Recently celebrating his 93rd birthday in April, Willie Nelson is the gift that keeps on giving. One of the most universally beloved artists of all time, Nelson continues to record and perform even today. On this day (July 12) in 1989, the Red-Headed Stranger dropped the album A Horse Called Music, which contains his most recent number-one single, “Nothing I Can Do About It Now”.
Which Award-Winning Songwriter Penned This Willie Nelson Hit?
By the end of the 1980s, Willie Nelson’s trailblazing career had begun to cool off a bit. Still, he showed listeners and critics alike that he still had it with “Nothing I Can Do About It Now”, written by fellow Texan Beth Nielsen Chapman.
Chapman’s resume includes Martina McBride’s “Happy Girl”, Waylon Jennings’ “Shine on Me”, and the chart-topping Faith Hill single “This Kiss”—which won her the Song of the Year trophy at the 1999 Country Music Association Awards.
The opening track on Nelson’s album A Horse Called Music, “Nothing I Can Do About It Now” begins with a man haunted by his past.
By the final verse, that man has come to both accept the past and embrace the future.
As Country Universe wrote, “It’s a credit to [Chapman’s] talent as a writer that this sounds like a self-penned Nelson hit, with that perfect mix of a clear-eyed realism about the present and hopeful aspirations for the future.
The album’s second single, “There You Are”, gave Nelson his final top 10 hit to date, peaking at number eight.
He has since reached the top 20 once more with 1990’s “Ain’t Necessarily So”.
Why Nelson Returned to This Particular Track 20 Years Later
A Horse Called Music takes its name from a Wayne Carson Thompson song that Willie Nelson covered for his 1989 album.
More than two decades later, feeling the track never received its due credit, Nelson decided to revisit “A Horse Called Music” in 2012. But this time, he recruited fellow country outlaw legend Merle Haggard and his son, Lukas Nelson.
The revised version appeared on the Grammy winner’s 60th studio album, Heroes.
“I asked Merle, ‘Come sing on this,’ and he did,” Nelson recounted to Rolling Stone.
Merle Haggard died on April 6, 2016, on his 79th birthday. Nelson paid tribute to his old friend with the 2025 album Workin’ Man: Willie Sings Merle.
Featured image by Chris Walter/WireImage
The post 37 Years Ago Today, Willie Nelson Released the Album That Gave Us His Final No. 1 Hit appeared first on American Songwriter.
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