“‘You Always Come Back (to Hurting Me)”
Johnny Rodriguez
Written by Tom T. Hall and Johnny Rodriguez
Billboard
#1 (1 week)
June 9, 1973
Johnny Rodriguez’s historic ascent as the first Mexican-American country artist to achieve major success was fueled by both talent and tragedy.
Losing both his father and his older brother in his mid-teens scarred his formative years, but also left him with little to lose. Establishing his talent quickly in southern Texas, he was discovered by Tom T. Hall and Bobby Bare while singing at the Alamo Village tourist attraction, they encouraged him to move to Nashville, which he did: with a guitar and only a few dollars in his pocket.
Within a year, he was signed to Mercury and released his debut single, the top ten hit “Pass Me By (If You’re Only Passing Through).” His second single became his first number one hit, and like its predecessor, it’s a traditional country classic.
Rodriguez sings a heartfelt plea while drenched in twangy instrumentation that has some real grit to it. There’s nothing polished about this record. It’s pure honky tonk country in the very best way. Rodriguez co-wrote it with Hall, and he brings an urgency to the lyric that pairs well with Hall’s signature wordplay. It’s a lovely meeting of the head and the heart.
Together with “Pass Me By,” it kicked off a remarkable run of radio hits that would continue through the end of the following decade, with many more entries to come in this series.
“You Always Come Back (to Hurting Me)” gets an A.
Every No. 1 Single of the Seventies
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