“It’s Four in the Morning”
Faron Young
Written by Jerry Chesnut
Billboard
#1 (2 weeks)
February 19 – February 26, 1972
For posterity’s sake: this is a classic country record that showcases Jerry “A Good Year For the Roses” Chesnut’s other songwriting masterclass.
It’s a brilliantly constructed country song that is heightened by the swelling strings and a gorgeous vocal performance that I immediately clocked as influential on one of my favorite male vocalists of all time: Ricky Van Shelton.
Add a little bass to the plaintive wail on the chorus and you’ve got a vocal lick worthy of Loving Proof.
1972 won’t reach the consistently dizzying heights of the first two years of this decade, but this late career hit can stand proudly among the best records that we’ve covered so far from the seventies.
Faron Young remained a hitmaker for several years after this, and we’ll get a chance to explore his foundational work in depth when we cover the fifties and sixties down the road.
“It’s Four in the Morning” gets an A.
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I love the emotional honest in this song. A solid “A”.
I love the emotional honesty in this song. A solid “A”.
Faron Young had a late career renaissance that began in 1969 with the release of “Wine Me Up”. I was living in England at the time and heard an interview that Faron gave British Country Music journalist Bob Powel in which he told Powel that he was giving up on trying to get another “Hello Walls” and going back to a more solidly country sound with fiddle and steel heavily featured. “Wine Me Up” [#1 RW, & CB, #2 BB] kicked off a string of nine straight top ten country singles (and eleven of twelve top tens). While this was the only single to reach the top of the Billboard country charts, four more singles reached #1 on Cash Box and/or Record World giving Faron six #1s from 1969-1974. Included in this string of hits was the upbeat modern country 1970 remake of Faron’s first hit from 1952 “Going Steady”.
It is too bad that Billboard didn’t give Faron the respect that Cash Box and Record World gave him because there are several really great songs to follow that would reach this series.
By the way, you won’t get much opportunity to discuss Faron during the 1950s – Webb Pierce hogged the top spot from 1952-1959 having songs at #1 for 111 weeks during that span
I would give “Four In The Morning” an A+
Faron’s “Wine Me Up” and it’s follo-up “Your Time’s Coming” were as good a honytonk one-two punch as anybody’s ever delivered. The latter song was a great one about a supernaturally agelesss temptress who picks up and spits out at least three generations of male lovers, and is going for a yet another conquest when she spits out Faron.
My parents used to play this song but I had no idea who sang it or what it was called.
Beautiful song – well written and well sung.
Faron Young was one of those versatile vocalists who could hit a home run with a fiddle and steel-soaked honky tonk number or a more crooner-esque song. This song straddles that middle line to great success. One of Faron’s best vocal performances and an excellent use of strings and steel guitar.
Which two legenday Country Music Hall-of-Fame artists were born 1 day and 150 miles apart?
Faron Young and Johnny Cash I believe.
This hit gets ganged with Kenny Roger’s “Morning Desire” and Lee Greenwood’s “Morning Ride” in my mind, songs about sexual wantings and hunger, albeit,”It’s Four in the Morning” is complicated by a ten-times collapsing relationship.
And Young’s is the superior performance by a country mile.
Young is an artist who existed on the shoulders of competing styles. Daniel Cooper’s opening paragraph in the liner notes to the Country Music Foundations compilation of Young’s original Capitol records always stuck with me. He wrote, “History has not been especially kind to country artists like Faron Young – the men and women whose careers didn’t necessarily tie in with this or that epochal trend. The standard postwar story line that country proceeded – hop, skip, and jump – from honky-tonk to rockabilly to Nashville Sound tends to marginalize important individual talents who didn’t embody one movement versus another.” This dynamic is certainly playing out in the feature revisiting the hits of the 2000’s.
The subtle vibrato in both Young’s voice and Van Shelton’s is what gives both their vocals such mesmeric depth and warmth, no?
This brilliant song sounds amazing. It listens like a phone call with a close friend spilling his guts.
Bonus Beats:
Here’s the country-soul version of “It’s Four in the Morning” that Sir Tom Jones recorded for his 1985 album Tender Loving Care:
https://youtu.be/YLZd4zdiDIs