As a tribute to his loyal fans he wants to tour one more year and let them know, this will be his last. Jones was quoted as saying “It is tough to stop doing what I love, but the time has come”. After over fifty years of touring, Jones has decided he is ready to slow down and spend more time with his wife, children and grandchildren. In 2013, George Jones, the country music icon often referred to as the “the greatest living country singer” will mark the end of an era with a farewell tour for his fans titled “The Grand Tour”. Smithsonian Institution, 1990.GEORGE JONES ANNOUNCES THE GRAND TOUR IN 2013 Malone, Bill, "Classic Country Music: A Smithsonian Collection" (booklet included with Classic Country Music: A Smithsonian Collection four-disc set).^ "Aaron Neville Chart History (Hot Country Songs)".^ "Aaron Neville Chart History (Hot 100)".
^ " Top RPM Country Tracks: Issue 2275." RPM.The Billboard Book Of Top 40 Country Hits: 1944-2006, Second edition. George Jones: The Life and Times of a Honky Tonk Legend. ^ Kreps, Daniel Menoci, David Ryan, Linda Harvilla, Rob Murray, Nick Drell, Cady Powell, Mike Moss, Marissa R Harris, Keith Fisher, Reed (September 26, 2014).CS1 maint: archived copy as title ( link) While not as commercially successful as Jones' version, Neville's was still highly acclaimed by fans and critics, resulting in a nomination for the Grammy Award for Best Male Country Vocal Performance at the 36th Annual Grammy Awards in 1994. It was also Neville's first appearance on the country music charts. 38 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart, and No. In 1993, soul music singer Aaron Neville recorded a cover version of "The Grand Tour".
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Songwriter Norro Wilson reflected on the success of "The Grand Tour" in The Billboard Book of Number One Country Hits: "As I recall, when George cut that song, it was the most talked-about record he'd had in an awfully long time.'The Grand Tour' is one of my proudest moments." As recounted in Rich Kienzle's 2016 Jones biography The Grand Tour, Wilson arrived at the Grand Ole Opry around the time of the record's release and "No sooner I walked in the door everybody come runnin' up to me and said, 'Jesus Christ! Have you got a monster on your hands!'.And man, I went ballistic! Everybody I ran across that night said, 'That's just gonna be a monster.' It was a really, really, really good record."Īs Jones biographer Bob Allen noted in 1983, the cut was the "eureka moment" for producer Billy Sherrill: "After several years of trial and error, Sherrill was also learning how to coax rich, low-register textures out of George's powerful voice and meld them, ever more effectively, with his own heavy-handed 'Sherrillized' production style." Jones had not scored a #1 hit on the country charts since 1967's " Walk Through This World with Me", although he had reached the top of the charts with " We're Gonna Hold On", a duet with his wife Tammy Wynette. Malone wrote that "the graphic imagery permits the listener to see both the inside of the abandoned home where love has died and the interior of the narrator's mind." Prior to the clinching end scene, the singer stops at various pieces of furniture, such as an easy chair and their marital bed, to reflect on fond memories of better times. ") with foreshadowing to set the final stop on the stroll-one of the nursery, where the singer's wife "left me without mercy, taking nothing but her baby and my heart".
Throughout the song, the lyrics mix the singer's tour of a home that once held many personal, private, and happy memories ("Step right up, come on in. Malone, in his liner notes for Classic Country Music: A Smithsonian Collection, called it a "perfect matching of lyrics and performance" and "one of the great modern songs of divorce".
The song is widely hailed as one of the finest performances in country music history.