“Don’t We All Have the Right”
Ricky Van Shelton
Written by Roger Miller
Billboard
#1 (1 week)
July 30, 1988
Ricky Van Shelton executed at such an incredibly high level of excellence that it can be challenging to write about him.
“Don’t We All Have the Right” is a flawless country record that manages to improve upon an already excellent Roger Miller classic in every conceivable way. Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris rightfully get credit for reviving Hank Williams and Kitty Wells classics and making them relevant to contemporary audiences.
I think what Ricky Van Shelton was doing in the eighties was in critically important in a similar way, despite the differences in the audiences that they were educating. Ronstadt and Harris made classic country relevant for rock fans. Shelton made classic country relevant for contemporary country fans, and he did so in a way that passed over the obvious tracks to cover, much like those ladies did.
Miller was a revered legend and Broadway star and composer by the time this cover dropped, and within popular music, he was most widely regarded as a humorist, despite the heady social commentary embedded in such classics as “King of the Road” and “Dang Me.” By covering a straight up heartbreak ballad of Miller’s, Shelton expanded on Miller’s legacy and introduced a song that had been lost in time to a brand new audience. Miller’s material never lost its cleverness when he moved away from humorous records, and Shelton brings his subtle word
Not all of his covers would work, but these early ones worked so well that I have to double check the credits to make sure which ones are new and which ones were cover. That’s not a bad problem to have.
“Don’t We All Have the Right” gets an A.
Every No. 1 Single of the Eighties]
Previous: Eddie Rabbitt, “The Wanderer” |
Next: Highway 101, “(Do You Love Me) Just Say Yes”
A little embarrassed to admit I didn’t know this was even a remake, let alone of a Roger Miller song. Listening to it again, it certainly fits Miller’s style like a glove. It also fits Van Shelton’s style. As you said, the man has an incredible knack for knowing which songs perfectly fit in his wheelhouse. The vocals are flawless and the production is crisp and clean. While there were plenty of other New Traditionalist artists who were memory-holed more ruthlessly and completely than Van Shelton by the time the mid-90s came around, every time I hear Van Shelton’s voice makes me wonder what could have been if he’d had the durability of, say, Clint Black. Would his material have gotten progressively more ham-fisted as Black’s did? Or would he have continued rising to the occasion and maintaining the quality of his early years even as the demands of the industry began to require playing to a more youthful marketplace than was the case in 1988?
Grade: A-
One thing that was interesting about the boom era is that radio sometimes moved away from an artist before the fans did. IIRC, Hank Jr., RVS, Dolly, and Lorrie Morgan all had gold albums without major radio hits on them. Morgan rebounded at radio, but the other three never did.
Same here Mark. Although Kevin makes a great point about how Ricky could make anything sound like a long lost classic from a bygone era. When going through my RVS phase i was surprised how many hits that he had were covers. Some people do not like covers but I do as it shows who inspired the artists and sometimes finally gives a song the spotlight it deserves and may cause people to check out the original artist. He was truly an elite vocalist and is very underrated. Very proud that he is also from Virginia.
While Randy Travis and Keith Whitley were making their respective cases for being the iconic male vocalist of this young generation of country stars, Ricky Van Shelton quietly took everyone to school and capably kept pace with his own claim to crown as the greatest new country male vocalist.
Like John Berry would later do for me in 1995 with his “Oh Holy Night” Christmas album, Van Shelton set himself apart as a vocalist with his outstandingly gorgeous, rich, and warm singing on his 1989 Christmas album “Ricky Van Shelton Sings Christmas.”
It fit seamlessly with seasonal albums by generational vocalists like Bing Crosby, Nat King Cole, and Andy Williams.
Ricky Van Shelton was a special singer and artist.