An unforgettable reunion and the tears that came with it.
It’s a strange thing, isn’t it, how a song can become a time machine? A few opening notes, a familiar chord, and suddenly you’re not in your easy chair anymore. You’re back in the dust and the heat of a forgotten summer, or maybe in the dim light of a roadside honky-tonk, a place where the beer was cold and the heartbreak was warm. That’s the power of a song like Together Again by the great Buck Owens. It’s a tune that carries with it the quiet ache of a country ballad and the gritty defiance of the Bakersfield sound, all wrapped up in a moment of pure, unadulterated musical magic.
When Buck Owens and the Buckaroos went into Capitol’s Hollywood studios on January 28, 1964, they had no idea they were about to create a double-sided hit that would make history. The A-side was “My Heart Skips a Beat,” a classic upbeat number that was destined for the top of the charts. But it was the B-side, a song of his own, that would end up displacing it. That’s right, a song so beautiful, so haunting, that it climbed its way to the number one spot on the U.S. country charts and knocked its own partner off the throne. It was the first time such an event had ever happened on the Billboard Country chart, a testament to the song’s undeniable power.
But the story of Together Again isn’t just about chart positions and record sales. It’s about a man’s heart and the unspoken emotion that can only be conveyed through an instrument. While the lyrics speak of a joyous reunion—”my tears have stopped falling, the long lonely nights are now at an end”—there’s an undercurrent of sorrow, a lingering sadness that makes the song’s happiness feel a little fragile. That ambivalence is captured perfectly by the Buckaroos‘ pedal steel guitarist, Tom Brumley. His solo on this track is considered one of the finest in the history of country music. It’s a “crying” sound, a weeping and wailing of steel strings that seems to contradict the hopeful lyrics. It was so influential that it inspired the legendary Jerry Garcia to learn the instrument. There’s a story that Brumley’s solo was shaped by the limitations of a broken instrument and a difficult tuning, yet he managed to create something so poignant and perfect that it became the defining element of the song. It’s a beautiful reminder that sometimes, the most exquisite art is born from struggle and imperfection.
The song’s legacy didn’t stop there. It was famously covered by Emmylou Harris in 1975, who also took it to the number one spot, and even the soulful Ray Charles, whose 1966 rendition crossed over to the pop charts. But for many of us, it’s that original recording by Buck Owens that lingers in the mind, a ghost of a memory that still brings a lump to the throat. It’s a song for anyone who has ever known the bittersweet feeling of a reunion, where the joy is so great that it can feel a little like sadness. It’s a melody that proves that in the vast, wide world of country music, nothing else matters when you’re Together Again.