B-side "Burning Bridges" Format 7" Genre Country | Released November 1989 Recorded 1983 Length 3: | |
"Radio Lover" is a murder ballad by American country music artist George Jones. It was composed by Curly Putman, Ron Hellard, and Bucky Jones. Although it was released as a single in 1989, it was included earlier in the 1983 album Jones Country.
Background
"Radio Lover" is a murder ballad, playing on a recurring theme in country music: A husband who is frequently absent, the wife becoming unfaithful (due to loneliness and desperation for physical intimacy), the husband returning home unannounced to find his wife in the arms of another man and - in a fit of rage - killing both his wife and the man who was with her. This storyline has been used in several songs, including "Miller's Cave" by Jack Clement (recorded by Hank Snow in 1960 and Bobby Bare in 1964), "The Snakes Crawl at Night" by Charley Pride, "The Cold, Hard Facts of Life" by Porter Wagoner and "Blood Red and Goin' Down" by Tanya Tucker, as well as the later song "Papa Loved Mama" by Garth Brooks.
In Radio Lover, the murderer is a disc jockey who works an evening shift. Despite assuring his wife on-air that he loves her, she turns to another man to meet her sexual needs. Then one night, he pre-records his show and decides to surprise her on their first anniversary. The song's recitation - much in the vein of his earlier hits "He Stopped Loving Her Today" and "I'm Not Ready Yet" - explains that the man killed them both, just as the pre-recorded sign-off giving his signature line that he loved his wife was playing.
"Radio Lover" was selected as the fourth and final single from Jones' 1989 album One Woman Man. Interestingly, the song had already been released six years earlier on the LP Jones Country, as was another One Woman Man track, "Burning Bridges." "Radio Lover" fared poorly, peaking at No. 62 on the Billboard country singles chart; although several of Jones' older songs were at the time still receiving recurrent airplay in late 1989, the song's poor performance reflected the time's changing format of country radio towards younger artists. Since the song's original release, "Radio Lover" has seen airplay on classic country radio stations.