A lot of fans thought that George Jones’ 1974 number one, “The Grand Tour,” was written about him, since his personal life at the time was in a state of turmoil. But according to co-writer George Richey, that was not the case.

Richey commented, “I was driving thru Memphis, Tennessee one weekend and the idea “step right up-come on in” just popped into my mind. My wife wanted to listen to the radio and I was trying to write this song in my mind. I remembered that George Jones was scheduled to record the following Tuesday so I wrote as much of the song as I could in my mind with the radio playing at the same time.”

Richey later met with Carmol Taylor and Norro Wilson and the three of them completed the song just a few hours before Jones’ recording session.

“The Grand Tour” was produced by Billy Sherrill and entered the country music charts June 8th, 1974 and was country music’s number one tune the week of August 31st. It was Jones’ 95th charted song and was on the charts for 17 weeks.

Doug Davis
Country Music Classics