5 Songs You Didn’t Know John Prine Wrote for Other Artists

When he was 14, John Prine wrote the songs “The Frying Pan” and “Sour Grapes” and was already channeling deeper sentiments like early heroes Hank Williams, Roy Acuff, and Bob Dylan. After returning home from the army, Prine continued writing songs and singing and quickly became a fixture in the Chicago folk revival scene.

His lyrics crossed the continuities of life, human conditions, triumphs, and tragedies. From the self-revelatory “Angel From Montgomery,” the fleeting time of “Summer’s End,” the struggles with addiction on “Sam Stone,” and the lonely souls of “Donald and Lydia,” Prine told some of the most affective stories.

“I’d look for a consistent one—something that I’d written down more than once, something that was kinda calling out to me to write about it,” said Prine in 2018. “I always [needed] something to get the wheels going, you know? I was never good at sitting down and saying, ‘Okay, let’s write a song.’ I just always kinda waited for some sort of inspiration.”

Prine added, “Usually a phrase I can’t get rid of that keeps coming back, so the only way I can get rid of it is to write a song about it or use the phrase in the song.”

Through his bountiful songbook crafted over nearly 50 years, and through Prine’s death in 2020 at the age of 73, there were a handful of songs recorded before he made them his own.

Here are five songs Prine shared with other artists first.

1. “Sam Stone,” Bob Gibson (1971)
Written by John Prine

Originally titled “Great Society Conflict Veteran’s Blues,” Prine wrote “Sam Stone” about a Vietnam War veteran, who is addicted to drugs and later dies of an overdose. Drafted into the army in the late ’60s himself, Prine said that “Sam Stone” wasn’t inspired by one individual, per se, but a number of fellow soldiers he had befriended along the way.

“There’s no one person who was the basis for Sam Stone, more like three or four people; like a couple of my buddies who came back from Vietnam and some of the guys I served with in the Army,” said Prine. “At that time, all the other Vietnam songs were basic protest songs, made up to slap each other on the back like, ‘Yeah, this is the right cause.’ I don’t remember any other songs that talked about the soldiers at all.”

Prine also recorded “Sam Stone” on his eponymous debut in 1971. Johnny Cash released his rendition of “Sam Stone” on his 1987 album Live from Austin, TX, and in 2001, The Lemonheads’ Evan Dando also released his version on his EP, Live At The Brattle Theatre / Griffith Sunset.

In 2019, Prine teamed up with Nathaniel Rateliff for a new recording of “Sam Stone” for Rateliff’s The Marigold Singles project.

Sam Stone came home
To his wife and family
After serving in the conflict overseas
And the time that he served
Had shattered all his nerves
And left a little shrapnel in his knees
But the morphine eased the pain
And the grass grew round his brain
And gave him all the confidence he lacked
With a purple heart and a monkey on his back

2. “The Twentieth Century Is Almost Over,” Steve Goodman (1977)
Written by John Prine and Steve Goodman

Playing along with Prine during their early Chicago folk scene days, it was Steve Goodman who first urged Kris Kristofferson, who he had been playing with at other clubs, to come to see one of Prine’s shows.

“By the end of the first line, we knew we were hearing something else,” said Kristofferson of seeing Prine for the first time. “It must’ve been like stumbling onto Dylan when he first busted onto the [Greenwich] Village scene.”

Prine would also go on to write songs a handful of songs featured on Goodman’s albums, including “The Twentieth Century Is Almost Over.”

First released on Goodman’s 1977 album, Say It In Private, the song was later covered by Johnny Cash in 1980 and again by The Highwaymen (Cash, Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson, and Willie Nelson) in 1985. Prine never recorded it himself.

Back in 1899, when everybody sang “Auld Lang Syne”
A hundred years took a long, long time for every boy and girl
Now there’s only one thing that I’d like to know
Where did the 20th century go?
I’d swear it was here just a minute ago
All over this world

And now the 20th century is almost over
Almost over, almost over
The 20th century is almost over
All over this world
All over this world, all over this world
The 20th century is almost over, all over this world

3. “Only Love,” Don Williams (1982)
Written by John Prine, Roger Cook, Sandy Mason

Off Don Williams‘ 12th album, Listen to the Radio, “Only Love” was later covered by Cash in 1982, followed by Prine, who released his own rendition on his eighth album, Aimless Love, in 1984.

Williams, whose songs were recorded by everyone from Eric Clapton, Kenny Rogers, Waylon Jennings, Pete Townshend, and Charley Pride, among many others, collaborated with Prine again on “Love is on a Roll” in 1983.

Off Williams’ 13th album, Yellow Moon, the song went to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, where it remained for 12 weeks.

You may live alone and close your eyes
Some folks do
You may dream a dream that’s twice your size
All night through
When the morning comes who’s to tell
Your dreams to, only you

4. “Jackie O,” John Cougar Mellencamp (1983)
Written by John Prine and John Mellencamp

Released in 1983, Uh-Huh was John Mellencamp‘s first album where he used his real surname. The album peaked at No. 9 on the Billboard 200 and featured one track co-written with Prine, “Jackie O,” an homage to Jacqueline Onassis.

Mellencamp later returned the favor and wrote a song for Prine‘s 10th studio album, The Missing Years. “Take a Look at My Heart,” co-written with Prine, also features Bruce Springsteen.

So you went to a party at Jacqueline Onassis
If you’re so smart why don’t you wear glasses
So you can see what you’re doin’ to me
So you can see what you’re doin’ to me
So you can see what tomorrow might bring

Underneath your breath you know I heard you cussin’
You were talkin’ to my second cousin
Were you talkin’ about me
Were you talkin’ about me
You better put on your glasses so you can see
So you can see what tomorrow might bring

5. “Unwed Fathers,” Tammy Wynette (1983)
Written by John Prine and Bobby Braddock

The mid-tempo ballad, “Unwed Fathers,” opens Tammy Wynette‘s 25th album, Even the Strong Get Lonely, and tells the story of a young woman who is pregnant and leaving home via the Appalachian Greyhound station to presumably raise her child alone.

Prine later recorded the song on his 1984 album, Aimless Love, and again in 2019 as a duet with Margo Price on The Living Room Sessions. Prine re-recorded “Unwed Fathers” as part of a fundraising effort for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) following the abortion ban in the state of Alabama, which was initially set to go into effect in 2019.

“I’m always concerned when our civil liberties are being attacked,” said Prine in 2019. “That song has always been about how women are the ones who carry, birth and sometimes are left with taking care of and raising children, too. Now they want to take away their right to decide if or when they do that. Women should be the ones to make decisions about what affects their lives in such a big way. It seems pretty simple to me.”

“Unwed Fathers” was also covered by Cash in 1985 and Deer Tick in 2010.

From an teenage lover, to an unwed mother
Kept undercover, like some bad dream
While unwed fathers, they can’t be bothered
They run like water, through a mountain stream

In a cold and gray town, a nurse say’s “Lay down”
‘This ain’t no playground, and this ain’t home’
Someone’s children, out having children
In a gray stone building, all alone

Photo: Danny Clinch / Courtesy of Shore Fire Media