Some songs are written just because

This week in 1970: NASA announced plans to cut 50,000 jobs; U.S. Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird announced defense reductions would cut 1.25 million jobs; U.S. Senate passed a bill allowing the FBI to enter without warning or ID during drug raids; Pan Am flew a 747 from New York to London for the first time, carrying 330 passengers; and a new country music duet scored their first hit record.

A lot of songs have been written for no specific reason other than someone just decided to write something.

According to Hank Cochran, the Jack Greene/ Jeannie Seely hit “Wish I Didn’t Have To Miss You” was one of those tunes.

Hank said, “I was at the house where me and Jeannie were living. She was on the road at the time and I was home by myself and this friend of mine came over and I asked him, “Why don’t we write something?” He asked me if I had any ideas and I told him that I didn’t. I think he had the original idea for that song in his mind so we started working on it and it didn’t take long until we had the song written. I played the song for Jeannie when she got home and she liked it. So when the idea came up for her and Jack Greene to record a duet, she played the song for Owen Bradley. And he liked t so that was that.”

The Jack Greene/Jeannie Seely duet “Wish I Didn’t Have To Miss You” came on the country charts Nov. 16, 1969 and peaked at No. 2 in January and stayed there for two weeks.

The Decca Records single was written by Hank Cochran and Dave Kirby and was on the charts for 16 weeks.

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