Trisha Shetty (Editor)

How I Got to Memphis

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Released
  
August 1970

Genre
  
Country

Label
  
Mercury

Format
  
7" single

Length
  
2:31

B-side
  
"It's Freezing in El Paso"

"How I Got to Memphis" is the shortened title used by American country music singer Bobby Bare, of a song whose full title is: "That's How I Got to Memphis" written by Tom T. Hall and which appears on his 1969 album: 'Ballad Of Forty Dollars & His Other Great Songs'. Bobby Bare's album This Is Bare Country was released in August 1970 and this track was taken from it as a single. Other performers of this song use the full title: That's How I Got to Memphis.

Contents

Critical reception

An uncredited review in Billboard called the song "potent Tom T. Hall material, delivered in one of Bare's finest performances."

Chart performance

Bobby Bare's version spent 16 weeks on the Hot Country Songs charts, peaking at number 3.

Deryl Dodd version

In late 1996, Deryl Dodd covered the song for his debut album One Ride in Vegas. The song was the album's second single. In place of a b-side, the single release contained album snippets.

Critical reception

Don Yates of Country Standard Time called Dodd's version of the song "impassioned".

Music video

The music video was directed by Marc Ball and premiered in 1996.

Chart performance

Dodd's version charted on Hot Country Songs for 20 weeks, peaking at number 36 in early 1997.

Other versions

  • Bill Haley And The Comets covered the song as a single in 1969 on United Artists.
  • Lee Hazlewood covered the song on his 1976 Album 20th Century Lee.
  • Scott Walker (singer) covered it on his 1973 album Stretch.
  • Eddy Mitchell covered the song in 1976.
  • Rosanne Cash covered the song on her 1982 album Somewhere in the Stars.
  • Buddy Miller covered the song on his 1995 album Your Love and Other Lies.
  • Solomon Burke covered the song on his 2006 album Nashville.
  • Joe Pernice covered the song on his 2009 album It Feels So Good When I Stop
  • Natural Child covered the song on their 2012 album For the Love of the Game
  • The Avett Brothers covered the song in the 2013 concert film Another Day, Another Time: Celebrating the Music of Inside Llewyn Davis
  • Jeff Daniels and John Gallagher, Jr. performed the song in the series finale of The Newsroom, titled "What Kind of Day Has It Been."
  • Whitey Morgan and the 78's cover this song on their 2015 album Sonic Ranch.
  • Voluntary Butler Scheme recorded a version on his 2014 album A Million Ways To Make Gold
  • Karl Blau covered the song on his 2016 album Introducing Karl Blau.
  • JT Lauritsen & The Buckshot Hunters from Norway, also has a version of this song. On the album from 2007 Squeezeboxing.

    • References

    How I Got to Memphis Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA