Waylon

Studio album by Waylon Jennings

Released

January 1970

Recorded

October 1969

Chet Atkins, Danny Davis

Waylon Jennings chronology

Country-Folk
(1969)

Waylon
(1970)

Don't Think Twice
(1970)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic

Waylon is a 1970 album by Waylon Jennings released on RCA Victor.

Waylon is best remembered for the cover of Chuck Berry's "Brown Eyed Handsome Man," which climbed to #3 on the Billboard country charts, Jennings third Top 5 solo hit. Jennings would perform the song as part of a medley on The Johnny Cash Show. Aside from "Brown-Eyed Handsome Man", none of the other songs on this LP were released as singles. The version of "Yes, Virginia" presented here is different from the one originally issued on The One and Only in 1967. According to Waylon's autobiography, the song "Yellow Haired Woman" was written about Barbara Rood, his third wife. The album also includes a duet with Anita Carter on the Merle Haggard composition "All of Me Belongs to You."

Waylon is also significant for its version of "The Thirty-Third of August," written by Texas songwriter Mickey Newbury, a key figure among a new generation of country songwriters that would contribute to the outlaw country movement in country music, of which Jennings would be a central focus. As Tom Jurek observes in his AllMusic review of the album:

Despite chart success, Jennings had grown frustrated with the Nashville Sound that had been imposed on his records by RCA and especially resented being told what to record. As Joe Nick Patoski notes in his memoir Willie Nelson, "In addition to doing more and more of the songs he wanted to do rather than what the producer chose, Waylon wanted to produce himself and was demanding control of where the records were made, the song selection, and the artwork that decorated the album cover." Relations between Jennings and RCA became increasingly strained during this period.

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