I Don't Wanna Play House
1967 song by Tammy Wynette
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"I Don't Wanna Play House" is a song written by Billy Sherrill and Glenn Sutton. In 1967, the song was Tammy Wynette's first number one country song as a solo artist.
| "I Don't Wanna Play House" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ||||
| Single by Tammy Wynette | ||||
| from the album Take Me to Your World / I Don't Wanna Play House | ||||
| B-side | "Soakin' Wet" | |||
| Released | July 1967 | |||
| Studio | Columbia (Nashville, Tennessee) | |||
| Genre | Country | |||
| Length | 2:38 | |||
| Label | Epic 5-10211 | |||
| Songwriters | ||||
| Producer | Billy Sherrill | |||
| Tammy Wynette singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
| "I Don't Wanna Play House" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by Connie Francis | ||||
| B-side | "Am I Blue" | |||
| Released | August 1968 | |||
| Genre | Country | |||
| Length | 3:05 | |||
| Label | MGM Records | |||
| Songwriters | Billy Sherrill Glenn Sutton | |||
| Producers | Bobby Russel Buzz Cason | |||
| Connie Francis singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
Tammy Wynette version
Release
"I Don't Wanna Play House" by Tammy Wynette was released as a seven-inch single in July 1967 by Epic Records.[1] The recording earned Wynette the 1968 Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance. It was backed by another country song, "Soakin' Wet" on the B-side,[1] which didn't see an immediate album inclusion.
Charts
"I Don't Wanna Play House" by Tammy Wynette spent three weeks at the top spot and a total of eighteen weeks on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart.[2] The song was also later released in the UK in 1976 and made the Top 40.[3]
Content
In the song, the narrator, a young mother whose husband has left her, overhears her daughter describing to a neighborhood boy their broken home, and informing him that she doesn't want to play house since, after observing her parents' troubles, she knows that it cannot be fun.
Chart performance
| Chart (1967) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles | 1 |
| Canadian RPM Country Tracks | 3 |
| Chart (1976) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| U.K. Singles Chart[3] | 37 |
Barbara Ray versions
In 1973, South African singer Barbara Ray recorded a version that was a number-one hit in her home country[4] as well as a top 10 hit in Australia, reaching No. 3 later in the year.[5] Her version was South Africa's highest-selling single of 1973.[6]
Charts
| Chart (1973) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australia (Kent Music Report)[7] | 3 |
Other versions
- Connie Francis released a cover version of the song in August 1968. It peaked at No. 40 on Billboard's Easy Listening Charts.[8]
- Skeeter Davis covered the song on her 1968 album Why So Lonely?.
- Lynn Anderson (then the wife of the song's co-writer, Sutton) covered the song in 1970 on her album Rose Garden.
- Loretta Lynn covered the song on her 1968 album, Fist City.
- Mona Gustafsson recorded the song on her 2010 album Countrypärlor.[9]