I've Got a Tiger By the Tail (1965)

I've Got a Tiger by the Tail is an album by Buck Owens and his Buckaroos, released in 1965. It reached Number one on the Billboard Country chart and Number 43 on the Pop Albums chart.

It was re-released on CD in 1995 by Sundazed Music with two bonus tracks, both live performances recorded in Bakersfield, California, at the Civic Auditorium in October 1963. The album was included in Robert Dimery's 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

Style

The album was an example of Bakersfield sound, country music developed in the mid to late 1950s around Bakersfield, California, and influenced both by rock and what was called hillbilly music. The album featured the distinctive sound of Don Rich playing the Telecaster.

Reception

In his AllMusic review, critic Cub Koda called the album "Owens' Bakersfield honky tonk sound at the height of its freight-train rumbling powers." The album was Billboard's first number one country album of the year, in 1965.

Personnel

Buck Owens – guitar, vocals

Don Rich – guitar, fiddle, vocals (lead vocal on "Wham Bam")

Doyle Holly – bass, guitar, vocals (lead vocal on "Streets of Laredo")

• Tom Brumley – pedal steel guitar, guitar
• Willie Cantu – drums
• Mel King – drums
• Bob Morris – bass, vocals
• Jay McDonald – pedal steel guitar
• Jelly Sanders – fiddle, guitar