Stand By Your Man

Album Review

"Stand by Your Man" became a number one C&W hit as well as Tammy Wynette's signature song, and the album that shares its name topped the C&W album chart and crossed over to the pop chart, achieving platinum sales status along the way. Others in the music industry must have been paying attention, considering that two album tracks, "I Stayed Long Enough" (written by Wynette) and "Forever Yours," soon became hits for Billie Jo Spears and Dottie West respectively. Unlike Wynette's previous album, D-I-V-O-R-C-E, Stand by Your Man does not rely heavily on material associated with other artists, the most notable exception being a recording of Webb Pierce's 1957 hit "It's My Way." Although the result is a consistent album by '60s standards, the commercial importance of Stand by Your Man is more significantly tied to the strength of the title track than to its overall quality. Two years after Koch's CD release of Stand by Your Man, Sony Legacy reissued it with bonus tracks.