Trivia / Merle Haggard

• Breakthrough Hit: "(My Friends Are Gonna Be) Strangers" in 1965, to the extent that he named his band The Strangers. "Okie from Muskogee" four years later was his first song to crack the pop chart.
• Breakaway Pop Hit: "Movin' On" was the theme song for the 1974 NBC series Movin' On, about long haul truckers Will and Sonny. The song became another one of Haggard's #1 Country hits and was one of his perennial live show favorites. The series, however, was canceled after two seasons and is completely forgotten except for the song.
• Channel Hop: He left his longtime home Capitol Records for MCA in 1977, then moved to Epic Records in 1981, then went to Curb Records from 1990-96. After that, his catalog was very scattershot, released on a wide variety of labels, including his own Hag Records, and even some albums released through the Cracker Barrel restaurant/store chain.
• Chart Displacement:
  • Despite his massive Country Music success, he was a One-Hit Wonder on the Billboard Top 40. But, surprisingly, the hit wasn't "Okie from Muskogee" (which barely missed, peaking at #41), but "If We Make it Through December".
  • "Silver Wings", one of his most beloved songs, never even made the charts (though, as the B-Side of "Workin' Man Blues", it wasn't exactly an obscurity).
• Colbert Bump: "The Fightin' Side of Me" became noticed by the internet around early 2016 (prior to his death) thanks to a video from America's Funniest Home Videos' Facebook page called It don't go down.
• Creator Backlash: In latter-day concerts and interviews he was known to comment of "Okie from Muskogee", "You know, when I wrote that song I was dumber than a rock". He also stated in one interview that he sometimes wished he had never written it. In particular he strongly reversed his stance on marijuana, calling it "the greatest thing in the world" in a 2015 Rolling Stone interview. He apparently made similar comments disowning "Fightin' Side of Me". Despite this he continued performing both songs in nearly every concert to the end of his life.
• Dueling Works: Haggard recorded "(My Friends Are Gonna Be) Strangers" in late 1964, unaware that established country star Roy Drusky had also recorded a version and was planning to release it as a single. Drusky's version hit the charts two weeks after Haggard's and both of them made the Top 10; Drusky's peaked higher (#8, with Haggard at #10), but Haggard's was on the chart slightly longer (22 weeks versus 21), but as Haggard's Breakthrough Hit his eventually became regarded as the definitive rendition.
• Executive Meddling:
  • Hag was originally planning to release "Irma Jackson", a song denouncing prejudice against interracial romance, as his next single after "Okie from Muskogee", but his record label nixed the idea as they didn't want to alienate his fan base. Merle later acknowledged that his career could have suffered if he had gone through with it. The song was finally released on his 1972 album Let Me Tell You About a Song. (It's worth noting that he had already tackled the subject with his cover of Tommy Collins' "Go Home" from 1967's Branded Man).
  • Hag also apparently didn't want "The Fightin' Side of Me" released as a single.
• Flip-Flop of God: He gave several conflicting explanations for "Okie from Muskogee" in various interviews over the years. Either it was a sincere celebration of the "Silent Majority" (and also a bit of a tribute to his late Oklahoma-born father), or it was a Stealth Parody of Small Town Boredom, or it was a "character study" of small town life, or it was just a catchy lyrical hook that he came up with that wasn't intended to convey any sort of message.
• What Could Have Been: During his 2-1/2 year prison term for burglary, Haggard struck up a close friendship with Jimmy "Rabbit" Hendricks, who was serving time on unknown charges. According to several published accounts, in 1959, Hendricks was planning to escape and wanted to invite Haggard (who himself had tried to escape several times previously) along and go on a crime spree. However, as they talked about it, Haggard — who at this point is starting to show promise as a singer and guitarist — decides he'd rather not; Hendricks reluctantly agrees, acknowledging that Haggard has talent and would be best to try to develop it and not accompany him. Good thing Haggard heeded Hendricks' advice ... because during "Rabbit"'s time on the run, he shot and killed a California Highway Patrol state trooper. Hendricks was eventually tried and convicted for the murder and was sentenced to death, making one think what might have been had Haggard — he still had a restless streak at this point in his prison term, something that more than once had landed him in solitary confinement — come along. What did happen from this incident: one of his earliest best-known hits, the haunting "Sing Me Back Home."
• Write What You Know: His prison songs, given his own stint in prison.