1.

(# 36 country hit)
(# 6 pop hit)

Ruby Don't Take Your Love To Town

Mel Tillis

© Cedarwood Pub, BMI

You've painted up your lips and rolled and curled your tinted hair
Ruby are you contemplating going out somewhere
The shadow on the wall tells me the sun is going down
Oh Ruby don't take your love to town

It wasn't me that started that old crazy Asian war
But I was proud to go and do my patriotic chores
Yes it's true that I'm not the man I used to be
Oh Ruby I still need some company

It's hard to love a man whose legs are bent and paralized
And the wants and the needs of a woman your age Ruby I realize
But it won't be long I've heard them say until I'm not around
Oh Ruby don't take your love to town

She's leaving now cause I just heard the slamming of the door
The way I know I've heard it slam one hundred times before
And if I could move I get my gun and put her in the ground
Oh Ruby don't take your love to town
Oh Ruby for God's sake turn around

**********

2.

Reuben James

Alex Harvey - Barry Etris

© Unart Music, BMI

Reuben James in my song you'll live again
And the phrases that I rhyme
Are just the footsteps out of time
From the time when I knew you Reuben James

Reuben James all the folks around Madison County cussed your name
Just a no count sharecroppin' colored man
Who would steal anything that he can
And everybody laid the blame on Reuben James

Reuben James you still walk the furrowed fields of my mind
The faded shirt the wrinkled brow
The calloused hand upon the plow
I loved you then and I love you now Reuben James

Flora Gray the gossip of Madison County died with the child
And although your skin was black
You were the one who didn't turn your back
On a hungry white child with no name Reuben James

Reuben James with your mind on my soul and Bible in your right hand
You said turn the other cheek
There's a better world waitin' for the meek
In my mind these words remain from Reuben James

Reuben James you still walk the furrowed fields of my mind...

Reuben James one dark cloudy day they brought you from the fields
And that lonely pinebox came
Just a preacher me and the rain
Just to sing one last refrain for Reuben James

Reuben James you still walk the furrowed fields of my mind...
Reuben James you still walk the furrowed fields of my mind...

**********

3.

(# 19 pop hit)

But You Know I Love You

Mike Settle

© Devon Music, BMI

When the morning sun streaks across my room
And I'm wakened up from another dream of you
Yes I'm on the road once again it seems
All I've left behind is a chain of broken dreams

But you know I love you yes I love you oh I love you

How I wish this love was all we'd need to live
What a life we'd have cause I've got so much to give
And it seems so wrong deep inside my heart
That the dollar sign should be keeping us apart

But you know I love you yes I love you oh I love you

And if only I could find my way back to the time
When the problems of this life had not yet crossed our minds
For the answers could be found in children's nursery rhymes
I'd come running back to you
I'd come running back to you

But you know we can't live on dreams alone
And to pay the rent I must leave you all alone
But you know I made my choice many years ago
Now this traveling life is the only one I know

But you know I love you yes I love you oh I love you
But you know I love you yes I love you oh I love you
But you know I love you yes I love you oh I love you
But you know I love you yes I love you oh I love you

But you know I love you yes I love you oh I love you
But you know I love you yes I love you oh I love you
But you know I love you yes I love you oh I love you

**********

4.

(# 11 pop hit)

Something's Burning

Mac Davis

© Screen Gems Music, BMI

You lie in gentle sleep beside me
I hear your warm and rhythmic breathing
I take your hand and hold it tightly
Listen can you not hear our young hearts beating

I kiss the sleep from your eyes
Your smile is sweeter than the morning
And here it comes
Can't you feel it baby now can't you feel it here it comes
Feel it feel it fire fire

Something's burning something's burning
Something's burning and I think it's love

And now the sun is burning brightly
We lie and love so close together
I get the feeling deep inside me
My love for you will burn forever

I cup my hands to touch your face
And once again I feel your fire
And here it comes
Now can't you feel it baby can't you feel it here comes again
Feel it feel it fire fire

Something's burning something's burning
Something's burning and I think it's love
And I think it's love...

**********

5.

(# 5 pop hit)

Just Dropped In

Mickey Newbury

© Acuff-Rose Music, BMI

(Yeah yeah oh yeah what condition my condition was in)

I woke up this mornin' with the sundown shinin' in
I found my mind in a brown paper bag within
I tripped on a cloud and fell a eight miles high I tore my mind on a jagged sky
I just dropped in to see what condition my condition was in

(Yeah yeah oh yeah what condition my condition was in)

I pushed my soul in a deep dark hole and then I followed it in
I watched myself crawlin' out as I was a crawlin' in
I got up so tight I couldn't unwind I saw so much I broke my mind
I just dropped in to see what condition my condition was in
[ instrumental ]
(Yeah yeah oh yeah what condition my condition was in)

Someone painted April fool in big black letters on a dead end sign
I had my foot on the gas as I left the road and blew out my mind
Eight miles outta Memphis and I got no spare eight miles straight up downtown somewhere
I just dropped in to see what condition my condition was in
I said I just dropped in to see what condition my condition was in

(Yeah yeah oh yeah)

**********

6.

