About The Song
Hardly a story is written about Tammy Wynette in which her association with “Stand By Your Man” isn’t mentioned. Following a three-week run at #1 on Billboard’s country singles chart beginning on November 23, 1968, the song became her second Grammy winner on March 11, 1969. It was so closely linked with Tammy that it was used as the title of her 1979 biography as well as the title of the 1981 TV-movie based on that book. In the film, Wynette was portrayed by Annette O’Toole.
The idea for “Stand By Your Man” belonged to Tammy’s producer Billy Sherrill, the man who had discovered her and signed her to Epic Records two years earlier. Sherrill had carried the title in his pocket on a piece of paper for more than a year. He put it to good use at a Wynette recording session at Columbia’s Studio B on August 26, 1968. After cutting two songs, Sherrill gave the musicians (including The Jordanaires and steel guitarist Pete Drake) a 20-minute break, and went upstairs with Wynette to write one more tune, which was needed to fill out the session. Billy suggested “Stand By Your Man,” and Tammy had an instant affinity for the concept.
“We sat down, and after a couple of lines, it just came to us,” Tammy recalled. “It was one of the fastest songs I ever worked on. It was almost as if it was meant to be.”
The antagonistic response from the nation’s feminists actually helped gain publicity for the song after its release. In Dorothy Horstman’s book “Sing Your Heart Out, Country Boy,” Sherrill even admitted that he intended “Stand By Your Man” as a song for the women who wanted no part of the women’s movement. “I wanted a song for the truly liberated woman” he explained, “one who is secure enough in her identity to enjoy it. Even though, to some skeptics it may hint of chauvinism, “Stand By Your Man” is just another way of saying ‘I love you – without reservations.’”
“Stand By Your Man” was the standout track in a quintet of Wynette songs used in the 1970 Jack Nicholson movie “Five Easy Pieces.” The notes from the tune’s melody were also used in the design of the “burglar bars” on the windows of Tammy’s Nashville home, purchased in 1974.
According to Tammy, Billy Sherrill told her that the melody to “Stand By Your Man” was actually borrowed from a public domain work created by classical composer Richard Strauss. “I guess we steal from everybody” she confessed. “There aren’t a whole lot of original melodies left.”
Twenty four years after its release, “Stand By Your Man” was thrust into the spotlight once again through an unlikely avenue: politics. During the 1992 presidential campaign, accusations had surfaced about candidate Bill Clinton’s philandering, and he and wife Hillary appeared on the CBS Newsmagazine program “60 Minutes” to address the controversy. At one point during the interview, Hillary snapped: “I’m not some little woman standing by my man like Tammy Wynette!” Say what? That’s EXACTLY what she was doing, so I could never understand her convoluted logic behind that statement, but as Bruce Williams used to say: “that’s another program.”
In 2003, “Stand By Your Man” was ranked #1 on CMT’s list of the “100 All-Time Greatest Country Songs,” (“He Stopped Loving Her Today” came in second on the list). Tammy Wynette’s original recording of “Stand By Your Man,” created on August 26, 1968, achieved the ultimate acclaim when it was selected by the Library Of Congress for induction into the National Recording Registry in 2010
Video
Lyrics
Sometimes it’s hard to be a woman
Giving all your love to just one man
You’ll have bad times
And he’ll have good times
Doin’ things that you don’t understand
But if you love him you’ll forgive him
Even though he’s hard to understand
And if you love him, oh be proud of him
‘Cause after all he’s just a man
Stand by your man
Give him two arms to cling to
And something warm to come to
When nights are cold and lonely
Stand by your man
And show the world you love him
Keep giving all the love you can
Stand by your man
Stand by your man
And show the world you love him
Keep giving all the love you can
Stand by your man