" Dang Me" is a song by United States country music artist Roger Miller, and 1964's Grammy Award winner for Best Country & Western Song. It was Miller's first chart-topping country hit and first Top Ten pop music hit,
In 1998, Roger Miller's 1964 version of "Dang Me" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
History
Newly signed with the
Mercury Records subsidiary
Smash Records,
Miller gathered on January 10–11, 1964, with
music producer Jerry Kennedy,
music arranger Bill Justis, and session musicians
Ray Edenton and Harold Bradley (
), Hargus "Pig" Robbins (
piano), Bob Moore (bass), and
Buddy Harman (
Drum kit) at the
Bradley Studios on Nashville, Tennessee's
Music Row.
[ Roger Miller official site: Biography, page 2] On the second day, they recorded a run-through of "Dang Me," with Miller giving rehearsal direction (such as "one more time" at the end of the first chorus). The run-through was the final version released to radio. Miller, in his official biography, recalled writing the song in four minutes in a Phoenix, Arizona, hotel room.
Johnny Cash in his last major interview claimed Miller wrote the song at
Joshua Tree in
California when Miller got out of the car with pen and paper to go write the song. Cash asked Miller what he was doing to which Miller replied "I'm writing a song. You can't come look."
["#23: Roger Miller". In CMT's 40 Greatest Men of Country Music. Country Music Television. March 28, 2003.]
Kennedy had already started work on many other of that session's songs before he eventually brought the recording of "Dang Me" to his home. Upon playing it, he recalled, "My kids came screaming down the stairs when 'Dang Me' came on. They thought that was the greatest thing they'd ever heard. I started playing it over and over and over again...".[ LP Discography - Covers & Lyrics: Roger and Out] The album was shortly retitled and rereleased that year as Dang Me (Smash SRS-67049)
The song spent 25 weeks on the Billboard country-music chart,[ LP Discography - Covers & Lyrics: Roger Miller] and peaked at number seven on the magazine's pop chart. It went on to appear on numerous Miller compilations. On film or tape, Miller performs it, with other songs, in the 1966 concert film The Big T.N.T. Show, and as part of a closing-number medley on season three, episode #21, of The Muppet Show in 1979.[DVD: The Muppet Show - The Complete Third Season (Walt Disney Video, 2008)]
Cover versions
"Dang Me" has appeared on recordings by at least eight other performers as disparate as Buck Owens,
Johnny Rivers recorded live in 1964 on
Here We à Go Go Again!, Sammy Davis Jr. on the live album
That's All (1967), and Sweet G.A. Brown on his
Miller Time album in 2011.
The Hollies, with
Graham Nash in the band, performed it live on tour in 1968. Singer-songwriter
Buddy Miller (no relation to Roger Miller) covered it on his album "Majestic Silver Strings" in 2011.
Widespread Panic covered the tune as en encore during their acoustic tour on February 11, 2012.
Jerry Jeff Walker in 2001 for his Album “Gonzo Stew”
Chart performance
|
| U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles | 1 |
U.S. Billboard Hot 100 | 7 |
| Canadian RPM Country Tracks | 3 |
| Canadian RPM Top Singles | 6 |
