Loretta Lynn – Don’t Come Home A-Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ on Your Mind)

The title alone is worth a listen or two. Loretta had some great song titles.

The song peaked at #1 in the Billboard Country Charts in 1967. The song also earned Lynn her very first Grammy nomination for Best Country & Western Performance.

The song was written by Loretta Lynn and Peggy Sue Wright. Peggy Sue Wright is Loretta’s younger sister.

Loretta Lynn: “I looked at what she had on paper, and I kind of knew what she was trying to say. It’s like when there’s twins, the old saying is, ‘What one can’t think of, the other one can.’ I’ve always had this feeling with Peggy that I am kind of inside her head. Maybe it’s because she means so much to me. We can look at each other and know what the other is thinking. Sometimes it’s not good to be like that, but when the song was finished, we both thought it was great.”

From Songfacts

In her first #1 country hit, Loretta Lynn is fed up with her alcoholic husband who gets drunk with his buddies and comes home expecting to get frisky with his neglected wife. Lynn could certainly relate to the scenario, as almost all of the turmoil in her nearly 50-year marriage was caused by her husband’s alcoholism, but a different marriage inspired the song. Her sister Peggy Sue was struggling with the same issues in her first marriage and brought the song idea to Lynn, who fleshed it out. Peggy Sue was following Lynn’s path as an aspiring singer who was trying to carve out a career while raising children and making her marriage work.

Peggy Sue, who went on to marry singer/songwriter Sonny Wright, released her debut album, Dynamite!, in 1969.

In 1967 Lynn’s brother Jay Lee Webb released the answer song “I Come Home A-Drinkin’ (To a Worn Out Wife Like You),” which peaked at #21 on the country chart.

Lynn became the first female country singer to have a gold-certified album when Don’t Come Home A-Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ On Your Mind) earned the honor in 1970, with over 500,000 copies sold.

Tammy Wynette covered this on her debut album, Your Good Girl’s Gonna Go Bad, in 1967.

Gretchen Wilson sang this on the 2010 album Coal Miner’s Daughter: A Tribute to Loretta Lynn.

This was used on the 2007 Friday Night Lights episode “I Think We Should Have Sex.”

Don’t Come Home A-Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ on Your Mind)

Well you thought I’d be waitin’ up when you came home last night
You’d been out with all the boys and you ended up half tight
But liquor and love they just don’t mix leave the bottle or me behind
And don’t come home a drinkin’ with lovin’ on your mind

No don’t come home a drinkin’ with lovin’ on your mind
Just stay out there on the town and see what you can find
‘Cause if you want that kind of love well you don’t need none of mine
So don’t come home a drinkin’ with lovin’ on your mind

You never take me anywhere because you’re always gone
And many a night I’ve laid awake and cried here all alone
Then you come in a kissin’ on me it happens every time
No don’t come home a drinkin’ with lovin’ on your mind

No don’t come home a drinkin’ with lovin’ on your mind
Just stay out there on the town and see what you can find
‘Cause if you want that kind of love well you don’t need none of mine
So don’t come home a drinkin’ with lovin’ on your mind
No, don’t come home a drinkin’ with lovin’ on your mind