“‘What’s Your Mama’s Name”
Tanya Tucker
Written by Dallas Frazier and Earl Montgomery
Billboard
#1 (1 week)
May 19, 1973
Following up a debut album with hits like “Delta Dawn” and “The Jamestown Ferry” is a tall order, even if you’re not a new artist in your early teens.
Tanya Tucker deftly avoided the sophomore slump with a pair of Southern Gothic hits that topped the charts from her second album.
“What’s Your Mama’s Name” served as the title track and lead single, and it tells the haunting tale of a lonely man spending his entire adulthood trying to hunt down an old lover and the daughter that their illicit affair produced.
By the end of the song, his sanity is hovering around the same level as Miss Delta Dawn, but he’s got nobody around to call him baby. Just police officers who intervene as he approaches one girl after another, hoping he’s found his long lost child.
That this is the brighter story of this album’s two hits boggles the mind.
“What’s Your Mama’s Name” gets an A.
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I’m frequently caught off guard when I’m reminded just how young Tanya was when she recorded her most iconic hits. The fact that she’s the same age as Alan Jackson seems crazy when her debut came almost 20 years earlier.
I think that’s why country radio let her continue being successful well into the 90s while cutting off other 70s veterans and even 80s stars like Dan Seals. She was the same age as her contemporaries and actually fit in well.
Tammy Wynette also recorded a version of “What’s Your Mama’s Name” but it would not be released for a couple decades. Here’s that:
https://youtu.be/wcdxfeM_41c
Wynette’s husband also recorded a version:
https://youtu.be/krnA2cTPEVE
Going to have to listen to both of these, though I’m actually more intrigued by George only because it’s a male perspective/vocal.
I actually wasn’t entirely sure it was George by your comment. Glad it is, though.
I considered doing it as a #Feminism joke but I think that one’s been done to death at this point.
All good and I’m about to give it a listen.
Have just listened to both. Both amazing, though I still think I prefer Tanya’s version overall.
George made it a slower ballad, which worked so well, and worked better with his voice. I love it and it’s even more of a tearjerker that way, honestly.
I love Tammy’s version as well. It’s an excellent cover and I have nothing else to say, really.
She was so young at the time and yet could imbue songs like this with the necessary gravitas. Talent, in a word. I love Tanya and this is one of my favourite songs of hers. Yes, it is brighter than the other hit from this album, but then given which song it is, that makes sense. Not that it is particularly bright, only comparatively. Another favourite of mine by Tanya around this era is “No Man’s Land”.
Such a great song. Well written and sung perfectly. “A”.
Great peformance by Tannya Tucker.
Funny, when I hear it, I’m waiting for Tanya to close the circle at the end by revealing that she’s the girl and Buford is her father. A la Porter Wagoner at the end of “The Carroll County Accident,” Or Randy Travis, in “Three Wooden Crosses.” The songwriter seems to be teeing it up to drop the “surprise” payoff, but it never comes.
I guess like in “Delta Dawn,” they leave it open for the listenerto decide if Tanya is just an ominicient narrator or has skin in the story.
I had wondered if that was going to be the outcome, or if the father would find his daughter, the first time I heard it myself. I still think it would be interesting to have a ‘sequel’ about the daughter, whether the narrator was her or just one about her. Like the Marty Robbins ‘sequels’ to El Paso.