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UnitedArtists in late September 1961. Two
years lapsed between Burns’ single for
TNT and his signing with United Artists.
A lot had happened since Burns had last
recorded for Pappy Daily at Starday in
1956. While he spent the rest of the fifties
at the bottom of the bottle, Daily had
concentrated on Burns’ old buddy George
Jones, whose erratic behavior had proved
even more of a nightmare than Burns’ had
but who had also become one of the biggest
stars in country music. After forging a deal
with the larger Mercury label that
essentially merged the Starday and the
country division of Mercury in 1957, Daily
and his partner in Starday Don Pierce had
parted ways, with Pierce keeping the
Starday label, Daily keeping George Jones
and the publishing and master
recordings being split. Soon
after Daily formed his own D
label, while maintaining a
strong relationship with
Mercury. Jones recorded for
Mercury, as did almost every
other performer in Daily’s
stable whose sales on D
proved substantial enough to
move from the smaller,
essentially regional label to
the national one, including
Claude Gray and Eddie
Noack. In the early ’60s,
Daily became dissatisfied
Walt Breeland with Jimmy Hoffa, 1960.
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