Next up in my continuing series on excellent Buck Owens albums is 1965’s I’ve Got a Tiger by the Tail (Capitol).

This was the first Buck Owens LP I acquired, and it was the impetus for my buying up as many as I can. It’s solid.

The title track, and album opener, is a fun, upbeat number—it’s goofy, but it’s so great. It was cowritten by one of my favorite country songwriters, Harlan Howard (“Pick Me Up on Your Way Down,” “I Fall to Pieces,” “Life Turned Her That Way,” “Busted,” “Heartaches by the Number,” “Streets of Baltimore,”—can you believe this guy?). Turns out, Owens recorded a few more Howard songs over the years: what might be my favorite Owens song, “Excuse Me (I Think I’ve Got a Heartache)”; “Foolin’ Around”; and “Above and Beyond.” In fact, Owens recorded an entire album of Howard songs: Buck Owens Sings Harlan Howard. I imagine it’s a good one. Incidentally, Howard also wrote the second song on Tiger, “Trouble and Me.”

Side A’s “Let the Sad Times Roll On,” a sorrowful, slow one, is countered on side B with the upbeat “We’re Gonna Let the Good Times Roll.” And the last song on side A, “Falling for You,” is a near-exact replica of the title track, but with different lyrics; it’s an all right song, but it’s odd to have it positioned on the record so close to its clone.

I’ve Got a Tiger by the Tail only has one song I tend to skip, and it’s the last one: “Memphis,” a Chuck Berry cover. This song was unfortunately spoiled for me years ago by Johnny Rivers’ cover version that my hometown oldies radio station insisted on playing constantly. However, preceding “Memphis” is one amazing four-song stretch.

It starts with “The Band Keeps Playing On,” a typical but excellent honky tonker: “Before you reached the door/my teardrops hit the floor/and my world stopped—pause—/but the band keeps playing on.” It’s followed by the beautiful cowboy classic “Streets of Laredo,” sung solely by bassist Doyle Holly. Holly has a terrific voice, cracking in all the right spots, but he shocks the listener by bringing his vocals way, way down on the choruses—and it works; it’s not just a novelty. Next up is one of the best country songs ever, written by Owens himself, “Crying Time,” which lets us know, painfully, that it’s not just “crying time,” but it’s “crying time again.” After that is an instrumental, which Owens and the Buckaroos are experts at, a cover of Bob Wills’s “A Maiden’s Prayer.”

Here’s “Crying Time”:

And “I’ve Got a Tiger by the Tail.” These guys are having a good time:

Previously discussed: Together Again/My Heart Skips a Beat. Up next: The Instrumental Hits of Buck Owens and His Buckaroos (1965).