MILLIONS OF PEOPLE KNOW THIS SONG. ALMOST NOBODY KNOWS WHO WROTE IT. AND HE DIED BEFORE HE EVER FOUND THAT OUT. In 1994, Bruce Willis sang along to it in Pulp Fiction. The scene became iconic. The song got a second life. But Lew DeWitt — the man who wrote it — had been dead for four years. He wrote it in 1965. It hit #4 on the Billboard Hot 100, #2 on Country. Won a Grammy. Launched the most awarded group in country music history — 58 Top 40 hits, nine CMA Awards, three Grammys, Country Music Hall of Fame, Gospel Music Hall of Fame. Kurt Vonnegut called it “a great contemporary poem” about “the end of a man’s usefulness.” DeWitt had Crohn’s disease since he was a teenager. It forced him out of the group in 1982. He died at 52. He never saw the movie. Never saw the streaming numbers. Never heard a new generation sing his words in a car. Tarantino didn’t save this song. The song was already a masterpiece. He just reminded people who stopped paying attention.
Millions of People Know This Song. Almost Nobody Knows Who Wrote It. And He Died Before He Ever Found That Out. In 1994, a burst of music in Pulp Fiction…