Only Daddy That'll Walk the Line

Jennings recorded the song on April 16, 1968, at RCA Victor Studios in Nashville, with Chet Atkins producing, with Wayne Moss playing the guitar solo.{{Cite AV media notes | title =Nashville Rebel | title-link =Nashville Rebel (box set) | others =Waylon Jennings | year =2006 | pages =132-139 | type =liner notes | publisher =Sony BMG Music Entertainment/Legacy Recordings | id =82876 89640 2 | location =New York, New York }} It was released in July 1968 as the second single from Jennings' album Only the Greatest.{{cite web |url={{AllMusic|class=album|id=r92728|pure_url=yes}} |title=Only the Greatest |last=Jurek |first=Thom |work=Allmusic |access-date=8 September 2010}}

Billboard, in a review of the album, said that it and "Walk On Out of My Mind" were "typical of the robust, compelling vocal style."{{cite magazine |date=20 July 1968 |title=Album reviews |magazine=Billboard |page=73 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yAoEAAAAMBAJ&q=%22only+daddy+that%27ll+walk+the+line%22&pg=PA73}} Nathan Brackett and Christian Hoard, in The New Rolling Stone Album Guide, wrote that Jennings began to "really assert his rough-hewn sensibility" on the song.{{cite book |title=The New Rolling Stone Album Guide |last=Bracket |first=Nathan |author2=Christian Hoard |year=2004 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=0743201698 |page=[https://archive.org/details/newrollingstonea00brac/page/428 428] |url=https://archive.org/details/newrollingstonea00brac |url-access=registration |quote=only daddy that'll walk the line. |access-date=8 September 2010}}

The song was featured in season seven episode five of Mad Men, and was played briefly in the film Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.

The song spent eighteen weeks on the Hot Country Singles charts, peaking at #2 and holding that peak for five weeks. In Canada, it reached Number One on the RPM Country Tracks charts for the week ending September 30, 1968.{{cite web|url=http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/rpm/028020-119.01-e.php?brws_s=1&file_num=nlc008388.5860&type=1&interval=24&PHPSESSID=kit5mckn2i12m2aemogjov77j0|title=RPM Country Tracks for September 30, 1968|work=RPM|access-date=8 September 2010}}

Linda Ronstadt included a gender-reversed version of the song (sung as "The Only Mama That'll Walk the Line") on her 1969 album Hand Sown ... Home Grown; The song became a staple of Ronstadt's set lists at her concerts during the late 1960s and early '70s. She performed it on The Johnny Cash Show in June 1969, nearly a year before Jennings performed it on the same show.

Hank Williams Jr. included a version of the song on his album Family Tradition, which was released in 1979.

{{Infobox song

| name = Only Daddy That'll Walk the Line

| cover =

| alt =

| type = single

| artist = The Kentucky Headhunters

| album = Electric Barnyard

| B-side = "Walk Softly on This Heart of Mine"Whitburn, p. 223

| released = 1991

| recorded =

| studio =

| venue =

| genre = Country

| length = {{Duration|m=3|s=10}}

| label = Mercury #866134

| writer = Jimmy Bryant

| producer = The Kentucky Headhunters

| prev_title = It's Chitlin' Time

| prev_year = 1991

| next_title = Let's Work Together

| next_year = 1992

}}

In 1991, The Kentucky Headhunters recorded a cover version for the album Electric Barnyard. Also released as a single that year, this version spent seven weeks on the same chart and peaked at #60.

{{Reflist}}

{{Waylon Jennings}}

{{The Kentucky Headhunters}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:Songs about fathers

Category:1968 singles

Category:1991 singles

Category:Waylon Jennings songs

Category:The Kentucky Headhunters songs

Category:Song recordings produced by Chet Atkins

Category:RCA Records Nashville singles

Category:Mercury Records singles

Category:1968 songs