Live Fast, Love Hard, Die Young

"Live Fast, Love Hard, Die Young" was Faron Young's first number-one song and his fifth consecutive top ten hit. It spent three weeks at the top of the Billboard country music chart in 1955.

Background

"This was a tune I detested", Young said. "Ken Nelson made me record this song. I put it out and it was a big, big hit. Then I got to liking it."[1] The song mentions a Wampus cat.

The song idea came to Joe Allison while watching a gangster movie starring a young John Derek. Allison explained, "All through this picture he said, 'I want to die young and leave a good-looking corpse.' It struck me as a good idea for a song, so I wrote 'Live Fast, Love Hard, Die Young.' I didn't write it for anybody, but when Ken Nelson heard it, he said, 'We'll do that with Faron Young.'"[2]

Cover versions

  • A 1955 version by Eddie Cochran was released in 1997 on the album Rockin' It Country Style.
  • Nick Lowe released a version of the song on his 1984 album Nick Lowe and His Cowboy Outfit.[3]

Popular culture

  • Live Fast, Love Hard: The Faron Young Story is a 2007 biography written by Diane Diekman and published by the University of Illinois Press.[4]

References

  1. ^ Faron Young, guest, The Ralph Emery Show, WSM Radio, October 16, 1975.
  2. ^ Joe Allison, interview with Diane Diekman, Nashville TN, August 26, 2000.
  3. ^ "Nick Lowe, Nick Lowe and His Cowboy Outfit". Discogs. Retrieved December 3, 2016.
  4. ^ "Diane Diekman » Faron Young". DianeDiekman.com. Retrieved January 28, 2019.
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Faron Young
Albums
Singles
  • "If You Ain't Lovin' (You Ain't Livin')"
  • "Live Fast, Love Hard, Die Young"
  • "All Right""
  • "Sweet Dreams"
  • "I Miss You Already (And You're Not Even Gone)"
  • "The Shrine of St. Cecilia"
  • "Alone with You"
  • "Country Girl"
  • "Hello Walls"
  • "Three Days"
  • "I Just Came to Get My Baby"
  • "Wine Me Up"
  • "It's Four in the Morning"