The music business is so insanely competitive. Everybody wants a leg up on somebody else. What keeps things clean are the unwritten ground rules of fair play. This is a tale of an incident when competition over a song called "Don't Touch Me" nearly overruled that priority. It rankled some folks, especially songwriter Hank Cochran, for a long time afterwards. It's a story worth telling.
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Songwriter Hank Cochran Was Working On A Song Called 'Don't Touch Me' In The Mid-1960s
It had been a creative dry spell for Cochran. At the time, he was wooing a singer named Jeannie Seely. He was also trying to get a song just right called "Don't Touch Me." Per Classic Country Music Stories, "As she was now dating Hank Cochran, one of Music City's best-known tunesmiths, it seemed that with just one innovative idea, Jeannie might have her star-making song." Cochran sang the finished song for Seely and Porter Wagoner, with whom Seely was then touring.
Country Music Star Buck Owens Liked And Wanted Cochran's New Song
Per the outlet, "Cochran told him [Owens] that he couldn't have it because he'd already given it to Jeannie Seely. /Who the heck is Jeannie Seely?' Owens asked. 'I've never heard of her.'" In the meantime, Jeannie Seely recorded "Don't Touch Me." It was a hit for her,
But trouble was already brewing. Record producer Owen Bradley liked that song too. He wanted it for a singer in his roster of talent at Decca named Wilma Burgess. According to Classic Country Music Stories, this was turning into a real horse race. "Bradley and Burgess decided to immediately cover Seely's record and make a rush-shipping in order to try to beat Jeannie's single up the chart."
Jeannie Seely's Version Of The Song Emerged Victorious
Seely won the race. Her version of "Don't Touch Me" made it to the second spot on the Billboard chart, while the Burgess version faltered comparatively. Even so, Hank Cochran felt that if not for Burgess's iteration of the song, Seely's might have fared more strongly. Ironically, a Buck Owens song sat at number one, preventing Seely's tune from reaching that lofty height.
She earned a Grammy for Best Female Country Vocal Performance.
