| Old Violin | |
| Type: | single |
| Artist: | Johnny Paycheck |
| Album: | Modern Times |
| B-Side: | "Come to Me" |
| Released: | 1986 |
| Genre: | Country |
| Length: | 3:42 |
| Label: | Mercury |
| Producer: | Stan Cornelius |
| Prev Title: | Sexy Southern Lady |
| Prev Year: | 1986 |
| Next Title: | Don't Bury Me 'til I'm Ready |
| Next Year: | 1986 |
"Old Violin" is a song by American country music singer Johnny Paycheck. It is a single from his 1986 album Modern Times.
"Old Violin" was recorded in the mid-1980s during Paycheck's tenure with Mercury Records. The song was among his first recordings after Paycheck had been imprisoned for aggravated assault at a bar in Hillsboro, Ohio.[1] [2] [3]
Kurt Wolff, in Country Music: The Rough Guide, describes "Old Violin" as a song in which Paycheck "faces old age with genuine trepidation".[4] The lyric features the narrator comparing himself to an "old violin, soon to be put away and never played again".[5]
In 2002, Daryle Singletary covered "Old Violin" for his covers album That's Why I Sing This Way. Singletary wanted to include Paycheck on his recording, and had a then-ill Paycheck deliver the song's closing recitation from his hospital bed. This recording was Paycheck's last before his death in early 2003.[5] [6] George Strait covered the song on his 2019 album Honky Tonk Time Machine.[7]
| Peak position | |
| Canada RPM Country Tracks[8] | 36 |
|---|---|