The Official Historian on Shirley Jean Berrell
{{Infobox song
| name =
| cover =
| alt =
| type = single
| artist = The Statler Brothers
| album = Entertainers...On and Off the Record
| B-side = "The Best That I Can Do"{{cite book|last=Whitburn|first=Joel|title=Hot Country Songs 1944 to 2017|publisher=Record Research, Inc|year=2017|pages=343–344|isbn=978-0-89820-229-8}}
| released = November 1978
| recorded =
| studio =
| venue =
| genre = Country
| length = 2:15
| label = Mercury
| writer = {{hlist|Don Reid|Harold Reid}}
| producer = Jerry Kennedy
| prev_title = Who Am I to Say
| prev_year = 1978
| next_title = How to Be a Country Star
| next_year = 1979
}}
"The Official Historian on Shirley Jean Berrell" is a song recorded by the American country music group The Statler Brothers. The song was released in November 1978 as the third and final single from their album Entertainers... On and Off the Record.
Content
Written by group members Don Reid and Harold Reid, the song is an uptempo recollection on various details in the life of the eponymous Shirley Jean Berrell, a woman whom the narrator knows. At the end of the song, the narrator then reveals the one detail that he does not know about her: "where she is right now".{{cite news | url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/343388671/ | title=Storytelling songs | work=Scott County Times | date=September 13, 2017 | accessdate=April 26, 2020 | author=Ronda Rich | pages=10A}}
Critical reception
Cashbox published a positive review of the song, which stated that "This song...is tailor made for the group. The foursome lightheartedly carry a listener down memory lane again and their vocal harmonizing never sounded better."{{cite journal | url=https://www.americanradiohistory.com/hd2/IDX-Business/Music/Archive-Cash-Box-IDX/70s/1978/CB-1978-11-18-OCR-Page-0036.pdf | title=Reviews | journal=Cashbox | pages=38 | date=November 18, 1978}}
Chart performance
| class="wikitable sortable"
!align="left"|Chart (1978-1979) !align="center"|Peak |
| {{singlechart|Billboardcountrysongs|5|artist=The Statler Brothers}} |
| align="left"|Canadian RPM Country Tracks{{cite journal | url=https://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/films-videos-sound-recordings/rpm/Pages/image.aspx?Image=nlc008388.0087a&URLjpg=http%3a%2f%2fwww.collectionscanada.gc.ca%2fobj%2f028020%2ff4%2fnlc008388.0087a.gif&Ecopy=nlc008388.0087a | title=RPM Country 75 Singles | journal=RPM | volume=30 | issue=18 | date=January 27, 1979}}
|align="center"|7 |
References
{{Reflist}}
{{The Statler Brothers}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Official Historian On Shirley Jean Berrell}}
Category:Mercury Records singles
Category:Song recordings produced by Jerry Kennedy
Category:Songs written by Don Reid (singer)