"Happy Birthday Darlin'" is a song written by Chuck Howard, and recorded by American
country music
Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and American southwest, the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is p ...
artist
Conway Twitty
Harold Lloyd Jenkins (September 1, 1933 – June 5, 1993), better known by his stage name Conway Twitty, was an American singer and songwriter. Initially a part of the 1950s rockabilly scene, Twitty was best known as a country music performer. ...
. It was released in October 1979 as the third and final single from his album ''
Cross Winds''. The song was Twitty's 23rd number one on the country chart as solo artist. The single stayed at number one for three weeks and spent a total of 11 weeks on the country chart.
Content
The song begins with the spoken lyric "
Hello, Darlin'," calling back to Twitty's 1970 hit of the same name that starts in the same way. The song otherwise tells a narrative through the eyes of a man who vows to right a number of wrongs in his relationship. Here, instead of giving his wife a present for her birthday, he vows to take some things away, such as suspicion, lonely moments, "so-so kisses" and doubt, replacing them with such things as faith and companionship. In the end, the man confidently says that his wife can tell friends, "He didn’t give me anything but he sure took a lot of things away."
Chart performance
Year-end charts
References
1979 singles
1979 songs
Conway Twitty songs
MCA Records singles
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