The Wild Side of Life

"The Wild Side of Life" carries one of the most distinctive melodies of early country music, used in "Thrills That I Can't Forget" recorded by Welby Toomey and Edgar Boaz in 1925, "I'm Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes" by the Carter Family in 1929, and "Great Speckled Bird" by Roy Acuff Jimmy Heap and His Melody Masters first recorded "Wild Side" in 1951, but never had a hit with the song. Thompson did, and his version spent three and one-half months atop the Billboard country chart in the spring and early summer of 1952. "Wild Side" was Thompson's first charting single since 1949's two-sided hit "Soft Lips"/"The Grass is Greener Over Yonder." Clay Coppedge wrote a magazine article in 2006 called "A Classic Walk on the Wild Side" detailing the history of this song. Title's influence The song's title inspired the title of Nelson Algren's 1956 novel A Walk on the Wild Side (itself an influence on Lou Reed's 1972 song "Walk on the Wild Side"). Answer song The lyric, "I didn't know God made honky tonk angels", and the tune's overall cynical attitude—Kingsbury noted the song "... just begged for an answer from a woman"—inspired "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels", which was also based on the same melody. Recorded by Kitty Wells and released later in 1952, that song, too, became a No. 1 country hit. In "It Wasn't God…", Wells shifts the blame for the woman's infidelity to the man, countering that for every unfaithful woman there is a man who has led her astray. ==Cover versions==

There have been many cover versions of "The Wild Side of Life", several of which became hits in their own right. Burl Ives had a hit with the song concurrent with Thompson's success, Ray Price recorded it on his "Night Life" LP in 1963, while Freddy Fender reached No. 13 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart in early 1976. It was also the only single by Tommy Quickly to make the U.K. charts, reaching No. 33 in 1964. M.P.D Limited also did a much lesser known cover of this song on their 1967 LP - The Best Of M.P.D. Limited. Formerly Fat Harry released its cover on Lost Recordings (1969-1972) album. The Grease Band recorded a version in 1972. Rod Stewart released a version of this song on his 1976 album, A Night On The Town. A version by the British rock band Status Quo reached the UK top 10 in 1976, peaking at #9. Quo's rock version featured, instead of Alan Lancaster (who had to go back to his family in Australia), Deep Purple's bassist Roger Glover, who also produced the song. While "Wild Side of Life" was released as a non-album single, it can be found on the deluxe edition with bonus tracks on the album Blue for You. In 1981, "Wild Side" and "It Wasn't God ..." were combined into a duet by Waylon Jennings and Jessi Colter on their album Leather and Lace; that version reached No. 10. ==See also==

Status Quo version Weekly charts Year-end charts Certifications ==References==