“Everybody’s Had the Blues“
Merle Haggard and the Strangers
Written by Merle Haggard
Billboard
#1 (1 week)
August 25 – September 1, 1973
As a composition, “Everybody’s Had the Blues” is, at best, B-tier Merle Haggard.
But wow, does a live audience lift it up. Part of that is due to the flawless musicianship and unimpeachable vocal performance from the Strangers and Haggard respectively.
Those both help, but it’s the crowd response that gets it past the finish line. The song is about the universal experience of being heartbroken, so it’s the perfect fit for an audience locking in and commiserating with the miserable feelings that they’ve all felt before and will feel again.
They just don’t usually get to feel that way with the greatest male country artist of all time and his legendary backing band in peak form.
As John Mellencamp would later sing, it hurts so good.
“Everybody’s Had the Blues” gets a B+.
Every No. 1 Single of the Seventies
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