Singer of Sad Songs is a studio album by American country music artist Waylon Jennings, released in 1970 on RCA Nashville.

Background

Unlike most other RCA country albums, Singer of Sad Songs was recorded at their "Music Center of the World" studios in Hollywood with Lee Hazlewood producing. Only the title track (which hit #12) was recorded in Nashville with producer Danny Davis. As a result, RCA Victor was unwilling to promote the album, and the situation got to the core of Jennings' frustrations with the constraints RCA imposed on his music. In the audio version of his autobiography, the singer recalled: Singer of Sad Songs finds Jennings inching his way towards the full-blown revolt he would wage against RCA a few years later and features selections originating from untraditional country sources, such as the Rolling Stones song "Honky Tonk Woman" and Tim Hardin's folk song "If I Were a Carpenter." The album has a guitar-laden sound and buoyancy that Jennings would continue to explore as he honed his sound on vinyl, with Thom Jurek of AllMusic observing: Singer of Sad Songs gave Jennings his worst showing on the charts since 1967, peaking at #23 on the Billboard country albums chart, although this was primarily due to RCA's lack of support rather than the material. Waylon's new wife Jessi Colter is featured on the album cover.

Track listing