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"Big City" is a song recorded by American country music singer Merle Haggard backed by The Strangers. Co-written by Haggard and Dean Holloway, the song was released in January 1982 as the second single and title track from his album Big City. In April, the song was his 27th number-one single on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart. [1]
Thom Jurek of AllMusic believes the album "stands among his finest—and most lasting—recordings," adding, "Big City, both the cut and the album, revisits the seemingly eternal themes in Haggard's best work—the plight of the honest, decent working man amid the squalor, complication, and contradiction of urban life."
It was the last filmed performance of the pair, with Rolling Stone commenting "in the final performance of Sessions, Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard perform the duet "The Only Man Wilder Than Me". Haggard has a look of complete joy on his face throughout the session in the old-timey recording set-up once used by his musical heroes." [96]
Haggard, who died in 2016, wrote a variety of political songs in his time, from one praising Hillary Clinton, to 1969 “Okie from Muskogee,” a rebuke of the hippie culture during the Vietnam War.
Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic deems the album "not just the perfect Merle Haggard box set, it's one of the greatest box sets ever released as well, since it truly presents all sides of its subject, while offering nothing but sheer pleasure in terms of mere listening. "[1] Robert Hillburn of the Los Angeles Times wrote: "Merle Haggard writes of troubled souls and sweet dreams with the ...
The Essential Merle Haggard: The Epic Years: Release date: August 31, 2004; Label: Epic Records — 139 Hag: The Best of Merle Haggard: Release date: September 12, 2006; Label: Capitol Nashville; 59 — 10 Great Songs: Release date: July 3, 2012; Label: Capitol Nashville; 75 — "—" denotes releases that did not chart
Co-writer Merle Haggard recorded the song first on his 1981 hit LP Big City but did not release it as a single. According to the Stephen L. Betts Rolling Stone article "George Jones Gets 'Lucky' with Merle Haggard Song" published online on February 13, 2015, Haggard's manager, Tex Whitson, first pitched it to Jones' producer Billy Sherrill because Jones and Haggard were on the outs at the time.
Haggard had always made his admiration for "the King" known in interviews and, in his 1981 autobiography Sing Me Back Home, recalls meeting Presley at the International Hotel in Las Vegas through guitarist James Burton, who had played on albums by both singers. "I came away disappointed and, for a while, my Elvis image was tarnished," Haggard ...