Released November 22, 1980 Label Warner Bros. Nashville | Format 7" single Length 3:00 | |
B-side "It Looks Like the Party Is Over" | ||
"1959" is a song written by Gary Gentry, and recorded by American country music artist John Anderson. It was released in November 1980 as the fifth single from the album John Anderson. The song reached #7 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart.
Content
The singer reflects on the year 1959, particularly a relationship he had that year with a girl named Betty, to whom he is singing the song. The "most important thing" for them was making sure the singer's truck had gas so they could go to the drive-in movie. He was drafted into the military after graduation, and Betty married someone else while he was away. He cries whenever he reads the letters she wrote to him, promising she would never leave him. He has even kept the old truck he had that year (in which the couple "went all the way"), and looking at it takes him "back to '59."