Released 1968 (1968) Genre Country | Format 7" single Length 3:41 | |
B-side "Come On Home" (1968 version)
"Next Time" (re-release) Label Columbia (1968)
Dot (1978) | ||
"Kay" is a song written by Hank Mills and recorded by John Wesley Ryles. It was released in late 1968 by Columbia Records as Ryles' debut single. "Kay," recorded and released while Ryles was still a teenager, began a string of country music hits for him that would continue into the 1980s.
Contents
Content
"Kay" is about a taxicab driver in Nashville, Tennessee. He sold everything he owned to bring the woman he has loved and been with for years from Houston to Nashville, where she is becoming a star and moving beyond needing him. It is a song full of feelings and sadness. The song describes some of the people that he carries. Among them are soldiers from Fort Campbell who tell him that they "hate that war in Vietnam". This line has been cited as an example of the anti-war movement's presence in country music in the late 1960s.
Chart performance
Ryles' original version of "Kay" spent 17 weeks on the Hot Country Songs charts, peaking at number 9. It also reached number 83 on the Billboard Hot 100. Ryles re-recorded it for ABC Records in 1978, including this version on his album Shine on Me.
Other versions
Billy Lee Riley also recorded the song in 1969, although his version did not chart.
Daryle Singletary covered the song as a duet with Ryles on his 2002 album That's Why I Sing This Way.