Story Behind the Song: 'King of Broken Hearts' and 'Where the Sidewalk Ends'

In a special two-for-one edition of “Story Behind the Song,” country singer-songwriter Jim Lauderdale recalls the origins of “King of Broken Hearts” and “Where the Sidewalk Ends” – both originally included on his major-label debut, and soon recorded by George Strait for the soundtrack to his 1992 film “Pure Country.”

Lauderdale – who released his 35^th album, “Game Changer,” in August – spoke with Bart Herbison of Nashville Songwriters Association International.

Bart Herbison: Both (of these songs) appear on what I think is the seminal love story movie ever in the history of the country music genre. You had already released “The King of Broken Hearts.” Did you also previously release “Where the Sidewalk Ends?”

Jim Lauderdale: I did. I'll tell you what happened. That came out on a record on Reprise (Records). And Rodney Crowell and John Leventhal (co-produced). John and I co-wrote, I think, eight out of the 10 songs on that record. Super talented. The record got delayed, it finally came out and we had real high hopes for it. But radio-wise for me, it just wasn't happening. And as a songwriter, I had been commuting back and forth from Los Angeles....where there was a real cool country scene going on. I was afraid to come back to Nashville thinking, “If it doesn't start happening, it would just crush me. And I don't have anything to fall back on.”

I had signed a publishing deal, which was probably the best thing I had ever done, with an independent publisher, Brownlee Ferguson and his company called Bluewater Music. I got a call from Pat McMurray, who had been plugging my songs over there. Up ‘til then, a lot of producers and folks in town were thinking, "Eh, his stuff, it's a little bit too left of center. It's not quite what we're looking for."

Pat called me and said, “Yesterday, (producer) Tony Brown recorded ‘Where the Sidewalk Ends’ and ‘King of Broken Hearts’ for George Strait, and it's going to be in a movie.” And I just couldn't believe that. That really opened up the door for me as a writer.

BH: You couldn't have written something better for the movie, for those scenes, than those songs are.

JL: I was so happy about that. And I'll tell you, I do want to give a big shout out John and Rodney, for taking that chance, coming in and doing so great.

…John started coming in and doing demos with me in New York. When he was coming in the studio, he had great ideas. And then he called one day and said, “I'm coming out to L.A., would you like to try to write a song? And I said, “Well, sure.” And I hadn't really been co-writing to this point. We got together and talked for a while. And he said, “I've got this title I just want to throw out at you: ‘Where the Sidewalk Ends.’”

And musically, it came to me: (sings) “Where the sidewalk ends, and the road begins.”

We said goodbye on a cold dark night, and then he went back to New York, and I get this cassette in the mail. That's how we did it back then, sending cassettes. And it was this great demo with this different groove on the first part, and it was awesome.

BH: (“King of Broken Hearts”) had to be personal, Jim. I mean, that's you in the song. I feel you emoting having lived every dang line of that song. (Laughs)

JL: I’ll tell you this. I had been in Los Angeles about three or four months. And one of the reasons I went out there was because I was so enamored by this artist named Gram Parsons. And Gram had been gone about 15 years. I was reading this biography of Gram written by this fella from a group called the Long Ryders, and his name was Sid Griffin… there was a story about Gram at a party in Hollywood. And he was playing George Jones' ecords for people who hadn't heard him, and he started crying. And he said, “That's the King of Broken Hearts!”

All of a sudden, I got this melody: (sings) "The king of broken hearts doesn't ask much from his friends," and then it went on. I tell songwriters (to) keep your songwriting antenna up, because you never know when you're gonna read something or somebody's gonna say something that triggers this whole song.

Story Behind the Song: George Strait's 'Fool Hearted Memory'

About the series

In partnership with Nashville Songwriters Association International, the "Story Behind the Song" video interview series features Nashville-connected songwriters discussing one of their compositions. For full video interviews with all of our subjects, visit www.tennessean.com/music.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Story Behind the Song: 'King of Broken Hearts' by Jim Lauderdale