Nothing Tastes Better Than Five Hundred Dollars in Thousands of Dollars." The song's lyrics are often incorrectly transcribed as, "Nothing Tastes Better Than Five Hundred Dollars in _thousands_ of Dollars," which doesn't make any sense, but it would be an effective bit of marketing if it had that effect on listeners. The correct version is found on _'Twas the Night Before Christmas,_ but, like other details of Haggard's life and times, it is an aspect of the mythos that continues to this day. The song has a rich backstory. Around the time Haggard was writing "The Fightin' Side of Me" he went through a divorce and a severe financial crisis in which he attempted to sell his beloved 1969 GTO to pay for his son's college education. With money in hand, however, he couldn't get the car off his mind. He said, "The first thing I did was just try to convince myself I wasn't being selfish, because if I sold the car, I wouldn't have the money for the college. I'd have to start making payments on this. The first thing I thought was: _I just have to buy it._ And so that's when I went to Dallas and said I'd take it in trade." By this time, Haggard was no stranger to hard times; his relationship with his manager's wife had broken up, he'd taken a beating at the box office, and he'd become a father again, so the timing seemed right. But he hadn't forgotten what his last "trade" had gotten him—a two-toned white Pontiac with more chrome than a Vegas strip joint. In the end, he decided to stay single and keep his car. Haggard soon received a gift from Elvis Presley: the song "Let's Get Together" from _The Elvis Presley Story_. Written by Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman, it was recorded by Presley during the _Return to Sweden_ sessions in late 1977, but as far as I've been able to determine, Haggard is the only singer to record it. _The Elvis Presley Story_ was released in 1978 and had a tremendous commercial and critical success. It featured Presley's old friends and crew, and an array of songs written by Pomus and Shuman. "Let's Get Together" was not among them, but it did show up later on Presley's fiftieth anniversary album, _Elvis: A Legendary Performer Volume 2_. Presley's last hit album before he died was _Elvis' Greatest Hits_ , which featured three of his hit singles of the 1970s—"Suspicious Minds," "Burning Love," and "In the Ghetto." "Let's Get Together" was one of those. One of the most telling things about Haggard's recording of the song is his choice of harmony singers. He calls upon Johnny Paycheck, Merle Travis, and the late Willie Nelson. Willie Nelson was a country star whose popularity was never greater than at the height of his songwriting output in the 1960s. After releasing a number of massive hits in the 1960s (including "Night Life" and "Night Life (Ft. Ray Charles)") and scoring the Number One Country hit with "Night Life" in 1966, he had an unfortunate series of releases beginning with the pop single "Lonesome Town." Then came _Carnegie Hall_ , a double live album released in 1971. The problem with this album is that although Nelson is backed by a decent group of musicians, they are not the usual Nashville stars. Rather, he is backed by a group of studio musicians who can barely hold a note together and who must rely on overdubs to provide the illusion of fullness. The idea for this album, and the concept that he would live in Nashville for the next few years, was dreamed up by Nelson's wife Linda, who was a country and pop recording star in her own right. It was a terrible idea that lasted only about a year before Willie decided to leave the country music business. From a commercial standpoint it was a disaster, but from a critical standpoint it was a landmark. This album exposed Nelson's limitations as a pop singer, and, despite the fact that it is his only #1 album, it made him a pop star, though it also inspired his legendarily profane and vulgar album _Willie and the Poor Boys_ (1978) and caused him to lose major-label recording contracts with United Artists and Columbia. That album, and his 1971 live album _Stardust_ , were more like rock-and-roll albums than country albums, and it is these that are best known today. A few weeks after "Let's Get Together" was released as a single on January 31, 1978, Haggard paid a visit to Nashville. He was there when Merle Travis died of a heart attack on March 2, but I have no idea whether that influenced his choice of material for the session that same day. "Let's Get Together" was Haggard's one out of his three and a half million dollars. Unlike a lot of Haggard's sessions, however, this one was recorded in just two hours. He sang it in three keys, then rerecorded it to record a backing track for a single. In the mid-1970s Haggard often sang two or three songs per session; he did just that on this day, overdubbing all four and recording one more for _Elvis Presley: A Legendary Performer_. It was the last time Haggard and his band would record, so he probably got that one in just to have a fuller sound. The song was written by two writers who never recorded a song with the same two syllables together. Before this session, Merle Travis had recorded thirty-five singles, and only one with "let's" in the title. _Let's_ was such a rare word in pop music that many songs (including such hits as the Bee Gees' "How Deep Is Your Love" and the Stones' "Miss You") used the phrases "let's get together" and "let's get it on," without using the word _let's_. Merle Travis's other songs often included _le's_ , but no other song used _let's_. The second _'s_ that make "Let's Get Together" unique was Johnny Paycheck's single biggest hit, a song he wrote with Don Bowman. It was recorded by Burl Ives in 1951, and it is still part of the public domain. It was a busy week for Haggard in Nashville, but his other ventures were less successful. He and Bill Justis flew to Burbank to record a song he wrote for _The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes_. The song, a novelty song called "I'm Glad You're You," was to have been sung by Loretta Lynn for the film but the producers wanted a little more attitude from their comedienne. When Haggard sang it they loved it. Haggard had never written a song for Loretta, but had met her at a reception and talked to her briefly. This was his third trip to California in as many years to make a film. His first experience with Hollywood was on _Big City_ , a film shot around the same time that included such other country music superstars as Buck Owens and Roy Clark. A year or so later he made the film _The Gilded Grape_ , also in the L.A. area, for a small independent film company. It was made cheaply and shot on the cheap, but was critically well received. "I'm Glad You're You" was recorded at Glen Campbell's label Melodyland Studio in Burbank. Like so many other films of the time, _The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes_ was a remake of an earlier movie. _Sherlock Holmes in New York_ , starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce, had been made in 1943. _The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes_ had been made in the 1920s, with Eille Norwood in the title role. The remake wasn't a great success, which was true of most attempts to reincarnate classic tales at that time. Like other films of the late seventies and early eighties, it was an unofficial remake of a more traditional film than the original, which was about a young Holmes played by twenty-four-year-old Jeremy Brett. The remake, in true British fashion, used a slightly older actor, twenty-six-year-old Robert Stephens, and cast him as Sherlock Holmes, though in this case Stephens was the one who looked much older. _Sherlock Holmes_ was released in December 1977 and had a decent opening weekend and good word of mouth but was eventually outgrossed by _Superman_. Haggard and Campbell flew down from Nashville for what turned out to be an exhausting week, but it was the last time he and his band would be on the road for an extended period. Mostly he had come to California for one reason: to record a song with Loretta Lynn. Although the song was a number-one hit, it was the last song he ever wrote for her, and it was also the last time he would record with the same singer. The timing was perfect, however, because his original contract with ABC had ended in the spring of 1977, which meant that he and his label were no longer a package deal. As part of their agreement with ABC, Haggard, his managers, and