When the legendary Loretta Lynn’s career took off, she unintentionally kickstarted a country music dynasty, turning a family from Butcher Hollow, Kentucky into a bloodline of Nashville royalty. Her music helped paved the way for her younger siblings—Jay Lee Webb, Peggy Sue, and Crystal Gayle— to pursue their own musical endeavors.
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They all had their own respective careers but worked together from time to time. Loretta and Peggy Sue, in particular, would collaborate, co-penning several of each other’s hits. Here are 3 songs you may not have known the two sisters wrote together.
1. “Love Whatcha Got at Home” – Peggy Sue (1969)
Written by Loretta Lynn and Peggy Sue
Well you say you’re a red hot papa / And the lover go the town / Don’t you think it’s just about time / Oh mama cooled you down / So get those courtin’ clothes back off / And don’t let it take you long / ‘Cause tonight big boy you’re gonna stay right here / And love whatcha got at home, opens the saucy 1969 tune, “Love Whatcha Got at Home.”
The Loretta-Peggy collaboration first appeared on Peggy Sue’s debut album, Dynamite! Loretta would record her own version of the track in 1971 for her hit album, You’re Lookin’ at Country. The superstar’s rendition gets a more theatric take than her sister’s performance below. Driving the point home, Loretta emphasizes the song’s bold sentiment with every drawn-out word whereas Peggy Sue’s version is a touch more subdued.
2. “No Woman Can Hold Him Too Long” – Peggy Sue (1969)
Written by Loretta Lynn and Peggy Sue
His love is so right but he’ll leave you so wrong / And he’ll take what he wants in your arms / Like a thief in the night stealin’ love, movin’ on / No, no woman can hold him too long, plays the lonesome waltz, “No Woman Can Hold Him Too Long.”
Also released on Peggy Sue’s 1969 debut album, “No Woman Can Hold Him Too Long” was another joint effort from the siblings. While Dynamite! was not a smash hit, the album set Peggy Sue on a path not in her sister’s shadow, but instead alongside her.
3. “Don’t Come Home A-Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ on Your Mind)” – Loretta Lynn (1966)
Written by Loretta Lynn and Peggy Sue
Well you thought I’d be waiting up / When you came home last night / You’d been out with all the boy / And you ended up half-tight / Liquor and love, they just don’t mix / Leave a bottle or me behind / And don’t come home a-drinkin’ / With lovin’ on your mind, Lynn sings in her first No. 1 hit, “Don’t Come Home A-Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ on Your Mind).”
A song about warding off an intoxicated husband after he’s been out on the town, the 1967 tune dealt with a topic Loretta and her sister could both relate to. Peggy Sue was the first to conceptualize the song, bringing what she had to Loretta, so they could flesh it out.
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“I looked at what she had on paper, and I kind of knew what she was trying to say,” Loretta explained in her book Honky Tonk Girl: My Life In Lyrics. “It’s like when there’s twins, the old saying is, ‘What one can’t think of, the other one can.’ I’ve always had this feeling with Peggy that I am kind of inside her head. Maybe it’s because she means so much to me. We can look at each other and know what the other is thinking. Sometimes it’s not good to be like that, but when the song was finished, we both thought it was great.”
Photo by Richard E. Aaron/Redferns
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