Country Club 16: the perfect Country and Western song

It probably comes as no surprise that there aren't a lot of Jews in country music--Ray Benson of Asleep at the Wheel is probably the most important. But the "perfect" country song was written by a Jew from Chicago, Steve Goodman, in a room in the Hotel Roosevelt in New York City. Goodman was mainly a folk singer, but he also wrote another classic county song. "The City of  New Orleans"  which won Goodman a posthumous Grammy Award for Best Country Song

The perfect country song,of course,  is "You Never Even Called Me By My Name," which was co-written by John Prine, who declined to take writer's credit and royalties. In Goodman and Prine's versions the added verse is a little different than Coe's.


Here's Coe's version




Doug Supernaw version includes cameo vocals from Waylon Jennings and Charley Pride, Merle Haggard, and David Allan Coe.
John Prine shares the background of the song