Oak Ridge Boys Songs Yall Come Back Saloon

Released in 1977, "Y'all Come Back Saloon" was the Oak Ridge Boys' first country single. It was also the first song ever written by Sharon Vaughn, now a member of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame.

It was inspired by her own past as a lounge singer in Orlando, Florida — where she was discovered by Mel Tillis. Vaughn told the story behind the song to Bart Herbison of Nashville Songwriters Association International.

Bart Herbison: You're known to see movies in your head (when you write songs).

Sharon Vaughn: Yep.

BH: That (song) put a movie in my head. From the first time, I could see that character.

SV: "She played tambourine with a silver jingle, and she must have known the words to at least a million tunes. But the one most requested by the man she knew as Cowboy was the late ...

Both: "... night benediction at the Y'all Come Back Saloon."

SV: Well, this one was pretty autobiographical.

BH: Really?

SV: Yeah. Because in my early career, I still am, but I was a singer, and I knew lots and lots of songs because in Orlando on Friday nights, I would sing jazz. And on Saturday night, I would sing at the Ponderosa Steakhouse Lounge. I was part of a country duo.

BH: By the way, we're going to get to the song, but that's how you got discovered, that and your boldness. What happened?

SV: Well, I was typically doing four or five things at once, and I was going to college at night. I was working full time at a radio station. I was singing jazz on Friday nights and country on Saturday nights. So, I was just, you know, filling up the well, really. But part of my gig with the radio station was to liaise with the artists that came to town. ... So, Mel Tillis was on the show, one of the artists, and I just popped into his face and I said, "Hi!" And I was in Florida and I was so Southern. "Hey, listen, if y'all aren't doing anything after you get through, why don't you come over to the Ponderosa Steakhouse Lounge because I'm singing there." And I was out on the stage later on singing my little heart out, and the swinging doors open, and here comes Mel Tillis and his entire entourage. You can imagine my shock and surprise.

BH: There was another employee working there. If I remember this story, you always get this look on your face.

SV: There was a bartender, and she was a little brunette, and she was just mean as a snake. And she didn't have a love in her heart for me. Her name was Bootsy.

BH: Bootsy.

SV: So, after that wonderful evening we had with Mel and his band and everybody, I'd go in the next Monday to pick up my $30 check. I was really a high roller. And the phone rings.

"Well, Sharon, it's probably Mel Tillis calling to make you a star." Well, (Bootsy) answered the phone, "Ponderosa Steakhouse Lounge." She said, "Sharon, it's Mel Tillis." I said, "Oh, jeez. You're so hateful," and she said, "No, serious." And it was. He brought me to Nashville.

BH: Let me get this right. The first two songs you ever write are "My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys" and "Y'all Come Back Saloon."

SV: Yeah, "Y'all Come Back Saloon" was the very first song I wrote, and it was recorded.

BH: Talk about unbelievable.

SV: Well, the Oaks had been a famous gospel quartet forever. And they decided, along with Jim Halsey and Jim Foglesong, to go into country mainstream. And this was the first time.

BH: It got played on pop radio. Every TV show from "The Tonight Show" to Merv Griffin had them on. It was crazy.

SV: They still do it every night to this day, and that was 40 years ago. I owe them. Again, the artist found the song and the song found the artist because that song has a lot of references to church in it. And the original, I'm going to tell you this and never told anybody this. The original lyric had "he paid his tithes, then lonely walked the broken cowboy home" instead of "he paid his check." I came from a Southern Baptist background, and I know what tithing is.

BH: I love that line. Why'd you change it, or did they change it?

SV: They changed it, because it's hard to sing. But that was a lesson for me as a songwriter. "Check" is an easy word to sing, "tithes" is not, so that was Vernacular 101.

BH: How did the Oaks get it?

SV: There was a song plugger at the publishing company where I kind of pestered them into letting me hang around, and I'd turn in songs. This wonderful guy, Doyle Browne, he chased that Oak Ridge Boys bus all over this country. "I have a song for you! I have a song for you!" And they finally stopped the bus and let him on, and they cut it right away.

BH: Perfectly.

SV: Perfectly.

Oak Ridge Boys Songs Yall Come Back Saloon

Source: https://www.tennessean.com/story/entertainment/music/story-behind-the-song/2020/01/10/yall-come-back-saloon-oak-ridge-boys-story-behind-song-sharon-vaughn/2836015001/

Share this post