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George Strait Celebrates Anniversary of Debut Single, ‘Unwound,’ Released on This Day in 1981

It is hard to believe that it has already been 40 years since country music star George Strait released his first-ever single in, “Unwound.”

On Friday afternoon, The King of Country took to social media to share a clip of him performing “Unwound” in honor of its 40th anniversary. Although the young, handsome singer from Texas had already made a few other songs before “Unwound” was released. But because those songs were not part of any of his albums, they were never included in the country charts. But all of that changed with the release of “Unwound.”

Strait’s first-ever single saw its release as the lead hit from his debut album Strait Country. Going on to peak at number six on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart at the time, it wound up becoming the King’s first top-ten hit.

Strait sings about going out and drinking just as his relationship begins to unravel. Country music fans will be hard-pressed to not sing along with the catchy lyrics.

Yeah I’m gonna be the drunkest fool in town
‘Cause that woman that I had wrapped around my finger
Just come unwound

Meanwhile, the now 68-year-old posted a throwback clip of him performing the song on his official Instagram page.

“On this day in 1981, George’s first single #Unwound was released. 🎉” Strait captioned the post.

Story Behind George Strait Song ‘Unwound’

If it were not for “Unwound,” who knows just exactly how George Strait’s career would have panned out? Okay, he probably still would have gone on to become a country legend. But there is no denying just how important his first-ever single was.

“Unwound” was written by Dean Dillon and Frank Dycus. Dillon recalled the moment he first ran into Dycus in a Nashville bar. He said that he was going over the song idea when Dycus made his way inside.

“We wrote this song. I can’t even remember it. It was so bad,” Dillon told Texas Monthly back in 1973. “I’m really depressed because the song’s horrible until Dycus came.”

“I said, ‘Man, I’ve got a great song idea. Let’s write it,’” he continued. “He said, ‘What is it?’ I said, ‘She’s got me wrapped around her finger, but tonight I’m gonna unwind.’ And he looked at me and thought for a minute, and he said, ‘What about this: ‘That woman that I had wrapped around my finger just came unwound?”

“And I said, ‘Well, hell, I like that better,’” Dillon recalled. “So we sat down at a table on that patio and wrote a song called ‘Unwound’ in about forty-five minutes. And got good and drunk doing it.”