The answer is “We’ll Stick Together,” the 1968 Decca duet by Kitty Wells and Johnnie Wright. Kitty Wells and Johnnie Wright were married for almost 74 years and spent more than six decades on the road, yet “We’ll Stick Together” was the only record the couple ever took onto the Billboard country chart as a duo.
A Marriage That Came Before the Fame
Kitty Wells was born Ellen Muriel Deason in Nashville, and Kitty Wells married Johnnie Wright on October 30, 1937, when she was just 18. Johnnie Wright gave his young wife the name the world would remember, borrowing it from an old folk song called “Sweet Kitty Wells.” In those early years Kitty Wells sang with Johnnie Wright and his sister Louise, and later toured with Johnnie & Jack, the duo Johnnie Wright formed with his brother-in-law Jack Anglin.
Fame came for Kitty Wells in 1952 with “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels,” the song that made her the first woman to top the Billboard country chart as a solo artist. From then on, Kitty Wells was the Queen of Country Music, and Johnnie Wright stood beside her as husband, bandleader and partner.
Spring 1968: A Duet About Their Own Life
In April 1968, Billboard reported that Kitty Wells and Johnnie Wright had cut their first record as a duet team. The session became a full album, also called We’ll Stick Together, with The Jordanaires providing backing vocals. The title song has often been described as autobiographical: a country duet about a husband and wife who have weathered the years and intend to keep going.
Billboard welcomed the single warmly, calling it:
“Two equally potent sides.”
Who actually wrote the song is not entirely clear. The original album credits list songwriter Bill Phillips, while some later sources name the couple’s son, Bobby Wright. Both versions of the credit are still in circulation, so the honest answer is that the record leaves room for doubt.
A Modest Hit With a Long Life
On paper, “We’ll Stick Together” was a small success. The single peaked at No. 54 on the Billboard country chart and climbed to No. 25 on the Cash Box country chart, while the album reached No. 30 on the country albums chart. By 1968, Kitty Wells’ biggest chart years were behind her, and this turned out to be one of her final hit singles.
Yet chart numbers were never the point. After the record came out, Kitty Wells and Johnnie Wright took their children Ruby, Carol Sue and Bobby on the road as the Kitty Wells-Johnny Wright Family Show. Through the 1980s and 1990s, Kitty Wells and Johnnie Wright kept singing “We’ll Stick Together,” often with Bobby Wright joining in, and sometimes saved it for the end of the night. At a 1987 concert, one reviewer noticed how the crowd reacted:
“Many audience members stood to applaud.”
The Last Show and the Last Goodbye
Even into the 1990s, Kitty Wells and Johnnie Wright were still playing more than 150 shows a year. They finally retired from touring after a New Year’s Eve performance in 2000 at the Nashville Nightlife Theatre, closing a road life that had lasted more than 60 years.
The family had already lost Ruby Wright, who died in September 2009. Johnnie Wright died at home in Madison, Tennessee, on September 27, 2011, at the age of 97. It was exactly two years after Ruby’s death and only 33 days before what would have been the couple’s 74th wedding anniversary. Kitty Wells followed Johnnie Wright less than ten months later, on July 16, 2012, at the age of 92.
Why the Song Still Matters
Country music is full of songs about love falling apart, and Kitty Wells built a career singing many of them. “We’ll Stick Together” pointed the other way. It was a simple promise sung by two people who had already kept it for three decades, and who would go on keeping it for more than forty years after the record faded from the charts.
That is why a No. 54 single from 1968 still means something. Kitty Wells and Johnnie Wright never needed a big hit to prove the song was true. They spent the rest of their lives proving it on stage, one show at a time.