The Way It Was In '51 Song Lyrics and Chords by Merle Haggard
The Way It Was In '51
Written and Recorded by Merle Haggard
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Sixty-Six was still a narrow two-lane highway
Harry Truman was the man who ran the
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show
The bad Korean was just beginning
And I was just three years too young to
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go
Country music hadn't gone to New York City yet
And a service man was
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proud of what he'd
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done
Hank and Lefty crowded every
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jukebox
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That's the way it was in fifty
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one
There's so
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much about the good old days I'd
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love to tell
And there's folks around I know still
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remember
well
Slow
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dancing close together when a ballad played
Cause a thing called rock and
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roll was yet to
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come
It was a big year for a drive-in restaurant
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carhop
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That's the way it was in fifty
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Repeat #3
Yeah
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Hank and Lefty crowded every
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jukebox
Oh Lord
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that's the way it was in fifty
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one
FAQ
Who sang the the song The Way It Was In '51?
- The song The Way It Was In '51 was sang by Merle Haggard.
Who is Merle Haggard?
- Merle Ronald Haggard (April 6, 1937 - April 6, 2016) was an American country singer, songwriter, guitarist, and fiddler.
Haggard was born in Oildale, California, during the Great Depression. His childhood was troubled after the death of his father, and he was incarcerated several times in his youth. After being released from San Quentin State Prison in 1960, he managed to turn his life around and launch a successful country music career. He gained popularity with his songs about the working class that occasionally contained themes contrary to anti-Vietnam War sentiment of some popular music of the time. Between the 1960s and the 1980s, he had 38 number-one hits on the US country charts, several of which also made the Billboard all-genre singles chart. Haggard continued to release successful albums into the 2000s.
He received many honors and awards for his music, including a Kennedy Center Honor (2010), a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award (2006), a BMI Icon Award (2006), and induction into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame (1977), Country Music Hall of Fame (1994) and Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame (1997). He died on April 6, 2016—his 79th birthday—at his ranch in Shasta County, California, having recently suffered from double pneumonia.
