The Race Is On

George Jones version

Jones had recorded "The Race Is On" in June 1963 but it was not released until September 1964 on the album I Get Lonely in a Hurry. The single reached #3 on the Billboard country chart. It also climbed to number 96 on the pop charts, a rarity for a Jones single, and United Artists capitalized on its success by making it the title of his next 1965 LP. According to the Bob Allen book George Jones: The Life and Times of a Honky Tonk Legend, Don Rollins wrote the song one day after visiting Turf Paradise Race Course in Phoenix, Arizona. Allen observes:

"George imbued 'The Race Is On' with a masterfully frenetic, on-the-edge vocal reading, full of whining emotional ambivalence and mock sadness. By gleefully bending and stretching the notes and singing, at times, slightly ahead of or behind the song's fast-clipped meter, he embellished it with a subtle sense of tension and release that perfectly complemented the rapid-fire cascading effect of the song's lyrics."

In the 1994 retrospective Golden Hits, Jones recalled that Dewey Groom first played him the song in his office at the Longhorn Ballroom in Dallas. Jones was unimpressed with all the demo tapes Groom played for him and had started to leave when Groom played the Rollins song; Jones heard the opening line and exclaimed, "I'll take it!" According to the liner notes for the 1994 Sony compilation The Essential George Jones: The Spirit of Country, the throbbing, echoey six-string bass guitar solo was played by Kelso Herston, who went on to write hit songs for Jones and produce one of his later MCA albums. Jones was extremely fond of the tune, recording it again with Musicor, Epic, and as a duet with Travis Tritt for the The Bradley Barn Sessions in 1994. He almost always performed it live in concert as well.

Cover versions

Jack Jones (no relation to George Jones) released a pop/easy listening version of the song, reaching #15 on the Billboard Hot 100 and spent a week atop the Billboard adult contemporary chart in April 1965.

Alvin and the Chipmunks covered the song for their 1965 album Chipmunks à Go-Go in 1965.

Waylon Jennings cut the song for RCA.

Faron Young recorded his own version of the song for Mercury Records.

The Grateful Dead covered the song on their 1981 live album, Reckoning.

Rockabilly artist Dave Edmunds, in collaboration with the Stray Cats, whose debut album Edmunds had recently produced, recorded a version for his 1981 album, Twangin.... Released as a single, it peaked at number 34 on the UK charts, but failed to chart in the United States.

The Georgia Satellites covered the song on their 1985 debut EP, Keep The Faith.

"The Race Is On" returned to the country charts in September 1989 when country music band Sawyer Brown covered it and released it as the lead single from their album The Boys Are Back. It peaked at number five in the United States and number three in Canada. The music video was directed by John Lloyd Miller and features Sawyer Brown on their concert tour.

Elvis Costello performs this song in concert occasionally.

Blackberry Smoke also perform a rock version of the song