What Goes Around Comes Around is a studio album by American country music artist Waylon Jennings, released on RCA Victor in 1979.

Jennings had also become a big box office draw and in-demand recording artist; in 1979, he sang with Nelson and country legend Ernest Tubb on "You Nearly Lose Your Mind" for Tubb's The Legend and the Legacy album and also appeared on his friend George Jones' duet album My Very Special Guests.

[citation needed] Released when the outlaw country movement was already visibly past its prime, What Goes Around Comes Around was Jennings' first album since 1975 not to reach No.

"[2] "I Ain't Living Long Like This", a song written by Rodney Crowell, reached the top of the country charts and played off Jennings' 1977 drug bust for cocaine possession, with the singer recalling in the audio version of his autobiography Waylon: I never tried to hide it.

It was obvious.The album contains several cuts written by songwriters who helped shape the outlaw movement in the 1970s, including Shel Silverstein, who collaborated with Jennings on the waltz "It's the World's Gone Crazy" ("The villains have turned into heroes, the heroes have turned into heels..."), and Mickey Newbury, who composed the beautifully sad "If You See Her."

In fact, despite his hellraising persona and reckless drug use at the time, the second half of What Goes Around Comes Around is composed of mostly ballads, and although the LP is often viewed as the beginning of the end as far as Jennings' commercial run goes, AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine cautions: The generally accepted conventional wisdom about Jennings' late-'70s/early-'80s records is that they pale in comparison to his early-'70s records, which is true on the surface but does albums like What Goes Around a disservice...the music isn't splashy and the album, as a whole, is more cohesive than I've Always Been Crazy, even if it isn't as weighty as Ol' Waylon.

Reading between the lines, it's easy to hear Jennings getting a little weary under the hot spotlight of stardom - there's the storming opener of Rodney Crowell's "I Ain't Living Long Like This," which easily became an anthem for the waning days of outlaw, but there's an underlying sense of sadness that runs through the record, particularly the ballad-heavy second half.One of these ballads, Chuck Howard's "Come With Me," was released in August 1979 and stayed at No.

"[6][needs context] The New York Times determined that Jennings's "gruff voice has softened and his macho bluster has turned tender.