Some songs never stop collecting trophies. When the Grand Ole Opry asked fans to name the greatest country song of all time during its 100th anniversary year, they picked “He Stopped Loving Her Today” by George Jones. Fans voted for a full year, with songs going back to the 1930s in the running, and Vince Gill sang it at the Opry to reveal the winner.
Jones was an unlikely candidate for a legend. He was born Sept. 12, 1931, in a log house near Saratoga, Texas, the youngest of eight children. He got his first guitar at nine and was soon playing for tips on the street corners of Beaumont. As a teenager, he landed a spot on a local radio station and recorded rockabilly under the name Thumper Jones.
By 1980, his career was slipping. He had split from Tammy Wynette and been through years of personal struggles. Producer Billy Sherrill had an idea: a ballad about a man who keeps loving a woman until the day he dies, written by Curly Putman and Bobby Braddock.
Jones hated it. He thought it was too morbid to sell. He recorded it anyway, and in July 1980 it shot to No. 1 on the country chart. Jones later said “a four-decade career had been salvaged by a three-minute song.”
The awards piled up. The song won Jones a Grammy in 1981, and it earned Song of the Year honors from both the Academy of Country Music and the Country Music Association. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1992 and received the Kennedy Center Honors in 2008.
The Opry marked the fan vote on its anniversary album, Opry 100: Country’s Greatest Songs, with a “Full Circle Mix” that pairs Jones with Alan Jackson. Jackson sang the song at Jones’s funeral in 2013 and again at that year’s CMA Awards, the second time with George Strait.
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