The Meaning Behind George Strait’s Country Classic “Amarillo by Morning”

It may come as a surprise that one of George Strait’s most famous songs was inspired by a TV commercial. Released as a single in 1983, “Amarillo by Morning” is one of the Texas native’s most recognizable and beloved songs. It all started when Terry Stafford and Paul Fraser teamed up to write the track that was originally recorded and released as a single by Stafford in 1973 off his album, Say, Has Anybody Seen My Sweet Gypsy Rose. Despite its popularity, it’s not one of the legend’s 60 No. 1 hits.

Meaning Behind the Song

Though born in Oklahoma, Stafford was raised in Amarillo, Texas. Stafford had previously seen success with his hit “Suspicion,” which he originally cut as a demo. It was first recorded by Elvis Presley in 1962, with Stafford then releasing “Suspicion” as his own single in 1964. Stafford’s version reached the Top 5 on the Billboard Hot 100.

According to The Austin Chronicle, Stafford got the idea for “Amarillo by Morning” while driving home to Amarillo after performing at a rodeo show in San Antonio. The writers reference both towns in the opening lines, Amarillo by mornin’/Up from San Antone. The song tells the story of a rodeo cowboy living a lonely life on the road, as Strait croons over the sound of a crying steel guitar, I ain’t got a dime/But what I’ve got is mine/I ain’t rich/But Lord, I’m free.

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Interestingly enough, the title comes from a line in a commercial Stafford was watching, which helped spark the idea for the song. “One night Terry called me at home, he had been watching television and a commercial for a delivery service had just run,” Fraser recalled in Ace Collins’ 1996 book, The Stories Behind Country Music’s All-Time Greatest 100 Songs (quote via a report by Texas State University). “It got him to thinking. This commercial guaranteed they could get your package to places like Amarillo by the next morning [and] he wanted to write a song around that concept.”

While Stafford’s version of the song reached No. 31 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart in 1973, it was Strait who made it a country classic. A decade later, Strait released “Amarillo” as the third single off his album, Strait From the Heart. It reached No. 4 on the Hot Country Songs chart and is one of Strait’s signature songs. “It is kind of funny, the song that had so much to do with bringing the Texas sound back was written by a couple of old rockers and inspired by a commercial,” Fraser added.

Strait’s version of “Amarillo by Morning” was allegedly playing on the STS-107 space shuttle in honor of astronaut Rick Husband, who was from Amarillo. The shuttle exploded on impact as it reentered Earth on February 1, 2003, killing all of the members onboard.

Photo: Jill Trunnell/Courtesy of EMB PR