Walls Can Fall is an album by George Jones which was released by MCA Nashville Records on October 27, 1992.
Album Background[]
The album was produced by Emory Gordy, Jr., Gordy had previously produced albums by Steve Earle and Bill Monroe, among others; Jones was backed by the usual top players and songwriters in Nashville.
The biggest hit song on the album, "I Don't Need Your Rockin' Chair," includes in the final chorus in chronological order: Alan Jackson, T. Graham Brown, Pam Tillis and Patty Loveless, Mark Chesnutt, Travis Tritt, Vince Gill, Joe Diffie, Clint Black, and Garth Brooks.
In addition, the music video for the song features George Foreman, but as Bob Allen notes in his book, "George Jones: The Life and Times of a Honky Tonk Legend": "...all the guest stars, and MCA's formidable promotional muscle notwithstanding, the song barely made it into the top thirty - which, even at that, was considerably better than any other single from Walls Can Fall, a generally excellent album, did."
"I have a theory as to why," Jones would write in his 1996 autobiography I Lived To Tell It All. "It's because George Jones, the lead singer, is a senior citizen."
During that same year, Jones was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame; during his acceptance speech, he chided country radio for not playing material by older artists.
Jones later wrote in his memoir: "I'm sure my remarks, broadcast coast-to-coast and overseas, annoyed a few radio programmers and hurt my own airplay. It went down shortly afterward."
Other notable cuts on the album include "Finally Friday", which got a modest amount of airplay, and a cover of the Merle Haggard honky tonk classic "The Bottle Let Me Down". "You Must Have Walked Across My Mind Again" is a reissue of the exact song Jones had recorded on his 1983 album, "Jones Country."
Tracklisting[]
- I Don't Need Your Rockin' Chair 3:29
- Walls Can Fall 3:10
- Don't Send Me No Angels 3:21
- Drive Me To Drink 2:43
- What Am I Doing There 3:48
- Wrong's What I Do Best 2:42
- There's The Door 2:38
- You Must Have Walked Across My Mind Again 2:54
- The Bottle Let Me Down 3:43
- Finally Friday 2:42
Chart Performance[]
"Walls Can Fall" peaked at #77 on the Billboard 200 and #24 on Billboard's Top Country Albums chart. It was certified Gold in 1994.
Critical Reception[]
AllMusic's Brian Mansfield wrote that the producers on the album "failed to do more than decrease the number of novelty songs and tune up Jones' sound, which is still defined by low piano melodies and sawing fiddle." He also said that the track "There's the Door" "sounds more emotionally devastating than anything else here."