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Loretta Lynn’s ‘Coal Miner’s Daughter’ Changed Because It Couldn’t Compare To ‘El Paso’ Song

Marty Robbins’ country song “El Paso,” released in fall 1959, immortalized a romance in a far West Texas town. It reached No. 1 on both the country and pop music charts at the start of 1960 and winning the Grammy Award for Best Country & Western Recording in 1961.

The song was so great that when Loretta Lynn was in the studio working on her song “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” her producer had some choice advice for her.

?You know, I had six other verses to ?Coal Miner’s Daughter’ and Owen Bradley, my producer at the time, said ?Loretta, get in that room and take off six of them verses,” Lynn told the Louisville Courier-Journal recently. “There’s already been one ?El Paso’ and there’ll never be another.’ I thought (‘Coal Miner’s Daughter’) was just a song about my life, and he never thought it’d be a hit. So I took six verses off and you know I never have found them six verses. I must have left them in the studio. I may have to add a couple more verses and do that thing again.?

“Coal Miner’s Daughter” was released in 1969 and became a big hit.

Lynn, 76, is enjoying a career resurgence and last year celebrated her 50th anniversary in music by accepting a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, putting out a new edition of her ?Coal Miner’s Daughter? autobiography, and even had a rose invented for her. The Loretta Lynn Van Lear will make its debut at her Tennessee ranch this spring.

Read more about Lynn in the Louisville Courier-Journal article here.

Related Links:Video:El Paso VideoVideo:Coal Miner’s Daughter Video

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