I remember Freddy Fender as a kid and this song. I remember it being played everywhere. It was a huge crossover hit and I saw him on television at the time singing it on different shows.
Freddy Fender wrote and recorded it in 1959 for a small label. It wasn’t until 1975 that he was able to release it again under his name. He and some band members were charged with pot possession in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in 1960.
Fender served 3 1/.2 years in prison until he was pardoned by Governor Jimmie Davis. There was a condition though…he had to stay away from anywhere that served alcohol. In the late sixties, he started to work in a garage and play music on the weekends.
He started to record again in 1974 and struck gold with his first two releases. Before the Next Teardrop Falls peaked at #1 in the Billboard Country Charts, #1 on the Billboard 100, and #1 on the Canadian Country Charts. Wasted Days and Wasted Nights peaked at #1 on the Billboard Country Charts, #8 on the Billboard 100, #2 on the Canadian Country Charts, and #6 in Canada in 1975.
He would have more number 1s in the Country Charts for Billboard and Canada. Later on, Fender would later join the Texas Tornados and Los Super 7.
Here is Freddie with the Texas Tornados doing the song.
Wasted Days Wasted Nights
Wasted days and wasted nightsI have left for you behindFor you don’t belong to meYour heart belongs to someone else
Why should I keep loving youWhen I know that you’re not true?And why should I call your nameWhen you’re to blameFor making me blue?
Don’t you remember the dayThat you went away and left me?I was so lonelyPrayed for you onlyMy love
Why should I keep loving youWhen I know that you’re not true?And why should I call your nameWhen you’re to blameFor making me blue?
Don’t you remember the dayThat you went away and left me?I was so lonelyPrayed for you onlyMy love
Wasted days and wasted nightsI have left for you behindFor you don’t belong to meYour heart belongs to someone else
Why should I keep loving youWhen I know that you’re not true?And why should I call your nameWhen you’re to blameFor making me blue?
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Well, my parents helped this song/album sell in Canada as we had this on 8 track back in the 70s….
I kinda miss that CLACK with an 8-track. Whenever I heard Hair of the Dog…I wait for the CLACK when it would switch tracks mid song.
Great tune! I like listening to the Spanish version too. Despite what he went through he persevered and made this song better. I’m glad you included the original version, very New Orleans ballad sounding to me.
It very well could have been a hit in the 50s…it’s a timeless song no doubt. I didn’t know he had that much success for a few years.
I’ve seen his name pop up when I’m chart surfing. The Maverick’s are huge fans and they covered Before the next teardrop
Yes…I can see The Mavericks would be a great fit.
How fun to wake to a Freddy Fender song! His tv version of this one is in (my) category of lunge-waltzes for dancing to, and somewhere on ancient audiotape here, I sing his version of “Secret Love.” 😊 Thanks for the memories!
Glad you liked it! I haven’t heard it in so long.
Sorry, lunge-waltzes? A new term to me; It sounds slightly saucy.
Lol! Gawd, I’ll have to employ the word “saucy” soon — it’s hilarious! Well, the dance is hard to describe.. it’s the waltz position, but knees needn’t bend much because both parties are heartily stabbing the floor all over the room in time to the music — sort of a Frankensteinish polka. “Fooled around and fell in love” is also good for that.
I remember the first time I heard this song and I thought his vibrato was cheesy. Then I heard a broadcast (KPFA in Berkeley) dedicated to him and heard him with new ears. He became a favorite. Put him with Flaco Jimenez and I’m in heaven.
One of the few country artists whose name and sound I knew back then. Just about the quintessential ‘country’ song, isn’t it? The TT version is pretty decent too, different sound with the accordion and all.
I have started to listen to a lot of those Texas artists as you know…I really like them. But yea I remember this as a kid very well…I was surprised at the crossover he had and the early giant success.
Way back then I never knew who was singing what – I either liked the song or I didn’t. BUT – Freddy Fender was one of the few solo performing singers whose name I knew!
It is a name that sticks with you…it stuck with me as a kid as well.
Oh, my mom and I used to love this song! Not sure why Mom loved it so much but I loved it because she did.
I like Freddy Fender. He is in that group of musicians–Don Williams, Waylon & Willie, Tanya Tucker, Merle Haggard–that I liked even in the days when I was strictly a “rocker.”
They all have that crossover thing going on…I’ve recently started to listen to Waylon a lot…he was great.
I knew a guy in college we called “wasted days and wasted Nils…” Wonder what he’s been up to?
That is a great nickname! Probably a politician.
Still Wasted Daze for Nils?
Two massive hits here too, but I seem to (vaguely) recall he was banned from touring NZ due to a drugs bust. If it was for an indiscretion 15 years earlier it seems a tad heavy handed. Nice unfussy old school Country, as you said above.
Yea that 3 1/2 prison term was insane for possession of a small amount of marijuana. When I first saw that I thought he was selling pounds of it.
Great song! It reminds me a bit of “Send Me Some Lovin'”, which I think was first recorded by Little Richard. It has been covered by many other artists, including John Lennon. In fact, it was his rendition I first thought of.
I agree…I never put that together but you are right. Yea Fender was a good artist. I’m listening to a great album right now…not his but some one else…I’ll tell you about it this weekend…I think you will like these guys.
You will have my full attention, Max! 🙂
I didn’t mean it that way but OK lol.
I know, I’m being silly! 🙂
No you are not…
Christian it’s too much music and too little time.
Prison 🙁 Horrible harassment on a musician FOR WEED?!?! How many careers have been ruined because of a harmless natural substance, yet nobody questions doctors prescribing drugs with horrific side effects. I love Freddy Fender’s voice, it has that genuine tremelo (or whatever it is called) that makes a believer out of me.
The weed issue was different back then, it was tossed in with hard sh- stuff like Heroin and Morphine. Still, he got no credit for having been a Marine – I saw that on Wiki-or anything. Rough justice. Now call me crazy Lisa, but maybe, maybe maybe if he had been a clean-cut white citizen perhaps, just perhaps he might not have received such a harsh sentence? Or maybe I should trust The Jest is System more?
<3 Great comment, Ob.
Yep! I thought at first…oh pounds of it right? Nope…just a small personal amount. I don’t condone it but yep…it’s better than other drugs and alcohol to me anyway.
Like this song.
Thanks for dropping by
And his voice. 👍🙂
I liked that song, I remember hearing it on the kitchen radio and my mom singing along and “dance mopping” to it. Years later, I would get a ticket in San Benito, Texas next to the Freddy Fender water tower.
Hey that is pretty cool! Well not the ticket but where you were at.