It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels
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"It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels" was a 1952 hit for country singer Kitty Wells. Written by J.D. Miller, it was an "answer song" to the Hank Thompson hit "The Wild Side of Life."
In "The Wild Side of Life," Thompson expresses regret that his bride-to-be has left him for another man whom she met in a roadhouse, stating "I didn't know that God made honky tonk angels..." In Wells' response – which follows the same melody, but more uptempo – she cites the original song and counters that, for every woman who had been led astray, it was a man who led her there (often through his own infidelity). She also expresses frustration about how women are always made scapegoats for the man's faults in a given relationship.
Wells' statement was a rather daring one to make in 1952, particularly in the conservative, male-dominated realm of country music. Yet, she struck a chord with her fans, as it became a six-week No. 1 song on Billboard magazine's country charts (making Wells the first woman to ever top the country music charts).
Eventually, "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky-Tonk Angels" outsold Thompson's "The Wild Side of Life," and launched the then little-known Wells into superstardom. The song has since been performed by nearly every female country artist at one time or another, with notable versions having been recorded by Dolly Parton and Patty Loveless.
The melody of the song is very similar to, if not borrowed from, Reverend Guy Smith's "The Great Speckled Bird" which was recorded and popularised by Roy Acuff. Acuff himself borrowing the melody from the Carter Family's "I'm Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes".
This similarity between the four songs was parodied by David Allen Coe in his composition "If That Ain't Country" that he finishes, mocking the same melody, with the verse:
I'm thinking tonight of my blue eyes
Concerning the Great Speckled Bird
I didn't know God made Honky-Tonk Angels
And went back to the Wild Side of Life
[edit] Cover versions
Several cover versions of the song have been recorded, including the following.
- Lynn Anderson also recorded a version of the song that became a Top Twenty hit for her in the 1971.
- Ellen McIlwaine recorded the song for her 1972 album Honky Tonk Angel.
- The two songs ("Wild Side of Life" and "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels") were combined into a duet by Waylon Jennings and Jessi Colter on their 1981 album Leather and Lace.
- Wells appeared in a 1993 recording of the song by Parton, Loretta Lynn and Tammy Wynette on the album Honky Tonk Angels.
