I've Got a Tiger By the Tail

Owens wrote in the liner notes to The Buck Owens Collection 1959-1990 that he and Harlan Howard had met to write songs and the work was going slowly. Then he saw an Esso sign carrying the slogan "Put a tiger in your tank" and had his idea. The single came out in December 1964, only weeks after it was recorded, with Cryin' Time on the other side.

It became Owens's sixth number one on the Billboard country chart in February 1965, spending five weeks at the top. It was also his biggest Hot 100 hit, reaching number 25, and it was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999. In Britain, Dave Berry used it as the B side of Little Things in 1965, and that single reached number five. Waylon Jennings put it on his 1967 album Waylon Sings Ol' Harlan.

Live

Owens and the Buckaroos played it at Carnegie Hall in 1966. In August 1999, for his 70th birthday at the Crystal Palace, Owens reunited Doyle Holly, Tom Brumley and Willie Cantu to play it along with Act Naturally.