[3] "The Wild Side of Life" carries one of the most distinctive melodies of early country music, used in "Thrills That I Can't Forget" recorded by Welby Toomey and Edgar Boaz in 1925, "I'm Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes" by the Carter Family in 1929, and "Great Speckled Bird" by Roy Acuff[2] in 1936.
According to country music historian Bill Malone, "Wild Side" co-writer William Warren was inspired to create the song after his experiences with a young woman he met when he was younger—a honky tonk angel, as it were—who "found the glitter of the gay night life too hard to resist.
"[2] Fellow historian Paul Kingsbury wrote that the song appealed to people who "thought the world was going to hell and that faithless women deserved a good deal of the blame.
Burl Ives had a hit with the song concurrent with Thompson's success, Ray Price recorded it on his "Night Life" LP in 1963, while Freddy Fender reached No.
Quo's rock version featured, instead of Alan Lancaster (who had to go back to his family in Australia), Deep Purple's bassist Roger Glover, who also produced the song.
While "Wild Side of Life" was released as a non-album single, it can be found on the deluxe edition with bonus tracks on the album Blue for You.
In 1981, "Wild Side" and "It Wasn't God ..." were combined into a duet by Waylon Jennings and Jessi Colter on their album Leather and Lace; that version reached No.
"The Great Speckled Bird" and "I'm Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes" are earlier adaptations of the same tune and have been recorded by country artists such as Kitty Wells, Slim Whitman and Gene Autry.