'' Hot Country Singles chart.

Chart performance

Waylon Jennings

Bobby Vinton

Nat Stuckey

References

1969 singles 1978 singles 1969 songs Waylon Jennings songs Bobby Vinton songs Nat Stuckey songs RCA Records singles {{1960s-country-song-stub