City Lights (Bill Anderson song)

"City Lights"
Single by Ray Price
A-side	"City Lights"
B-side	"Invitation to the Blues"
Released	June 1958 (U.S.)
Format	7"
Recorded	May 29, 1958
Genre	Country
Length	2:59
Label	Columbia 41191
Writer(s)	Bill Anderson
Ray Price singles chronology
"Curtain in the Window" (1957) "City Lights" (1957) "That's What It's Like to Be Lonesome" (1958)

"City Lights"
Single by Mickey Gilley
from the album City Lights
Released	November 1974 (U.S.)
Format	7"
Recorded	1974
Genre	Country
Length	2:48
Label	Playboy Records 6015
Mickey Gilley singles chronology
"I Overlooked an Orchid" (1974) "City Lights" (1975) "Window Up Above" (1975)

"City Lights" is an American country music song written by Bill Anderson. It twice became a No. 1 hit — in 1958 and again in 1975.

Ray Price recorded the original version in 1958, with his version becoming a long-running No. 1 hit. Mickey Gilley recorded a cover version in 1974, and his version also became a No. 1 hit early in 1975.

About the song

"City Lights" was one of Anderson's earliest major successes. He wrote the song when he was just 19, and it was picked up by Price in the spring of 1958, when Price was country music's predominant honky-tonk singer and stylist.

According to country music historian Bill Malone, "City Lights" depicts personal isolation and "the estrangement of the individual in a world of urban anonymity." Price's "hard, lonesome vocal" and Texas shuffle beat (the styling hallmarks of his recordings from the mid-1950s through early 1960s) were prominent in his rendition.^[1]

Released in June 1958, Price's version of "City Lights" stalled at No. 2 on the Billboard magazine Most Played C&W by Disc Jockeys chart later that summer. When Billboard introduced its all-encompassing chart for country music (called "Hot C&W Sides") on October 20, "City Lights" was the new chart's first No. 1 song. It remained atop the chart for 13 weeks, its last week being January 12, 1959. All told, the song spent 34 weeks on the chart.

Mickey Gilley cover version

Several artists have covered Anderson's "City Lights" through the years. The most successful of these covers was by Mickey Gilley, at the time an up-and-coming artist who had successfully covered country standards by George Morgan ("Room Full of Roses") and Carl Smith ("I Overlooked an Orchid"). Gilley continued this run with "City Lights," taking his piano-backed honky-tonk rendition to No. 1 in February 1975, his third chart-topper in a row.

Anderson recorded his own version of the song. Additional covers were recorded by Jerry Lee Lewis, Debbie Reynolds, Connie Smith, Rick Trevino, Conway Twitty, and Dottie West.^[2]

Succession

Ray Price version

Preceded by "Bird Dog" by Everly Brothers

Billboard Hot C&W Sides number one single October 20, 1958-January 12, 1959

Succeeded by "Billy Bayou" by Jim Reeves

Mickey Gilley version

Preceded by "(I'd Be) A Legend in My Time" by Ronnie Milsap

Billboard Hot Country Singles number one single February 1, 1975

Succeeded by "Then Who Am I" by Charley Pride

Sources

References

1. ^ Malone, Bill, "The Smithsonian Collection of Classic Country Music" ((booklet included with The Smithsonian Collection of Classic Country Music 8-volume set). Smithsonian Institution, 1981).
2. ^ [1]^{[dead link]} "City Lights" at Allmusic.

See also

• Whitburn, Joel, "Top Country Songs: 1944-2005," 2006.
• Whitburn, Joel, "Top Pop Singles: 1955-2006," 2007.