Kay (song)
{{short description|1968 song by John Wesley Ryles}}
{{Infobox song
| name = Kay
| cover =
| alt =
| type = single
| artist = John Wesley Ryles
| album = Kay
| B-side = {{ubl|"Come On Home" (1968 version)|"Next Time" (re-release){{cite book|last=Whitburn|first=Joel|title=Hot Country Songs 1944 to 2008|publisher=Record Research, Inc|year=2008|page=367|isbn=978-0-89820-177-2}}}}
| released = {{Start date|1968}}
| recorded =
| studio =
| venue =
| genre = Country
| length = {{Duration|m=3|s=41}}
| label = Columbia (1968)
Dot (1978)
| writer = Hank Mills
| producer = George Richey (1968)
Johnny Morris (1978)
| next_title = Heaven Below
| next_year = 1969
}}
"Kay" is a song written by Hank Mills and recorded by American country music artist John Wesley Ryles. It was released in late 1968 by Columbia Records as Ryles' debut single. "Kay," recorded and released while Ryles was still a teenager, began a string of country music hits for him that would continue into the 1980s.
Content
"Kay" is about a taxicab driver in Nashville, Tennessee. He sold everything he owned to bring the woman he has loved and been with for years from Houston to Nashville, where she is becoming a star and moving beyond needing him. It is a song full of feelings and sadness. The song describes some of the people that he carries. Among them are soldiers from Fort Campbell who tell him that they "hate that war in Vietnam". This line has been cited as an example of the anti-war movement's presence in country music in the late 1960s.{{cite book|last=Andresen|first=Lee|title=Battle Notes: Music of the Vietnam War|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OY_vXvXtiToC&q=%22john+wesley+ryles%22+%22kay%22&pg=PA129|date=May 1, 2003|publisher=Savage Press|page=129|isbn=9781886028593}}{{cite book|last=Cusic|first=Don|title=Discovering Country Music|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KCmNqTTKiyAC&q=%22john+wesley+ryles%22+%22kay%22&pg=PA97|date=July 30, 2008|publisher=ABC-CLIO|page=97|isbn=9780313352461}}{{cite web |last1=Brummer |first1=Justin |title=The Vietnam War: A History in Song |url=https://www.historytoday.com/miscellanies/vietnam-war-history-song |publisher=History Today |accessdate=2 June 2020}}
Chart performance
Ryles' original version of "Kay" spent 17 weeks on the Hot Country Songs charts, peaking at number 9. It also reached number 83 on the Billboard Hot 100. Ryles re-recorded it for ABC Records in 1978, including this version on his album Shine on Me.
=Original version=
| class="wikitable sortable" |
| style="text-align:center;"|Chart (1968–69)
! style="text-align:center;"|Peak |
|---|
| align="left"|U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles
| style="text-align:center;"|9 |
| align="left"|U.S. Billboard Hot 100
| style="text-align:center;"|83 |
| align="left"|Canadian RPM Country Tracks {{cite web|url=http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/obj/028020/f2/nlc008388.5954.pdf| title=RPM Country Chart - April 21, 1969}}
| style="text-align:center;"|6 |
| align="left"|Canadian RPM Top Singles {{cite web|url=http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/obj/028020/f2/nlc008388.5881.pdf| title=RPM Country Chart - January 20, 1969}}
| style="text-align:center;"|88 |
=Re-release=
| class="wikitable sortable" |
| style="text-align:center;"|Chart (1978)
! style="text-align:center;"|Peak |
|---|
| align="left"|U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles
| style="text-align:center;"|50 |
| align="left"|Canadian RPM Country Tracks {{cite web|url=http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/obj/028020/f2/nlc008388.4632b.pdf| title=RPM Country week 75 - August 26, 1978}}
| style="text-align:center;"|55 |