D-I-V-O-R-C-E

"D-I-V-O-R-C-E" is an American country music song written by Bobby Braddock and Curly Putman, and made famous in 1968 by Tammy Wynette. Wynette's version was a Number One country hit in 1968.

Background

Just a year after Wynette scored her first hit with "Your Good Girl's Gonna Go Bad," Wynette had already gained a reputation for catering to the female perspective in country music that, according to country music writer Kurt Wolff, audiences badly craved. Her repertoire had already included songs that urged understanding and forgiveness, but critics noted she had also become adept at singing songs of heartbreak. In Wolff's words, "(W)hen the end of the road was reached, she also spoke plainly of the hard issues facing modern day couples.

The most famous of those songs, noted Wolff, was "D-I-V-O-R-C-E" ... "and we all know what that spells," he added.

Recorded in 1968, "D-I-V-O-R-C-E" is a woman's perspective on the impending collapse of her marriage. The lyrics begin with an old parenting trick of spelling out words mothers and fathers hope their young children will not understand, they (the children) being not yet able to spell or comprehend the mystery word's meaning. In this case, the soon-to-be-divorcee spells out words such as divorce, Joe (the name of the woman's 4-year-old son), hell and custody to shield the young, carefree boy from the cruel, harsh realities of the world and the ultimate breakup of his mother and father.

Country music historian Bill Malone wrote that Wynette's own tumultuous life (five marriages) "encompassed the jagged reality so many women have faced." Therefore, he asserts that Wynette identified so well with "D-I-V-O-R-C-E"; her rendition, Malone wrote, is "painfully sincere - there is no irony here - and if there is a soap opera quality to the dialogue, the content well mirrors both her own life and contemporary experience.

Wolff, meanwhile, hailed the song as "tearjerking as any country song before or since. It approaches parody, but stops just short thanks to the sincerity of Tammy's quivering voice.

Chart performance

"D-I-V-O-R-C-E" was released in May 1968, and became one of Wynette's fastest-climbing songs to that time. It reached No. 1 on the Billboard magazine Hot Country Singles chart that June, and was also a minor pop hit, stopping at No. 63 on the Billboard Hot 100.

A comic version with new lyrics by Scottish comedian Billy Connolly, with a dog in place of the little boy in the lyrics and spelled out words such as vet and quarantine, was a No. 1 hit the UK in November 1975.

The musical number "U.N.C.O.U.P.L.E.D." from the musical Starlight Express also parodies "D-I-V-O-R-C-E."

Sources

References

See also

• Whitburn, Joel, "Top Country Songs: 1944-2005," 2006.

Succession