Story Behind The Song: George Jones "He Stopped Loving Her Today"

Bobby Braddock came to Nashville almost 50 years ago to be a piano player for Marty Robbin, not knowing he would become one of the most legendary songwriters in Music City.     To date he's written about 2500 songs, of which about 1600 are published, including one of the biggest songs in country music history, "He Stopped Loving Her Today'. "I had the concept of a love so strong that only death could terminate it" says Bobby Braddock.     With so many songs in his library, you would think it would be hard to remember writing each one, but Braddock did something unique early in his career. "I always make sure at the end of the day, no matter what shape I am in or how I feel, that I write down the events of the day" says Braddock.     Journals that hold many details about writing "He Stopped Loving Her Today" with his mentor- Curly Putman. "We started out with dark humor, funeral jokes and that sort and wrote on it a while and set it aside. I always rated the song 1 to 10 and O rated this one a 7. I thought it was okay, not a great song" laughs Braddock.     With no clue who they were writing it for, several months later they decided to re-visit the song. They finished it that October day, or so they thought. Legendary producer Billy Sherrill and George Jones took the song, but passed. Then for some reason, they came back to it over 2 years later. "Billy said, hey we wanna cut that song, but it needs an extra verse in which you have the wife or girlfriend coming back to the funeral" remembers Braddock.     Bobby and Curly actually wrote such a verse, but discarded it.     The guys found it and gave it Billy - who still wasn't happy."We went back and forth from Sony Music Publishing, it was then Tree Publishing, to Billy's office. Finally the last one, he really liked" says Braddock.     Braddock went to listen to the finished project a few weeks later, not expecting what he was about to hear. "You hear this violin, cello, this swelling ascending thing. It sounds like the guys soul is ascending to heaven. I knew it was something special" says Braddock. "He Stopped Loving Her Today" was released in the spring of 1980 and soared to the top of the country charts, but there is one thing about the song that Braddock says he will never quite understand. "I've had some people tell me they heard the song for years before they realized he died! I guess you have to get a hammer and beat them on head - he died" laughs Braddock. We asked Braddock if he agrees that "He Stopped Loving Her Today" is the greatest and saddest country song of all time. He says he actually thinks that a song he produced for Blake Shelton, called "The Baby", is a sadder song. He also doesn't think it's the best song he's ever written. He says he does believe it could be the best RECORD of all time, but the song he believes is the best he's ever written, wasn't even a single. It was a song on one of George Strait's albums called "The Nerve".  His favorite hit, "Time Marches On" recorded by Tracy Lawrence. We asked Braddock if there are any artists that have not cut his songs that he would like to see cut his songs. He said he would love to have  Luke Bryan and Jason Aldean record one of his songs.

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