Arts & Entertainment
My Head Hurts, My Feet Stink, and I Love the Oak Ridge Boys
One time, the gospel-singing Tennessee boys helped pick Jimmy Buffett up from a hangover
By Tad Wilkes, Nightlife & Lifestyles Editor
tad.wilkes@hottytoddy.com
The Oak Ridge boys are performing at the Ford Center on Sunday, April 28 from 3 to 5 p.m. on their 40th Anniversary Tour (for ticket information, go here). I’m thinking I may have to check it out, but my appreciation of them stems from their role in a song that wasn’t even one of theirs.
Legend has it they didn’t want to be credited in the liner notes, for fear their Christian audience might not get the joke, but the Oak Ridge Boys sang backing vocals on the funky classic “My Head Hurts, My Feet Stink, and I Don’t Love Jesus.” The song appears on Jimmy Buffett’s 1976 album Havana Daydreamin’.
The lyrics may have been set in and around Duval Street in Key West, but the recording was done in Nashville, with some guest cats, including the Boys.
The Oak Ridge Boys would go on to hit big with “Elvira” in the early ’80s and more recently cover the White Stripes’ “Seven Nation Army,” while Buffett would devolve to covering “Brown Eyed Girl,” but they got together for a little magic in the ’70s, and both were at the top of their game on this rollicking number: