Remember When George Strait Hit No. 1 With a John Prine Song?
John Prine was never a mainstream country star, but he wrote a lot of songs that other, more commercial artists recorded. Did you know that George Strait scored one of his biggest hits with a John Prine song?
Strait recorded a song Prine co-wrote with Roger Cook titled "I Just Want to Dance With You," which he released as the first single from his One Step at a Time album in April of 1998. The song gave Strait his 34th No. 1 single on Billboard's Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart, but it wasn't the first time fans had heard it. Prine recorded the song himself in 1986 on his German Afternoons album, though he did not release "I Just Want to Dance With You" as a single.
Strait's rendition of "I Just Want to Dance With You" is not very different from Prine's previous recording, retaining the tropical feel, most of the instrumental arrangement and the overall vibe, though producer Tony Brown added some bigger studio gloss to the track. The result is a feel-good track that still holds up today — and the same can be said of Prine's 1986 recording.
Prine wrote a number of other songs that other artists made famous, including "You Never Even Called Me By My Name," which he wrote with Steve Goodman. David Allan Coe made that song into a classic in 1975. Miranda Lambert also recorded a Prine song, "That's the Way That the World Goes 'Round," on her Revolution album in 2009.
John Prine died on Tuesday (April 7) from complications of the coronavirus (COVID-19). He was 73 years old.
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