The song is “Misery and Gin.” Merle Haggard took it to No. 3 on Billboard’s country chart in 1980, and it still sounds like something he pulled straight out of his own past. He didn’t write it. It was written by Snuff Garrett and John Durrill, two Hollywood hitmakers best known for their work with Cher, and it was made for a Clint Eastwood movie.
Two Men From the Pop Side of the Street
Snuff Garrett started out as a disc jockey from Dallas. In 1959 he became a staff producer at Liberty Records in Hollywood, where he produced hits for Bobby Vee, Gary Lewis & the Playboys and Del Shannon. In the 1970s he produced Cher’s run of No. 1 records: “Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves,” “Half-Breed” and “Dark Lady.”
John Durrill was a former member of The Five Americans, the band behind “Western Union.” In 1968 he joined The Ventures as their keyboard player. He wrote “Dark Lady” himself, and Garrett produced it for Cher.
By the end of the 1970s, Garrett had moved into country records and movie music, including work on Clint Eastwood’s films. Durrill came along, writing songs for several of them.
Written for “Bronco Billy”
“Bronco Billy” opened on June 11, 1980. Clint Eastwood directed it and starred as the owner of a struggling traveling Wild West show. Garrett supervised the music, and the soundtrack, released on Elektra, was headlined by Merle Haggard and Ronnie Milsap. Merle also turned up on screen, playing himself.
Garrett and Durrill wrote “Misery and Gin” specifically for the film. It is the story of a man who keeps ending up at the bar, trying to drink away the memory of a woman, only to find the gin brings the memories right back. Garrett produced Merle’s recording, and Steve Dorff arranged and conducted the strings. MCA released it as a single on June 16, 1980, with Merle’s own “No One to Sing For (But the Band)” on the flip side.
The Duet That Was Meant for George Jones
“Misery and Gin” was not Merle’s only song in the movie. The soundtrack also had “Bar Room Buddies,” a duet between Merle and Clint Eastwood himself. According to American Songwriter, the duet was first meant for Eastwood and George Jones, but scheduling got in the way, and Merle stepped in.
“Bar Room Buddies” reached No. 1 on Billboard’s country chart on July 26, 1980. Eastwood joked about it years later in a 1985 interview with Rolling Stone:
“I think you can say that Merle Haggard had a hit and sort of dragged me along.”
Merle was less fond of that record. American Songwriter reports that he did his best to distance himself from the duet in the years that followed. “Misery and Gin” was a different story.
No. 3, and the First Song on “Back to the Barrooms”
“Misery and Gin” peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard country chart and No. 4 in Canada. Years later, a NAMM biography of John Durrill called it a number one hit, but Billboard’s own chart history puts its peak at No. 3.
The song also became the opening track of Merle’s album “Back to the Barrooms,” released in October 1980. It was the only track on the album produced by Garrett. Jimmy Bowen produced the rest, and Merle wrote or co-wrote most of those songs himself, including “Leonard” and “I Think I’ll Just Stay Here and Drink,” which became his next No. 1.
So a record built mostly from Merle’s own pen opens with a song written by two men from the pop world.
The Song Outlived the Movie
Five years after the movie, Merle was still singing “Misery and Gin” on “Austin City Limits.” That 1985 performance was later released on “Live from Austin, TX.”
Other singers picked it up too. Billy Dean recorded it in 1994, and Randy Houser cut it in 2014. Merle Haggard died on April 6, 2016, his 79th birthday. The next year, at “Sing Me Back Home: The Music of Merle Haggard,” a tribute concert in Nashville, Miranda Lambert stepped up and sang “Misery and Gin.”