“Lead Me On”
Conway Twitty and Loretta Lynn
Written by Leon Copeland
Billboard
#1 (1 week)
November 13, 1971
The cool thing about the big three superstar duet partners of this era – George & Tammy, Porter & Dolly, and Conway & Loretta – is that they don’t sound at all like they’re supposed to be singing together.
We get these cool contrasts of voices that sound like real people talking, which counterintuitively makes these distinctive superstar vocalists sound like the domestic every day characters they’re playing in their songs.
Conway and Loretta had some of the most creative cheating songs of the day, and I especially love this one. Usually when you say someone led you on, you’re blaming them for fooling you. Here, they desperately beg each other to be fooled. All they want is a promise that the other person will take the blame for tempting them to cheat. Rather than making a deal with the devil that would render them personally culpable, they absolve their own guilt by being the devil for their partner in crime.
Does that math work out morally? Not in the least. But it’s good enough to justify some adultery for these desperate souls who are very willing to be led astray.
“Lead Me On” gets an A.
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I, too, love this one. Loretta gets the chance to outshine Conway on the vocals here, and she does not disappoint!