“Woman, Sensuous Woman”
Don Gibson
Written by Gary Paxton
Billboard
#1 (1 week)
September 2, 1972
My love for country music developed in my early adolescence and defined my teenage years. That was back in the nineties. My knowledge and appreciation for the genre would eventually stretch multiple decades backward – and forward, with time.
But nothing connects like the music of your adolescence, and listening to Don Gibson’s “Woman, Sensuous Woman,” the nineties are getting in the way of me fully appreciating this seventies hit.
One of the ways the nineties are doing so is silly. Jeff Foxworthy made one joke back then that I still laugh about, and it’s the one about a redneck using the word sensuous. “Honey, sensuous up, can you get me a beer?”
The more serious way is that Mark Chesnutt covered it. Just like when he covered Hank Jr.’s “I’ll Think of Something,” Chesnutt absolutely shredsabsolutely shreds the Gibson original, at least to my big and floppy nineties ears.
I appreciate this the same way I appreciate the Searchers’ “When You Walk in the Room.” It’s a classic, I respect it, but now that a nineties country legend sang the definitive version for me, it’s superfluous.
“Woman, Sensuous Woman” gets a B+.
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I knew that “Woman, Sensuous Woman” was a Don Gibson cover back in the mid-90s when Mark Chesnutt had this song on radio but I didn’t realize “I’ll Think of Something” was also a cover. It reinforces my opinion that Chesnutt was a maestro with covers as I continue to like his version of “Rollin’ with the Flow” at least as much as the Charlie Rich original if not a tick more so. Chesnutt did good with this one as well, and like you, his was the definitive version for me because of simple timing. If I’d ever heard Gibson’s version today, it was only once. It sounds good but I still defer to Chesnutt’s version as more compelling.
My secondary connection to this song is from a TV ad campaign that came a couple of years before Chesnutt’s “Woman, Sensuous Woman” record. It was from another song called “Please Release Me” that is lyrically similar. I never really looked into who sang it but I have heard the song played on classic radio over the years.
You know who else doesn’t get enough credit for kicking major ass on a Don Gibson cover in the 90s? The Kentucky Headhunters.
The singer of Please Release Me is Englebert Humperdinck (stage name, not the opera composer) who had a lot of adult contemporary – I think – hits in the 60s and 70s. My other favourite of his is The Last Waltz – not to be confused with the film about The Band. Australian country singer Diana Trask also recorded The Last Waltz.
Kitty Wells, Ray Price, Dolly Parton, Elvis Presley, Loretta Lynn and Conway Twitty, Lyle Lovett and KD Lang, as well as George Jones (his was a gospel version) also recorded Please Release Me. I have the feeling I’ve heard Conway and Loretta’s version at some point.
I didn’t realize “I’ll Think of Something” was also a cover.
Yup. Chesnutt had three other older country covers on that same album:
”It’s Not Over (If I’m Not Over You)” — previously recorded by Vern Gosdin and Reba McEntire
”Uptown Downtown (Misery’s All The Same)” — previously recorded by Ray Price, under the title ”Better Class of Losers”
”Who Will The Next Fool Be” — previously recorded by Charlie Rich
(Presumably the Ray Price cover was re-titled to distinguish it from the Randy Travis song? I always wondered about that.)
Nothing beats the 70’s country sound for me. So authentic. This is not quite a classic but still very very good. “B+”.
One of the truly great songwriters and a very distinctive vocalist. When Don’s voice came on the radio there was never any question as to the identity of the singer. While his RCA hits were great, I personally enjoyed the Hickory years even more as unlike the later RCA recordings, he usually was not buried in dense strings and other production.
I prefer Don’s version to the later Chesnutt version, but I really liked both versions. Don, however, was a far more soulful singer
I never got the “sensuous up, get me a beer” joke until just now. I just couldn’t parse what words it was trying to be (“since you was”). I think the “proper grammar” side of my brain was just preventing me from taking in the pun.
I seem to recall a lot of people not liking the Chesnutt version at the time, but that was probably just a vocal minority of overly purist types, like the same kind who thought country died for good in the Urban Cowboy era and that even Randy Travis was a phony (yes, I’ve met people who believe that).
And I get that feeling of how, if you first hear a song in a cover form, it can make the original seem lesser in comparison. It’s how I feel about Trent Summar and the New Row Mob’s version of “It Never Rains in Southern California” or Lonestar’s version of “Walking in Memphis”, for instance. Both just sound more energetic and engaged than their respective originals.
Conversely, the opposite can happen. I liked Robin Lee’s version of “Black Velvet” because I heard that version a lot growing up… until I finally heard the original by Alannah Myles, which is light-years ahead in terms of quality and makes Robin Lee’s sound like Kidz Bop.
I am a big fan of Don Gibson. One of country music’s greatest writers and a terribly underrated singer. I like both his version and Mark Chesnutt’s, though I would argue that Chesnutt’s version draws more from Johnny Bush’s cut of this song than Gibson’s. Either way, it’s another wonderful classic from the early 70s, which are making a strong case to be considered a golden age for country music.
CJ: …wait, Johnny Bush covered that song? Today I Learned. I’m gonna have to go hunt that down. Not surprised that Chesnutt would take his cues from that version. I know he was a big fan of JB. (Chesnutt covered Bush’s ”What A Way To Live” on the album after that.)
I do like Chesnutt’s version better. I would like to say, while I’m thinking about it, that this is one biiiig thing about ’90s country that I appreciate a lot more than I used to — the fact that so many of the singers of that era showed their appreciation of the artists that came before them, not just with their styles of music but their covers of those older artists’ songs. I think that’s a key aspect of what makes country, well, COUNTRY, and it just seems like that’s fallen by the wayside since…well, since about 2003 or so, probably.
Yep! It’s on his Whiskey River album from 1973. And to your point about 90s artists honoring their forefathers better, you are absolutely right. And when a modern artist does pay tribute to the artists of yesteryear, they seem to pick poorly. Think of HARDY’s “Diff”tape to honor Joe Diffie.