Few people have left a mark on any genre of music as Loretta Lynn did with country music. For more than 60 years, Lynn was an integral part of country music. Lynn’s hit songs are far too many to mention, but these are four of her singles that we could listen to forever.
“I’m A Honky Tonk Girl”
“I’m A Honky Tonk Girl” is Lynn’s debut single. The first of three singles she released before her debut Loretta Lynn Sings album, Lynn is the sole writer of the song.
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A Top 20 hit, “I’m A Honky Tonk Girl” sounds like it is an autobiographical tune. But it’s really about a woman Lynn met while picking strawberries, whose husband had left her with their seven children.
“I’m A Honky Tonk Girl” says, “So turn that Jukebox way up high / And fill my glass up while I cry / I’ve lost everything in this world / And now I’m a Honky Tonk girl.”
The success of “I’m A Honky Tonk Girl” is what inspired the Grand Ole Opry to invite Lynn to make her Opry debut.
“Coal Miner’s Daughter”
There likely isn’t a more autobiographical song that Lynn has released than “Coal Miner’s Daughter”. Written by Lynn, “Coal Miner’s Daughter” is the title track of Lynn’s 1971 album.
Out as a single in 1970, “Coal Miner’s Daughter” is Lynn’s life story. The song begins with, “Well, I was born a coal miner’s daughter / In a cabin, on a hill in Butcher Holler / We were poor, but we had love / That’s the one thing that daddy made sure of / He’d shovel coal to make a poor man’s dollar.”
“After The Fire Is Gone” (With Conway Twitty)
Lynn had a very successful solo career. But she also had several hit songs as a duo with Conway Twitty. One includes the song “After The Fire Is Gone”. Their first single together, “After The Fire Is Gone” is also their first No. 1 hit.
Out in 1971, “After The Fire Is Gone” was written by L.E. White. A song about an extramarital affair, “After The Fire Is Gone” says, “We know it’s wrong for us to meet / But the fire’s gone out at home / And there’s nothin’ cold as ashes / After the fire is gone.”
“Blue Kentucky Girl”
Most people likely think Lynn wrote “Blue Kentucky Girl”, but that isn’t the case. The title track of her fourth studio album, Johnny Mullins, is actually the writer of “Blue Kentucky Girl”.
The song says, “Don’t wait to bring great riches home to me / I need no diamond rings or fancy pearls / Just bring yourself, you’re all I’ll ever need / That’s good enough for this blue Kentucky girl.”
In 1973, Emmylou Harris released her own version of “Blue Kentucky Girl”.
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