Maps of Music

What Goes Around Comes Around (1979)

Where the lyrics of What Goes Around Comes Around take you, and where it was really made.

This album broke a run of four straight No. 1 country albums for Waylon Jennings: it peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard country albums chart.

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What Goes Around Comes Around: 26th studio album by American country artist Waylon Jennings
Released in 1979 on RCA Victor
Released November 1979 per the Italian Wikipedia entry
Production largely handled by longtime Waylors drummer Richie Albright
Second half of the record is mostly ballads
Cover: Jennings' logo surrounded by neon and stars

By 1979, Jennings had 12 Top 10 country hits since 1973, six of them chart toppers
Before this album he had recorded four straight No. 1 country albums
1977's Ol' Waylon also reached No. 15 on the pop charts
Jennings was at the forefront of outlaw country alongside Willie Nelson, a movement rooted in rock and roll attitude and musical freedom
In 1979 he sang with Nelson and Ernest Tubb on "You Nearly Lose Your Mind" for Tubb's The Legend and the Legacy album
In 1979 he also appeared on George Jones' duet album My Very Special Guests
His commercial success ran alongside a crippling cocaine addiction that was draining his resources
A 1977 drug bust rattled him, but he continued using
In 1980 he would discover that he was broke

Richie Albright moved formally into producing Jennings as the 1970s closed
Jennings later described this album and Music Man as bookends of his music in overdrive
"I Ain't Living Long Like This", written by Rodney Crowell, reached the top of the country charts
The song played off Jennings' 1977 drug bust for cocaine possession
Shel Silverstein co-wrote the waltz "It's the World's Gone Crazy" with Jennings
Mickey Newbury composed "If You See Her"
Personnel includes Ralph Mooney on steel guitar and the Muscle Shoals Horns

First studio album to feature Jennings' distinctive logo on the cover
The logo had appeared on the back of I've Always Been Crazy, released the year before
The garish cover concept came from RCA executive Jerry Bradley
The cover photograph was taken by Charlyn Zlotnik

Born June 15, 1937 in Littlefield, Texas; American country singer, songwriter, musician, actor, and author.
Considered one of the pioneers of the outlaw movement in country music.
Played in the Texas Longhorns as a teen; worked as a DJ at KLLL in Lubbock.
Played bass for Buddy Holly on the Winter Dance Party tour; gave up his seat on the plane that crashed in 1959.
Led the Waylors at JD's club in Phoenix, Arizona, developing a rock-influenced country style.
Signed with RCA Victor in 1965; gained creative control in the early 1970s with Lonesome, On'ry and Mean and Honky Tonk Heroes.
Had a number-one hit with "Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way" from Dreaming My Dreams.
Recorded Wanted! The Outlaws with Willie Nelson, Tompall Glaser, and Jessi Colter, the first platinum country album.
Narrated and sang the theme for The Dukes of Hazzard, "Good Ol' Boys", which became his biggest hit.
Joined Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, and Johnny Cash in the Highwaymen.
Overcame cocaine addiction in 1984.
Inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2001; died February 13, 2002 in Chandler, Arizona.

Critic Marsha Hume wrote that side two consists of ballads of a kind Jennings had not sung in some time
Hume added that Jennings' rough baritone can handle a soulful ballad, and his masculine style makes him seem all the more vulnerable
The New York Times judged that Jennings' gruff voice had softened and his macho bluster had turned tender

AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine said the common view that late-1970s and early-1980s records pale next to the early-1970s ones is true on the surface but does albums like this a disservice
Erlewine found the album more cohesive than I've Always Been Crazy, though not as weighty as Ol' Waylon
Erlewine heard a sense of Jennings growing weary under the spotlight of stardom, with an underlying sadness running through the ballad-heavy second half
AllMusic wrote that it is easy to overlook the relatively modest pleasures of a record like this, but there is a lot of good music here

Billboard country albums chart: peaked at No. 2, the first album since 1975 by Jennings not to reach No. 1
Stayed at No. 2 for 14 weeks
Kenny Rogers' Kenny, which crossed over successfully, likely kept it from the top
Single "Come With Me" released August 1979, stayed at No. 1 on the country chart for two weeks
"Come With Me" spent 13 weeks in total on the country chart
"I Ain't Living Long Like This" reached the top of the country charts

RCA executive Jerry Bradley said Jennings' drug problems did not hurt record sales in his view
The cover idea was unusually garish for Jennings, and it came from Bradley
Jennings' 1977 drug bust rattled him, but he kept using through the period of this album
The album's second half is mostly ballads, unlike the hard-driving opening track
Several songwriters who helped shape the outlaw movement of the 1970s contributed cuts to the album