"Unwound"
"She's Playing Hell Trying to Get Me to Heaven"
April 23, 1981
February 2, 1981
2:24
MCA (51104)
Dean Dillon
Frank Dycus
Blake Mevis
Background[edit]
Dean Dillon and Frank Dycus originally wrote the song for Johnny Paycheck, but Paycheck was in jail at the time. Record producer Blake Mevis drove over to Dillon's house in 1980, where Dillon and Dycus were writing songs on the front porch, and asked them if they had any new songs for a 'new kid from Texas.' Since Paycheck would not be using it, they gave the song to Mevis for George Strait. Dillon has gone on to write or co-write over 60 songs that have been recorded by Strait.[4]
Content[edit]
The song is about a man having issues with his woman. He is out drinking because that woman he “had wrapped around [his] finger just come unwound".
Critical reception[edit]
Kevin John Coyne of Country Universe gave the song an A grade, saying that it "would be a great record just for the fiddle alone, but a very youthful Strait is still able to deliver the goods, and the band is so country that you can almost smell the sawdust when they let loose."[5]