“Don’t You Ever Get Tired (of Hurting Me)”
Ronnie Milsap
Written by Hank Cochran
Radio & Records
#1 (1 week)
February 17, 1989
Billboard
#1 (1 week)
March 11, 1989
In many ways, we’ve heard this all before.
Ronnie Milsap dusts off an old classic, filters it through his country soul lens, and notches another No. 1 hit. And for most of the run time, that’s what “Don’t You Ever Get Tired (of Hurting Me)” is. A good cover sung well that doesn’t break any new ground.
What elevates this in the end is Milsap’s raw and passionate vocal following the instrumental bridge. It’s one of his strongest moments as a singer and it really packs a whallop when this pivots from a paint by numbers cover.
“Don’t You Ever Get Tired (of Hurting Me)” gets a B+.
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I think you buried the lead here by not mentioning Ronnie’s rather aggressive pivot to a traditional country sound after spending more than a decade being the face of Urban Cowboy country-pop. This was easily Ronnie’s most country-sounding hit record since the mid-70s with steel guitar aplenty throughout the track. I’m not sure if he was just throwing in the towel and admitting defeat on the fleeting Urban Cowboy sound or if everybody involved in the project wanted to make the pivot. I won’t say it was necessarily overdue as I think the best version of Ronnie was his keyboard-fueled pop sound, but his “Stranger Things Have Happened” record was a nice reminder of how great he was at singing traditional country material as well.
With that said, this song wasn’t my favorite showcase of that. His follow-up hit “Houston Solution” didn’t reach the top but I preferred it to this one. “Don’t You Ever…” is very well sung and lands some clever lines (I once used the title in an email to an ex who frustrated me!!! the statutes of limitation are up for Ronnie to sue me for copyright infringement!), but the song and the performance just don’t hit me in the same way most Milsap tunes do. He certainly made the song his own though, and easily outperformed Ray Price’s chart performance from two decades earlier.
Grade: B
That’s a great observation! It did cross my mind that it was more of an organic arrangement than I was used to for him, then I got blindsided by the vocal! I’m glad you pointed it out in the comments. I listened to it again and it’s definitely a harder pivot to traditional country than I realized. Thanks for sharing that.
This is one of my favorite covers ever. Ray Price is my second favorite vocalist of all time (behind Randy Travis), but I find his original version to be a tad too slow. The tempo on this cover is just right, and the way Milsap lets loose at the end gives the song the exasperation and frustration it needs. And that instrumental break is pure country gold. I’ve always liked Ronnie as both a traditional country singer and as a crossover artist, but this was a much-needed pivot, both to stay radio relevant and artistically fresh.
Also, how neat is it that Hank Cochran and Harlan Howard songs were major hits nearing the 90s? This was such a great time for country music.
While I like Ronnie Milsap, I was very surprised that this song made it to #1 as it had been around for quite a while and was very familiar to most country fans. Not only had it been a hit several times before, but it showed up on quite a few albums. For my money, Jack Greene’s version was the best version (Milsap’s recording strikes me as being overwrought) but it was not released as a single. I agree with MarkMinnesota about “Houston Solution” being the better Milsap recording – still, it is always great to see an old classic song revived and being a chart success
Kenny Rogers and Ronnie Milsap stand out as two monstrous male country stars who chose to stay in the right pop-lane on the country music highway leaving Nashville as emerging neo-traditionalists were blowing by in the passing lane.
It was only a matter of time before they would be forced to merge to keep up with what was happening at the top of the charts.
Rogers would wildly misstep later in 1989 with his single “Planet Texas.”
Milsap, on the other hand, leans into an oft-covered classic and sounds great surrounded by more traditional country production. He always maintained he was a singer and not a stylist. He is easily up to the challenge of “going country.”
Ultimately, he didn’t have far to go. He had been singing country music for years now.
I cannot overstate how amazing this trail of classic country breadcrumbs was to follow as a burgeoning fan eager to connect all the dots. These perfectly timed covers kept bringing the past into the present in the most unexpected and amazing of ways.
There’s no list of the worst country songs of all-time that is worth its mettle if Kenny’s “Planet Texas” isn’t on it. I’d like to know who in Rogers’ circle thought that was gonna work and recommended he record it.