Written by Jack Rhodes and Dick Reynolds, the song was first recorded by Wanda Jackson in 1956 as a single B-side. Its narrator proudly refuses a wealthy man's hollow promises, carrying the moral backbone of the Appalachian ballads behind it.
Linda Ronstadt first cut the song for 1969's 'Hand Sown ... Home Grown', then re-recorded it for 1973's 'Don't Cry Now'. Keeping Herb Pedersen's 5-string banjo and rustic fiddle alongside a tight rock beat and bass, she turned it into her first country chart hit (No. 20) in 1974.
An Appalachian story song fused irreversibly with country rock, wedding mountain banjo and fiddle to a rock rhythm section.