About The Song
“Love’s Gonna Live Here” rolled out on August 19, 1963, a brisk, two-minute Bakersfield strutter written by Buck Owens and produced by Ken Nelson for Capitol. Issued as a stand-alone single with “Getting Used to Losing You” on the flip, it arrived just months after “Act Naturally” and instantly sounded like the next chapter in Owens’s lean, twang-bright takeover of country radio.
The record wastes nothing. Electric Telecaster lines pop against a bone-dry backbeat, the bass walks without wobbling, and high harmony tucks in tight behind Owens’s lead. Nelson keeps the mix close and unfussy—no strings, no syrup—so the hook can do its work. It’s the Bakersfield recipe at full potency: dance-floor tempo, hard edges, and a smile you can hear in the phrasing.
Lyrically, the song is all sunlight after a long storm. The singer promises that love is coming home “once more,” tipping a wink at hard times while keeping eyes fixed on better ones. The language is plain on purpose; Owens writes like someone talking across a kitchen table, which is why the chorus lands the first time you hear it and lingers long after.
Country radio answered in a landslide. “Love’s Gonna Live Here” became Owens’s second No. 1 on the U.S. country chart and then made history, holding the top spot for **16 consecutive weeks** across late 1963 and early 1964—thirty weeks on the chart in all. That mark stood as the modern benchmark for nearly five decades, a feat trade writers kept citing whenever new long-running hits came along.
The single’s B-side pairing was no afterthought; “Getting Used to Losing You” kept jukeboxes spinning even when programmers flipped the disc. But the A-side carried the banner into 1964 and then onto LP a few months later, opening Side One of the compilation The Best of Buck Owens—an early acknowledgment that the cut had already become part of his core canon.
Part of the song’s staying power is context. In the mid-’60s Owens and the Buckaroos were defining the Bakersfield sound—sharp guitars, snare that snaps, harmony that grins—at a time when much of Nashville leaned toward string-laden polish. “Love’s Gonna Live Here” distilled that difference to radio length, which is why it still sounds fresh and unfussy on modern speakers.
Heard today, the record feels like a mission statement: keep it short, keep it sharp, say something true, and get out. From honky-tonk dance floors to classic-country playlists, “Love’s Gonna Live Here” endures because it’s equal parts craft and cheer, the moment Buck Owens turned optimism into a groove you can’t sit still to.
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Lyric
Oh, the sun’s gonna shine in my life once more
Love’s gonna live here again
Things are gonna be the way they were before
Love’s gonna live here again
Love’s gonna live here, love’s gonna live here
Love’s gonna live here again
No more loneliness, only happiness
Love’s gonna live here again
I hear bells ringin’, I hear birds singin’
Love’s gonna live here again
I hear bees hummin’ and I know the days comin’
Love’s gonna live here again
Love’s gonna live here, love’s gonna live here
Love’s gonna live here again
No more loneliness, only happiness
Love’s gonna live here again
Love’s gonna live here again