Tammy Wynette Sings About The Truth Of Divorce In ‘I Don’t Wanna Play House’

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When a husband and wife make the difficult decision to end their marriage, the dissolved union affects virtually everyone around them, especially the children trapped in the middle. Telling the heartbreaking impact divorce has on children, Tammy Wynette earned her first No.1 hit on country radio with the release of “I Don’t Wanna Play House.”

YouTube video

The recording of the song pulls at your heartstrings, but her live performance gave an emotional touch to the song that no one could have imagined. While performing live on The Bill Anderson Show in 1967, Wynette told the story of a young girl growing up in a broken home.

In the slow-burning ballad, a young mother whose husband left her hears her daughter telling the neighbor boy she doesn’t want to play house. After watching her parents’ marital problems surface over the years, the little girl doesn’t see how it can be fun.

TammyWynetteMusic/YouTube

Wynette – who went through her own difficulties with love, was married five times. Without a doubt, she must have related to the subject more than anyone else. Her divorce from the legendary George Jones rocked the world of country music and put Wynette’s love life under the scrutiny of the public eye. Even though both went on to find love with someone else, the marriage between Wynette and Jones is still widely considered one of the most iconic in the industry.

“I Don’t Wanna Play House” was written by Billy Sherrill and Glenn Sutton. The tear-jerking country ballad went on to earn Wynette a Grammy Award for “Best Country Vocal Performance” in the year following its 1967 release.

You can watch her performance of “I Don’t Wanna Play House” below.

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