Randy Travis - Diggin Up Bones

“Diggin’ Up Bones”
(written by Paul Overstreet & Al Gore)
Randy Travis (#1, 1986)
“Patience” is a word that really paid off for Randy Travis in 1986. After ten years of diligent nightclub work with the guidance of manager Lib Hatcher, Travis finally broke through with a song called “1982” and his career took off like a rocket after that. Before the year was out, he was a country music phenomenon.
In October, Randy’s “Storms Of Life” album went gold, while the Country Music Association honored him with the Horizon award, named “On The Other Hand” as Song and Single of the Year, and selected “Storms Of Life” the Album of the Year. In February of 1987, “Storms Of Life” became the first debut country album in history to sell a million copies within a year of release.
The third single from that album, “Diggin’ Up Bones,” possesses a title that might sound appropriate for Halloween, but Paul Overstreet and Al Gore (no relation to the former Vice President) wrote it on Thanksgiving Day of 1983.
Overstreet visited the Gore household for a turkey dinner, then the two men commenced to grind out a pair of songs. After that, Paul offered up the title “Diggin’ Up Bones,” although he hadn’t connected the phrase to any specific meaning. Al says that once a concept was decided upon, the lyrics fell into place fairly easily.
Gore had started in the music business as an engineer for Starday Records in 1964 and his greatest songwriting success took nearly three years to see the light of day. Overstreet originally intended to hold onto “Diggin’ Up Bones” and record it himself, but he relinquished it when Warner Bros. commissioned an album from Travis once “On The Other Hand” took off.
Al was tending his garden when the telephone call came in that Randy had recorded “Diggin’ Up Bones.” Produce Kyle Lehning laughed, “How can you not record a song that’s figured out how to use the word ‘exhuming’? You gotta cut that!”
“Diggin’ Up Bones” entered the number one position of Billboard’s country singles chart the week after Halloween, on November 8, 1986. – JH