The title track to this album became Haggard's third consecutive number one country single, but it was its B-side, "I Started Loving You Again" (the "Today" was added to the title later), that became a standard and his most covered song. In the book
Merle Haggard: The Running Kind, David Cantwell discusses the song's impact, noting that between 1968 and 1975 alone "at least sixty recordings of the song were released. There have been pushing that many again in the decades since, and that's without counting the times it's been performed on television through the years, or during mega-star arena shows and don't-forget-to-tip-your-waitress bar sets, or the just-for-fun semipro and amateur versions
YouTube lists into the thousands." Singer
Bonnie Owens, Haggard's then-wife and band member, played a crucial role in the song's creation. In the episode of
CMT's
Inside Fame that was dedicated to Haggard's career, Owens remembers that Merle "thought he was out of love with me and wanted out..." Haggard picks up the story, remembering that they were walking through an airport: "I looked at this woman, and she was gorgeous, an absolutely gorgeous lady, and I said, 'You know what? I think I started lovin' you again today.' And she said, 'Turn that around.' And I said, 'Turn what around?' '
Today I started lovin' you again.' I said, 'That gives you half of it.' A few days later Haggard wrote the song alone in a motel room in
Dallas. In the same episode of
Inside Fame, an emotional Haggard chokes up remembering the first time he played it for her, adding, "Some things are hard to tell." Owens also co-wrote the album's title track, which was inspired by the 1967
Arthur Penn film
Bonnie and Clyde. The song is one of the few Haggard hits from this period to not feature
James Burton on guitar, but
Glen Campbell, who was about to crack the pop charts with "
By the Time I Get to Phoenix" and plays
banjo on Haggard's track. The album contains only two songs composed solely by Haggard, with the singer relying on country songwriter
Dallas Frazier for three songs and also recording selections by old friends
Tommy Collins and
Wynn Stewart. "Money Tree" was originally recorded by Haggard's hero
Lefty Frizzell.
The Legend of Bonnie & Clyde was reissued by BGO Records along with
Pride in What I Am in 2002. ==Critical reception==