A thanks to Billy Sherrill
Time and again, I remind myself that early seventies country is my favorite type of country music. And this, in large part, is thanks to the producing genius of Billy Sherrill. Tanya Tucker, George Jones, Tammy Wynette, Charlie Rich, Johnny Paycheck, and more: The list is long of the greats that Billy Sherrill made greater.
Sherrill passed away today, and it is with immense sadness that Iâm processing this news. His influence on country music was as profound as some of the genreâs greatest artists themselves.
Sherrillâs signature countrypolitan sound helped prove that pop and other genresâ influences can only make some country music better. In fact, the younger Sherrill grew up disliking country music, instead growing up on jazz and blues â and itâs clear that this experience served to benefit him in producing country music.
What may make me most upset about Billy Sherrillâs passing, though, is that the world may never know the thorough stories of his career. I hate that his life and stories will not have the opportunity to be documented straight from him. He was notorious for avoiding the media and any sort of interviews, and was to said have become a bit of a hermit in recent years. But it was still one of my greatest goals to talk with him one day.
A few years ago I did research reanalyzing the reception of Tammy Wynetteâs âStand By Your Man,â which Sherrill produced. Iâve always thought Wynetteâs career, (though, in part, was made on this song), was unfairly tainted because of it, branding the singer as a backwards, anti womenâs rights artist. As Wynette frequently said, she âspent 15 minutes writing it, and a lifetime defending it.â Because, as both she and Sherrill maintained, the song was meant to be no more than a pure love song. Still, the timing of the songâs release (October, 1968) â the same month a group of womenâs liberation supporters marched in protest of the Miss America Pageant, adding great fuel to the feminist movement â could not have come at a better time for gender rights activists to target it. Years later, in 1981, Sherrill would recount the recording of Wynetteâs greatest hit by saying:
âAfter being barraged by womenâs lib and the Equal Rights Amendment, I wanted it to be a song for all the women out there that didnât agree, a song for the truly liberated woman, one who is secure enough in her identity to enjoy it. To some skeptics it may hint of chauvinismâŚthey can like it or lump it. Because âStand By Your Manâ is just another way of saying âI love youâ â without reservations.â
Whether these thoughts were indeed true as âStand By Your Manâ was being recorded, we may never know. After all, in all likelihood, it was Sherrill who encouraged Wynette to coast on the success of the song with followup anti feminist songs, such as âDonât Liberate Me, Love Me,â and âSinging My Song.â
Though Sherrill may be a bit of a mystery in the public eye, itâs clear that this is how he chose it to be. And thatâs ok, because what heâs left behind is his most important legacy: his music. He managed to bring out the best in some of countryâs best voices of all-time, and for that, I, along with countless others, will be eternally grateful.
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