My Very Special Guests

My Very Special Guests
Studio album by
George Jones
Released1979
RecordedFebruary 22, 1977 – March 3, 1978
Studios
GenreCountry
Length29:45
LabelEpic
ProducerBilly Sherrill
George Jones chronology
Bartender's Blues
(1978)		 My Very Special Guests
(1979)		 Double Trouble
(1980)
Singles from My Very Special Guests
  1. "Bartender's Blues"
    Released: December 1977

My Very Special Guests is a duet album by American country music artist George Jones. It was recorded between February 22, 1977, and March 3, 1978, and released in 1979 by Epic Records. Jones was experiencing serious personal and financial problems during this period.

My Very Special Guests is also a companion piece of sorts to an hour-and-a-quarter long HBO television special entitled George Jones: With a Little Help from His Friends, which saw the painfully wan singer performing songs with many of the singers from the album, including Jennings, who later recalled, "The best thing we ever cut together was a record of 'Night Life' that we did for one of his albums for Billy Sherrill. I'm singing so high you wouldn't believe it's me."

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusicStarStarStarStar
Christgau's Record GuideA−
The Rolling Stone Album GuideStarStarStarHalf star

My Very Special Guests produced no hit singles and only made it to number 38 on the Billboard country albums chart.

Track listing

Side one
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Night Life" (with Waylon Jennings)Willie Nelson, Paul Buskirk, Walter Breeland3:41
2."Bartender's Blues" (with James Taylor)James Taylor3:42
3."Here We Are" (with Emmylou Harris)Rodney Crowell2:50
4."I've Turned You to Stone" (with Linda Ronstadt)Jim Rushing2:35
5."It Sure Was Good" (with Tammy Wynette)George Richey, Billy Sherrill2:44
Side two
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."I Gotta Get Drunk" (with Willie Nelson)Willie Nelson2:08
2."Proud Mary" (with Johnny Paycheck)John Fogerty2:58
3."Stranger in the House" (with Elvis Costello)Elvis Costello3:35
4."I Still Hold Her Body (But I Think I've Lost Her Mind)" (with Dennis Locorriere and Ray Sawyer of Dr. Hook)Dennis Locorriere, Ray Sawyer2:31
5."Will the Circle Be Unbroken" (with Pop Staples and Mavis Staples)Ada Habershon, Charles Gabriel3:01

2005 reissue

A 2005 reissue of this album, as part of a series called American Milestones, was listed among the 52 CD releases from Sony BMG that were identified as having been shipped with the controversial Extended Copy Protection (XCP) computer software, which has been known to cause a number of serious security problems in any Microsoft Windows computer that had the CD inserted at one time and has been regarded as a trojan horse, spyware, or rootkit by a number of security software vendors. Sony discontinued use of the technology on November 11, 2005, and recalled this and other titles affected by XCP, and asked customers to submit copies affected by the software to the company so that it could replace them with copies that did not contain the software.

Disc 1

  1. "Night Life" (with Waylon Jennings)
  2. "Bartender's Blues" (with James Taylor)
  3. "Here We Are" (with Emmylou Harris)
  4. "I've Turned You to Stone" (with Linda Ronstadt)
  5. "It Sure Was Good" (with Tammy Wynette)
  6. "I Gotta Get Drunk" (with Willie Nelson)
  7. "Proud Mary" (with Johnny Paycheck)
  8. "Stranger in the House" (with Elvis Costello)
  9. "I Still Hold Her Body (But I Think I've Lost Her Mind)" (with Dennis Locorriere and Ray Sawyer of Dr. Hook)
  10. "Will the Circle Be Unbroken" (with Pop Staples and Mavis Staples)
  11. "A Few Ole Country Boys" (with Randy Travis)
  12. "It Hurts as Much in Texas (As It Did in Tennessee)" (with Ricky Van Shelton)
  13. "You Never Looked That Good When You Were Mine" (with Patti Page)
  14. "All I Want to Do in Life" (with Janie Fricke)
  15. "Wonderful World Outside" (with Ralph Stanley)
  16. "You Can't Do Wrong and Get By" (with Ricky Skaggs)
  17. "You Don't Seem to Miss Me" (with Patty Loveless)
  18. "Patches" (with B.B. King)
  19. [Untitled Track] [CD-ROM Track]
  20. [Untitled Track] [CD-ROM Track]

Disc 2

  1. "A Good Year for the Roses" (with Alan Jackson)
  2. "Yesterday's Wine" (with Merle Haggard)
  3. "Our Love Was Ahead of Its Time" (with Deborah Allen)
  4. "We Sure Make Good Love" (with Loretta Lynn)
  5. "Size Seven Round (Made of Gold)" (with Lacy J. Dalton)
  6. "I Got Stripes" (with Johnny Cash)
  7. "Fiddle and Guitar Band" (with Charlie Daniels)
  8. "We Didn't See a Thing" (with Ray Charles and Chet Atkins)
  9. "The Love Bug" (with Vince Gill)
  10. "Love's Gonna Live Here" (with Buck Owens)
  11. "If I Could Bottle This Up" (with Shelby Lynne)
  12. "If You Can Touch Her at All" (with Lynn Anderson)
  13. "All That We've Got Left" (with Vern Gosdin)
  14. "This Bottle (In My Hand)" (with David Allan Coe)
  15. "Talking to Hank" (with Mark Chesnutt)
  16. "Never Bit a Bullet Like This" (with Sammy Kershaw)
  17. "The Race Is On" (with Travis Tritt)
  18. "I've Been There" (with Tim Mensy)
  19. "Traveller's Prayer" (with Sweethearts of the Rodeo)
  20. [Untitled Track] [CD-ROM Track]
  21. [Untitled Track] [CD-ROM Track]

Personnel

Credits adapted from LP liner notes.

Musicians

Technical

References

  1. ↑ Jones, George (1979). My Very Special Guests (Media notes). Epic Records. JE 35544.
  2. ↑ "George Jones: American musician". Encyclopedia Britannica. March 5, 2026. Retrieved April 2, 2026.
  3. ↑ Jennings, Waylon; Kaye, Lenny (1996). Waylon: An Autobiography. New York, New York: Warner Books. p. 357. ISBN 978-0-446-51865-9.
  4. ↑ AllMusic review
  5. ↑ Christgau, Robert (1981). "Consumer Guide '70s: J". Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies. Ticknor & Fields. ISBN 089919026X. Retrieved February 27, 2019 – via robertchristgau.com.
  6. ↑ Cross, Charles R. (2004). "George Jones". In Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian (eds.). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th ed.). Simon & Schuster. pp. 438. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8.
  7. ↑ List of titles affected by XCP
  8. ↑ "Sony officially lists 52 XCP infected CDs & faces a loss of sales". Archived from the original on July 22, 2011. Retrieved July 30, 2010.
  9. ↑ "Microsoft to Zap Sony DRM Rootkit". eWEEK. November 12, 2005.
  10. ↑ "Breaking News, Business News, Financial and Investing News & More - Reuters.co.uk". arquivo.pt. Archived from the original on December 23, 2009.
  11. ↑ Graham, Jefferson (November 14, 2005). "Sony to pull controversial CDs, offer swap". USA Today. Retrieved May 2, 2010.
  12. ↑ George Jones. My Very Special Guests (LP liner notes). New York, New York: Epic Records. JE 35544.