“What’s Your Mama’s Name, Child?”: Tammy Wynette, Tanya Tucker, and George Jones

By Nicholas Stix

“What’s Your Mama’s Name, Child?,” by Omar Earl “Peanut” Montgomery and Dallas Frazier, is an incredibly moving song. It helped establish the career of Tanya Tucker. But how much of the credit that Tucker got had she earned, as opposed to benefiting from a song she couldn’t wreck?

Tanya Tucker was born with a lot of talent and good looks, but she was hopelessly stupid, and there’s just no curing stupid. Early on, she got tremendous press coverage not through her singing, but by acting like a teenaged whore. Listen to her performance of “What’s Your Mama’s Name, Child?” How much of Buford Wilson’s torment do you hear? I don’t hear any. If anything, the song sounds upbeat.

Now listen to Tammy Wynette’s performance of the same song. Wynette gets it. That’s still not the ultimate rendition, which I’m still looking for, but this song belongs in The Great American Songbook, and will have a secure place in music history, once people stop treating it like it’s Tucker’s property.


Tanya Tucker
 


 

Thanks to jack gauntt jr. for the upload.
 


Tammy Wynette
 


 

Thanks to MyJustified for the upload.
 

Since putting together the Tanya Tucker and Tammy Wynette sections, but before posting this item, I read that George Jones had also recorded this song. With high hopes, I searched for his version, and I was not disappointed. “The Possum,” who just left us, was a great singer who, in my estimation, too often sang crappy songs. But this is one case of the great singer performing a song worthy of his prodigious talents. Note, too, that this version has orchestration that’s just right, unlike the loud, overproduced Tucker version, which is the musical equivalent of a woman putting on gobs of makeup.
 


George Jones
 


 

Thanks to Goodolcountrymusic1 for the upload.


What’s Your Mama’s Name, Child?
By Peanut Montgomery and Dallas Frazier

What’s Your Mama’s Name, Child?
Have you ever heard about a town called New Orleans?


What's your mama's name child, what's your mama's name?

Thirty-some odd years ago a young man came to Memphis,
Askin' 'bout a rose that used to blossom in his world,
People never took the time to mind the young man's questions,
Till one day they heard him ask a little green eyed girl.

What's your mama's name child, what's your mama's name?
Does she ever talk about a place called New Orleans?
Has she ever mentioned a man named Buford Wilson?
What's your mama's name child, what's your mama's name?

Twenty-some odd years ago a drunkard down in Memphis,
Lost a month of life and labor to the county jail,
Just because he asked a little green eyed girl a question,
And offered her a nickel's worth of candy if she'd tell.

A year and some odd days ago an old man died in Memphis,
Just another wayward soul the county had to claim,
Inside the old man's ragged coat they found a faded letter,
That said you have a daughter and her eyes are Wilson green.

What's your mama's name child, what's your mama's name?
Does she ever talk about a place called New Orleans?
Has she ever mentioned a man named Buford Wilson?
What's your mama's name child, what's your mama's name?
What's your mama's name child, what's your mama's name?