Leon Payne - Recordings and Covers By Other Artists

Recordings and Covers By Other Artists

• Hank Williams recorded "Lost Highway" and "They'll Never Take Her Love From Me."
• Elvis Presley recorded "I Love You Because" for Sun Records in 1954.
• Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash recorded "Lumberjack" in 1957 and 1960
• Al Martino recorded "I Love You Because" in 1963.
• Johnny Horton recorded "Lost Highway" and "They'll Never Take Her Love From Me."
• Johnny Cash recorded "I Love You Because" for Sun Records in 1958.
• Jim Reeves covered "I Love You Because" and "Blue Side of Lonesome," which were released in 1964 and 1966, respectively. The latter reached number one on the Billboard US country charts.
• Eddie Noack recorded "Psycho" in 1968. This version was barely released and the song remained obscure until covered by Michigan singer Jack Kittel in 1973.
• Merle Haggard recorded "Teach Me to Forget" on his 1968 album Mama Tried.
• George Jones recorded "Blue Side of Lonesome" on his 1966 album Love Bug; he later devoted an entire album of Payne's songs, George Jones Sings the Great Songs of Leon Payne, in 1971.
• Leon Russell included "Lost Highway" on the first of his pseudonymous country albums, "Hank Wilson's Back," released in 1973.
• Emmylou Harris recorded "They'll Never Take His Love From Me" in 1979.
• Joan Baez and Bob Dylan can be seen performing "Lost Highway" in their apartment in the 1967 documentary Dont Look Back.
• Elvis Costello and T-Bone Burnett, under the pseudonyms Hank Coward and Howard Coward (The Coward Brothers), released "They'll Never Take Her Love From Me" as the B side of a single in 1986. The cut was restored as a bonus track in a 1995 re-release of Costello's Burnett-produced King of America album.
• Elvis Costello also released a live version of Payne's song "Psycho."
• Jason & the Scorchers, then known as Jason & the Nashville Scorchers, recorded a country-punk version of "Lost Highway" on their first full-length LP, "Lost & Found," in 1985.
• Australian blues/rock band The Beasts of Bourbon also released a cover of "Psycho" in 1984. It is included in their debut album, The Axeman's Jazz.
• Elliott Smith played Payne's song "They'll Never Take Her Love From Me" and "Lost Highway" live on more than one occasion.
• Doug Sahm played Payne's song "They'll Never Take Her Love From Me" on his album The Return of Wayne Douglas.
• Jeff Buckley played "Lost Highway" live. It was released posthumously on the re-release of his debut album Grace.
• Marco, La voz del Rock and Roll en Colombia Marco Tulio Sanchez B recorded "Te quiero por que" for Tulsan Producciones in 1985, the only Spanish version
• Ricky Skaggs recorded "Selfishness in Man".
• Freakwater recorded "Selfishness in Man".
• The Mekons played "Lost Highway" on their album Fear and Whiskey.
• Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers recorded "Lost Highway" in 2006; video footage of that recording appears in their documentary, "Running Down a Dream."
• Carlene Carter recorded "You Are the One" in 1990.
• Carl Smith recorded "You Are the One" in 1957.
• Kurt Nilsen recorded "Lost Highway" as a duet with Willie Nelson in 2008.
• George Jones recorded an album of all Leon Payne songs in 1971 called "George Jones Sings the Great Songs of Leon Payne".
• John Prine recorded "The Blue Side of Lonesome" and "I Love You Because" for his "Standard Songs for Average People" in 2007.
• Bill Frisell recorded "Lost Highway" on the Nonesuch album "Further East/Further West" in 2005.
• Townes Van Zandt recorded a version of "Lost Highway", released on the album "Highway Kind" in 1997, shortly after his death.
• Chris Hillman and Herb Pedersen recorded "Lost Highway" on their 1996 disc "Bakersfield Bound."