It's All in the Game (Merle Haggard album)

Recording & Composition

Haggard's only album from 1984 is dominated with songs co-written with Freddy Powers. The country singer's career was booming during this period like it hadn't since the early seventies, and It's All in the Game continued this roll, producing three #1 hits. The first of these, "Let's Chase Each Other Around the Room," recalls the shuffling rhythm of his 1981 hit "Big City" and finds the narrator attempting to playfully reignite the passion of his marriage. The other two chart toppers, "A Place to Fall Apart" (co-written with Willie Nelson and featuring Janie Fricke on background vocals) and the love song "Natural High," have a softer vocal approach more indicative of the album's overall sound. "Little Hotel Room" and "I Never Go Home Anymore" contain Haggard's oft-used themes of loss, loneliness and estrangement. The LP also includes his take on the recent Willie Nelson/Julio Iglesias smash "To All the Girls I've Loved Before" and "You Really Lose Your Mind," his tribute to Ernest Tubb, who died in September 1984.

Reception

AllMusic: "In another artist's hands, It's All In the Game might have been a mere crying-in-the-beer soundtrack. In Haggard's, it's deeply personal and emotionally compelling music."

Track listing

1. "Let's Chase Each Other Around the Room" (Merle Haggard, Freddy Powers, Sheril Rodgers) – 2:48
2. "A Place to Fall Apart" (Haggard, Willie Nelson, Powers) – 3:36 [with Janie Fricke]
3. "It's All in the Game" (Charles Dawes, Carl Sigman) – 3:45
4. "Little Hotel Room" (Powers) – 3:15
5. "I Never Go Home Anymore" (Haggard) – 2:33
6. "All I Want to Do Is Sing My Song" (Haggard, Powers) – 3:15
7. "Natural High" (Powers) – 3:05
8. "Thank Heaven for Little Girls" (Alan Jay Lerner, Frederick Loewe) – 2:29
9. "To All the Girls I've Loved Before" (Hal David, Albert Hammond) – 2:54
10. "You Nearly Lose Your Mind" (Ernest Tubb) – 2:21

Personnel