About The Song
“Just to Satisfy You” is a tune that Waylon Jennings co-wrote with Don Bowman in 1960. The two men had previously worked together as disc jockeys at station KLLL in Lubbock, Texas, but they had eventually gone their separate ways – Bowman taking a job in El Paso and Jennings moving to Phoenix, Arizona. They stayed in touch however, and on occasion Bowman would journey to Phoenix to write songs with his old friend. One such encounter produced “Just to Satisfy You.” At first, Waylon wasn’t happy with the song (he was habitually difficult to please), and he and Don had contemplated just throwing it away. Then at the last minute, they decided to write another verse and a bridge, which made it right and kept the piece from being tossed in the trash can.
Jennings recorded “Just to Satisfy You” several times. The first, for A & M Records, included a harpsichord in the arrangement! It was produced by Herb Alpert (of “Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass” fame several years later). Waylon also cut the song for his RCA audition, an important ingredient in him being signed to the label by executive Chet Atkins. Another RCA artist, Bobby Bare, released “Just to Satisfy You” in 1965 and it was very well-done, but amazingly failed to become a big hit, topping out at a lukewarm #31. Bobby, for some reason, always had trouble landing in the upper rungs of the Billboard charts. Even his signature song “Detroit City” reached only #6 in 1963, and his only chart-topper was the comedy record “Marie Laveau” in 1974.
Waylon re-cut “Just to Satisfy You” in 1969 and the tune became the title track of his tenth album for RCA, but it wasn’t until 1982, when Jennings teamed with Willie Nelson on “Just to Satisfy You” for the “Black on Black” album, that the song finally made its destination to #1. Waylon found out later that co-writer Don Bowman had been secretly meeting with Nelson, trying to influence him to record “Just to Satisfy You” on the duet sessions with Jennings. It was Willie’s idea to do it more than Waylon’s.
It proved to be a timely decision for Nelson when “Just to Satisfy You” followed his #1 hit “Always on My Mind” to the top. As a result, Willie spent four consecutive weeks at the summit of Billboard’s country singles chart with two different songs. The occasion marked only the ninth time in history (and the first since 1964) that the same performer sewed up the #1 plateau with back-to-back singles. The ’64 event saw Buck Owens (“My Heart Skips a Beat”) follow himself into the top position with “Together Again.”
Like Jennings, Nelson and Bare (sounds like a law firm), “Just to Satisfy You’s” co-writer Don Bowman had a reasonably successful career at RCA also. He recorded comedy LPs for the label between 1964 and 1970, with four of them making the Billboard country album chart. He notched a top 20 single with his first release “Chit Akins, Make Me A Star,” referencing, of course, RCA’s A & R chief Chet Atkins, and completely destroying the pronunciation and spelling of Chet’s name in the process.
Bowman’s 1966 LP “Funny Way to Make an Album” won a Billboard award for “Favorite Country Comedy Recording of the Year,” and Don was named “Comedian of the Year” by the Country Music Association in 1967 (this category was eliminated two years later). Bowman went on to achieve great success on radio as the original host of ABC’s syndicated “American Country Countdown,” from the program’s inception on October 6, 1973 to April of 1978 when Bob Kingsley replaced him. Bowman’s song “Wildwood Weed” became a hit for Jim Stafford, peaking at #7 on the Billboard “Hot 100” pop chart in August, 1974.
Video
Lyric
Someone’s gonna get hurt before you’re through
Someone’s gonna pay for the things you do
How many hearts must break?
How many is it gonna take
To satisfy you?
Just to satisfy you
Another love, another fool
To play your game
Another love, another fool
They’re all the same
Someone’s gonna get hurt before you’re through
Someone’s gonna pay for the things you do
You’re gonna find when it’s too late
A heart that just won’t break
Just to satisfy you
Just to satisfy you
How many hearts must break?
How many will it take
To satisfy you?
Just to satisfy you
Just to satisfy you
To satisfy you
Just to satisfy you
Someone’s gonna get hurt before you’re through
Someone’s gonna pay for the things you do
You’re gonna find when it’s too late
A heart that just won’t break
To satisfy you
Just to satisfy you
Satisfy you
Satisfy you
Just to satisfy you