Unwound

In his debut single, George Strait goes on a bender when his relationship unravels: Yeah I'm gonna be the drunkest fool in town 'Cause that woman that I had wrapped around my finger Just come unwound Dean Dillon, who became a regular scribe for Strait and other country artists, was mulling over the song idea at Nashville's Third Coast bar when veteran songwriter Frank Dycus walked through the door. Dillon recalled in a Songfacts interview: "Dycus walked in and I told him I had an idea for a song, 'She's got me wrapped around her finger, but tonight I'm going to unwind.' Which I thought was pretty good. He looked at me and he says, 'How about that woman that I had wrapped around my finger just come unwound'? I said, 'Man, I like that better.' We wrote that song in probably 45 minutes over a couple of beers sitting in the garden spot there at Third Coast."

Dillon took a chance by pitching this to an unknown singer, something Strait never forgot as his own career skyrocketed. "Back in those days you didn’t give your top drawer stuff to an unknown artist," Dillon explained to Songwriter Universe. "You just didn’t do that. You pitched them to Jones or Haggard or Cash, Dolly or Loretta. I pitched him everything I had but the kitchen sink. I was always of a mind to not necessarily go with the normal way of thinking and for somebody to tell me not to do something, well, hell, I’d be damned. I’d do just the opposite. So, I pitched him everything I had and ended up with six songs on his first album. I think a lot of that had to do with nobody else would give him anything. He never forgot that."

Dillon and Dycus teamed up a few more times, writing Strait's "Down and Out," "Honky Tonk Crazy," "Her Goodbye Hit Me In The Heart," and "Marina del Rey."