Footwear Song Top Ten: The Shoe Goes on the Other Foot Tonight (#4)

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There are simply no words to describe this day. It’s been blessed beyond comprehension. I’ll try to do it justice later. Meanwhile I’ll give you another song on my list of favorites with footwear in the title. Yesterday’s song, “Bad Sneakers,” is the only song that doesn’t specifically say “shoe,” so we’re back to the shoes today. #4: The Shoe Goes on the Other Foot Tonight - Marty Robbins Some people don’t need a discussion. Marty Robbins was one of those people. A man who did so much in the world — country singer, western singer, actor, race car driver, crossover artist, songwriter — his body of work was large and impressive. He was the first person to hit #1 on the Billboard pop charts in the 1960s, and the first person to ever have a #1 song clock in at longer than four minutes (both of them his Grammy-winning masterpiece “El Paso”). And, oh, did he command the audience at the Grand Ole Opry. When I was a kid the highlight of my week was staying awake to hear Marty Robbins on the Opry. He usually had the last segment, which was 11:30 PM central time (or 12:30 AM my time), way past a kid’s bedtime. But I’d make it occasionally, and it was worth being bleary-eyed in the morning. Here he took a Buddy Mize composition and made it his own. He was good at doing that. He was — and remains, 35 years after his death — one of the people truly deserving of the title “legend” in country music. The Shoe Goes on the Other Foot Tonight Written by Buddy Mize Recorded by Marty Robbins Released as a single, 1966 You must think there’s wings upon your shoes: