How To Play Why Baby Why by Webb Pierce

On this page I'd like to explain to you how to play Why Baby Why by Webb Pierce. Check out my acoustic demo clip and grab some free tabs in the lower right hand menu.

This song was written by George Jones in 1955 and he himself did his own recording of this catchy tune. In fact this was the first song George Jones ever charted for when it peaked at #4. In 1956 Webb Pierce and Red Sovine combined as a duet and their version went to #1 on the country charts.

The reason Jone's version only hit #4 and the Pierce/Sovine version hit #1 was because the latter duo were under the Decca label, which had national distribution. Jones was recording under a little known label called Starday, which only had regional distribution.



This song has the distinction of being the only country song to hit #1 twice from two different artists. Anyone know who the other artist was besides Pierce and Sovine? It was Charley Pride in 1983 who had a #1 hit with his version of this song.

Other artists such as The Good Brothers, George Strait, Waylon and Willie and even James Taylor has recorded this song. As I mention in the tutorial, besides this original version, I really like the James Taylor version.



Like most songs in country music from this period, it's a simple 3 chord song. The chords I use in playing this one G, C, D, or you can use a D7. I have created my own picking break which is covered in the full instructional tutorial.

If you listen to the James Taylor version, you'll notice the rhythm pattern is different than the original. Check it out here.

                 

Free Tab Available


-- $3.25 --

Full Tutorial - .wmv format - 8 min 48 sec

---

I use bass note strumming for this song, which is basically a rootnote-dn-up-bassnote-up-dn-up (repeat) pattern. Where the rootnote is the note of the chord and the bassnote is what a bass player would be playing.

On G it would be the D note. On C it would be the G note, but in this song you dont really have the time to hit the bass note. On the D chord it's the A note.

Check out the classic video in the right hand menu and grab the free lyrics and tab as well.

I hope you found this How To Play Why Baby Why Webb Pierce useful and informative.

Feel free to tweet about it (bottom of the page) or like it on Facebook from the "Like" button above or below as that is also most welcomed.

Return to Old Country Music Lyrics
From How To Play Why Baby Why by Webb Pierce

Return to Classic Rock Songs