(# 1 country hit)
(# 5 pop hit)

Lucille

Roger Bowling - Hal Bynum

© Brougham Hall Music, BMI

In a bar in Toledo cross from the depot
On a barstool she took off her ring
I thought I'd get closer so I walked on over
I sat down and asked her her name
When the drinks fin'ly hit her she said I'm no quitter
But I finally quit living on dreams
I'm hungry for laughter and here ever after
I'm after whatever the other life brings

In the mirror I saw him I closely watched him
I thought how he looked out of place
He came to the woman who sat there beside me
He had a strange look on his face
The big hands were calloused he looked like a mountain
For a minute I thought I was dead
But he started shaking his big heart was breaking
He turned to the woman and said

You picked a fine time to leave me Lucille
With four hungry children and a crop in the field
I've had some bad times lived through some sad times
But this time your hurtin' won't heal
You picked a fine time to leave me Lucille

After he left us I ordered more whiskey
I thought how she made him look small
From the lights of the barroom to a rented hotel room
We walked without talking at all
She was a beauty but when she came to me
She must have thought I'd lost my mind
I couldn't hold her cause the words that he told her
Kept coming back time after time

You picked a fine time to leave me Lucille...
You picked a fine time to leave me Lucille...

**********

7.

(# 1 country hit)
(# 28 pop hit)

Daytime Friends

Ben Peters

© Ben Peters Music, BMI

And he'll tell her he's working late again
But she knows too well there's something goin' on
She's been neglected and she needs a friend
So her trembling fingers dial the telephone

And Lord it hurts her doin' this again
He's the best friend that her husband ever knew
But when she's lonely he's more than just a friend
He's the one she longs to give her body to

Daytime friends and night time lovers hopin' no one else discovers
Where they go what they do in their secret hide away
Daytime friends and night time lovers they don't wanna hurt the other
So they love in the night time and shake hand in the light of day

And when it's over there's no peace of mind
Just a longing for the way things should have been
And she wonders why some men never find
That a woman needs a lover and a friend

Daytime friends and night time lovers hopin' no one else discovers...
Daytime friends and night time lovers hopin' no one else discovers...

**********

8.

While The Feeling's Good

Roger Bowling - Freddie Hart

© Brougham Hall Music, BMI

Take your gown out of the closet put it on that's why I bought it
Come stand in front of me and let me see
Take the warm smile that you're wearin' place it on these lips that's burnin'
To share this fire you've built inside of me

Turn the light down in the bedroom pull the sheet down from the pillow
When we're like this love's easy understood
Let's walk through this house we live in to the room we always love in
And let's love each other while the feeling's good

With all my will I promise with all of me I love you
This feeling that I've got just grows and grows
I can't stop this wanting you I can't stop my needing you
No more than I can stop the wind that blows

But I'll hold your sweet lovin' long as we both have this feelin'
I'll love you every way I know that's good
Let's walk through this room we live in to the room we always love in
And let's love each other while the feeling's good

While the feeling's good let's keep it going
While the loving's good let's keep it growing
Let's walk through this room we live in to the room we always love in
Let's get some lovin' while the feeling's good

**********

9.

(# 19 country hit)

Love Lifted Me

James Rowe - Howard Smith

© Benson Pub, ASCAP

I'll write myself a simple song get the whole world to sing along
I'll call it a love song for you
And who knows I'm liable to take a song from the Bible
And then when I'm through

I'll just sing love lifted me love lifted me
When nothing else would do you know love lifted me

Everybody's lookin' for a way to say something nobody said
But that's hard to do
They're searching their mind trying to find the one of a kind way
That they could say something new

And I just say love lifted me love lifted me...
[ instrumental ]
Love lifted me love lifted me...
Love lifted me love lifted me...

Love lifted me love lifted me
When I was down and out you know love lifted me

Everybody sing love lifted me oh love lifted me...

**********

10.

Today I Started Loving You Again

Merle Haggard - Bonnie Owens

© Blue Book Music, BMI

Today I started loving you again
I'm right back where I've really always been
I got over you just long enough to let my heartaches mend
And then today I started loving you again

What a fool I was to think I could get by
With only these few million tears I've cried
I should have known the worst was yet to come
And that crying time for me had just begun

Cause today I started loving you again...
And then today I started loving you again

**********