It Was 50 Years Ago Today: “Almost Persuaded” by David Houston
October 11, 1966
“Almost Persuaded” by David Houston
#1 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart, August 13 – October 14, 1966
This column on a 50-year-old country hit starts in the most logical place possible: Taylor Swift. When “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” topped Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart for nine weeks straight in 2012, it was the first record to stay that long at #1 in nearly half a century.
The last record to reign on the country charts for such an extended run was “Almost Persuaded” by David Houston, a lesser-remembered purveyor of the smooth, pop-friendly Nashville Sound. Check back in a few decades’ time to see if Swift’s song racks up as many covers as “Almost Persuaded,” which has been recorded by everyone from Bill Haley to Louis Armstrong to Etta James.
Houston had scored a #2 country hit in 1963 with “Mountain of Love,” so he wasn’t a complete unknown. He wasn’t exactly a superstar either, though, and certainly not an obvious candidate for a record-setting hit. Songwriters Glenn Sutton and Billy Sherrill hadn’t even thought of Houston when they composed “Almost Persuaded,” instead penning it for singer Charlie Walker.
Much in the same way that many soul and R&B artists mined favorite gospel songs as inspiration for their secular hits, Sutton and Sherrill borrowed the song’s title from the 19th-Century hymn “Almost Persuaded” by Philip Bliss. In Michael Kosser’s book How Nashville Became Music City, U.S.A., Sherrill also credits Acts 26:28: “Then Agrippa said unto Paul, ‘Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.’”
Although Houston’s “Almost Persuaded” isn’t an explicitly religious song, its connection with Christianity runs deeper than its title and the gospel piano lick that recurs throughout.
“Almost Persuaded” tells the tale of a married man who finds himself attracted to a beautiful woman in a bar who begs him, “Take me away from here and be my man.” The narrator is strongly tempted for a moment until he catches the reflection of his wedding band and decides to go home to his wife. The story is simple, but it encapsulates a sentiment familiar to many.
Listeners who would never imagine cheating on their partners could still identify with that moment of hesitation — and for many of those listeners, that feeling of temptation would be a sin in itself. As Jimmy Carter stated in his infamous 1976 Playboy interview, “Christ said, ‘I tell you that anyone who looks on a woman with lust has in his heart already committed adultery.’ I’ve looked on a lot of women with lust. I’ve committed adultery in my heart many times.”
But just as recognizable as that sense of sin is the pleasure the narrator takes in his illicit encounter with the woman, despite the guilt he feels afterward. He fondly recalls her “ruby red lips, coal black hair, and eyes that would tempt any man,” and how “she placed her soft hands in mine.”
It’s just the vaguest sketch of the alluring woman, but it’s concrete enough to make the encounter feel believable, not just like a scenario dreamed up for a moralizing tale or sermon. It’s what makes Houston’s regret seem genuine, as well as the relief he feels when he flees home.
“Almost Persuaded” revitalized Houston’s career and updated his image, refining him from the rougher sound of his early hits to a more polished “countrypolitan” crooner like Jim Reeves or Eddy Arnold. Houston would earn five more country #1 hits between 1967 and 1969, but his popularity declined by the mid-’70s.
“Almost Persuaded” would be Houston’s only venture into the pop Top 40, but it would earn him two Grammys (plus a third for Sutton and Sherrill) and ensure him a place in the country chart record books, at least for a few decades.
It Was 50 Years Ago Today examines a song, album, movie, or book that was #1 on the charts exactly half a century ago.
