# Remember Miss Lucy?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-miss-lucy/932958>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [February 15, 2021, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-miss-lucy/932958 "2021-02-15T13:30:56Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 3

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\
**Post date:** [February 19, 2021, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-miss-lucy/932958/41 "2021-02-19T03:47:27Z")

</div>

Remember Johnny Horton’s massacre of “Battle of New Orleans”? Jimmy Driftwood wrote a perfectly nice song, about how “we really gave 'em hell”, so Horton covered it within days, sang “really game 'em … . . Well,” He also cut out more than half the lyrics entirely, and just kept repeating the same clean verses over and over again. Made him a millionaire.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\
**Post date:** [February 19, 2021, 8:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-miss-lucy/932958/42 "2021-02-19T08:38:51Z")

</div>

> [@jtur88](#):
>
> He also cut out more than half the lyrics entirely

Cutting the song from nearly four minutes to under three. As the Piano Man says, “If you’re gonna have a hit, you gotta make it fit.”

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\
**Post date:** [February 19, 2021, 9:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-miss-lucy/932958/43 "2021-02-19T09:49:34Z")

</div>

DJ’s had to pee, too, you know. They always made sure there was at least one 3:20 song in the Top 40.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\
**Post date:** [February 19, 2021, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-miss-lucy/932958/44 "2021-02-19T15:35:43Z")

</div>

What, exactly, do DJ bio breaks have to do with Johnny cutting a minute from Jimmy’s original? Is there any way of knowing whether or not that cut was even up to Johnny?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\
**Post date:** [February 19, 2021, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-miss-lucy/932958/45 "2021-02-19T15:53:08Z")

</div>

I thought that was why FM deejays played eight minutes plus album cuts.

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-miss-lucy/932958.md?page=2)