Elizabeth

After the Statler Brothers tenor singer Lew DeWitt departed the group because of health problems stemming from Crohn's disease, he was replaced by Virginia native Jimmy Fortune. This was the first song Fortune wrote for the group. He recalled to The Boot in 2011 how the iconic actress Elizabeth Taylor inspired the tune: "We were on our way to Tulsa Oklahoma, in 1983, and Harold (Reid) and Don (Reid) pulled out the movie Giant, which I had never seen. It starred Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson and James Dean, and some of it was filmed in Virginia (the Statlers' home state) so they thought I should see it. We started watching it, and I fell in love with her. Of course I knew who she was, but I wasn't all that familiar with that movie. It became one of my favorites.

When I got down to Tulsa, I asked Harold and Don, if I wrote a song would the Statlers record it? They said they would if it was good enough. That night after the show, this lady walked up to me and stuck out her hand and said, 'I'm Elizabeth.' I thought to myself that somebody was trying to tell me something. I wrote the song that night, and played it for Harold and Don the next day and they said it would be on the Statlers' first record with me."

"Elizabeth" was The Statler Brothers' forty-fourth country hit and their second #1 on the country charts spending one week at the peak position. Fortune recalled to The Boot: "It was the first song I ever wrote. I was like, 'That was easy enough!' But I found out it wasn't that easy to write No. 1 songs," Jimmy says, laughing. "It was a pretty incredible experience, and being with the Statlers and having a platform to build off of was a huge part of its success."

Bluegrass music band Dailey & Vincent covered the song on their 2010 Cracker Barrel album Dailey & Vincent Sing the Statler Brothers. Their version was nominated for the 2011 Grammy Award for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal.