Swingin’

John Anderson 1954-/ Lionel Delmore 1940-2002

My wife Betsy and I were visiting Mark Bingham in New Orleans, and I heard this song on the radio. Ding-a-ling went the perfect song bell in my head. I was blown away by the lyrics. “Swingin’” went to number one in the Country charts and crossed over to the Pop charts, #43 on Billboard and #30 in Cash Box, and was named “Country Song Of The Year” by the Country Music Association. It was also the biggest selling single in the history of Warner Brothers Records. Anderson’s frequent writing partner, Lionel Delmore, was the son of Alton Delmore and the nephew of Rabon Delmore, from my old-time favorites, the Delmore Brothers, who also recorded many songs with Grandpa Jones and Merle Travis as the Brown’s Ferry Four. I played a number of other John Anderson songs while doing research on him, and found only two other songs that struck me as being near the level of this one, “Wild And Blue” and “Seminole Wind”. I talked to Mark Bingham about this and he said, “Right, those three.” We’re a couple of picky sumbitches. Nevertheless, John Anderson has had a successful career for over 40 years. What do we know?