BACK STREET AFFAIR
(Billy Wallace / Jimmy Rule)

Webb Pierce - 1952
Billy Walker - 1952
Johnny Bond - 1952
Kitty Wells - 1956
Hank Thompson - 1962
Carl Smith - 1964
Hank Locklin - 1965
Roy Drusky & Priscilla Mitchell - 1965
Conway Twitty - 1970
Conway Twitty & Loretta Lynn - 1971
Willie Nelson & Webb Pierce - 1982
John Prine & Patty Loveless - 1999




You didn't know I wasn't free when you fell in love with me
And with all your young heart you learned to care
It brought you shame and disgrace, the world has tumbled in your face
Because they call our love a back street affair

They say you wrecked my home, I'm a husband that's gone wrong
They don't know the sorrow that we've had to bear
For the one that I'm tied to was the first to be untrue
And yet they call our love a back street affair

(Instrumental Break)

We have each other now, that's all that matters anyhow
Oh, the judgement of gossip's never fair
We'll just be brave and strong, then someday they'll see they're wrong
So let them call our love a back street affair

We'll be free to love someday when all the talk has died away
And the happiness we've hoped for then we'll share
I'll climb a mountain high and the world will hear me cry
That our love is not a back street affair


**********


As recorded by Conway Twitty & Loretta Lynn:

 
CONWAY:
You didn't know I wasn't free when you fell in love with me
And with all your young heart you learned to care
It brought you shame and disgrace, the world has tumbled in your face
'Cause they call our love a back street affair

They say you wrecked my home, I'm a husband that's gone wrong
They don't know the sorrow that we have to bear
For the one that I'm tied to was the first to prove untrue
Yet they call our love a back street affair

(Instrumental Break)

LORETTA:
Sweetheart, I always knew when I fell in love with you
The heartache that we would have to bear
I knew how talk gets around and that all over town
They would call our love a back street affair

They say I wrecked your life and brought sorrow to your wife
That I was just a girl who didn't seem to care
But if they only knew how she slips around on you
They wouldn't call our love a back street affair

BOTH:
When the mist rolls away, we'll be free to love some day
And find happiness that we were meant to share
We'll climb a mountain high and the world will hear us cry
That our love is not a back street affair


(Transcribed by Mel Priddle - October 2010)