"What's Your Mama's Name" is a song written by

Dallas Frazier Dallas Frazier (October 27, 1939 – January 14, 2022) was an American country musician and songwriter who had success in the 1950s and 1960s. Life and career Frazier was born in Spiro, Oklahoma, on October 27, 1939, but was raised in Bakersfie ...

and Earl Montgomery, 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

Tanya Tucker Tanya Denise Tucker (born October 10, 1958) is an American country music singer and songwriter who had her first hit, "Delta Dawn", in 1972 at the age of 13. During her career Tucker became one of the few child performers to mature into adulthood ...

. It was released in February 1973 as the first single and title track from the album '' What's Your Mama's Name''. The song was Tucker's fourth hit on the country chart and her first number one. The single stayed at number one for a single week and spent a total of fourteen weeks on the chart. On the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 pop chart, it reached number eighty-six.

Tammy Wynette Tammy Wynette (born Virginia Wynette Pugh; May 5, 1942 – April 6, 1998) was an American country music singer and songwriter, considered among the genre's most influential and successful artists. Along with Loretta Lynn, Wynette helped bring a ...

also recorded an unreleased version of the song in the early 1970s. Her version was never officially released till after her death in 1998.

Content

The song tells, in flashback, of a man named Buford Wilson. The story begins at least 30 years beforehand, when the young man travels to

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in Shelby County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. Situated along the Mississippi River, it had a population of 633,104 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of municipalities in Tenne ...

, in search of a woman with whom he'd had a previous relationship in

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

. He spends the next decade asking people about the woman's whereabouts, and is generally ignored-now described not as a "young man," but as "a drunkard," he has an encounter with a young, green-eyed girl. As told in the song's refrain: Wilson is arrested for enticing a child - after he had offered her a nickel's worth of candy if she revealed the identity of her mother - and is jailed for a month of labor. The final verse describes how, about a year before the present, Wilson, now a " wayward soul" that the county had to claim, is found dead in Memphis, wearing a ragged coat. Inside the coat's pocket is a "faded letter" stating, "You have a daughter, and her eyes are Wilson green," showing that Wilson's intent was not predatory, but to simply find his lost daughter and to reconnect with her mother, his lost love.

Chart performance

References

Songs about mothers 1973 singles Tanya Tucker songs Songs written by Dallas Frazier Song recordings produced by Billy Sherrill Songs about New Orleans Columbia Records singles Songs written by Earl Montgomery 1973 songs {{1970s-country-song-stub