Abilene Oldies Music Lyrics

Prettiest town I've ever seen,
Women there don't treat you mean.

The Abilene oldies music lyrics was written by Bob Gibson and John D. Loudermilk.

Just what is it about Abilene - the one in Texas - that keeps attracting the attention of singers, songwriters, and listeners alike?

Certainly Abilene is an easy word to rhyme, but there is more to it than just "Abilene, Abilene, prettiest town I've ever seen."

The song seems to conjure up images of a romantic, almost mythic, corner of the American West in which cowboys still loom large on the landscape and long, desolate highways stretch uninterrupted into the western sunset.

Is it Abilene Texas or Abilene, Kansas?

Supposedly, Bob Gibson was inspired to write the song after watching the 1946 Randolph Scott movie, "Abilene Town."

The setting for the movie was Abilene, Kansas, the rail-head town at the end of the Chisholm Trail.

A book titled "The Women There Don't Treat You Mean: Abilene in Song," written by Joe W. Specht, provides a different twist as to what town the song was written about.  Specht admits that there is still some uncertainty as to whether the song originally was written about Abilene, Texas, or Abilene, Kansas.

In any case, according to Specht, after performing the song before several thousand enthusiastic Texans at the Kerrville Folk Festival in 1978, Gibson claimed, "I knew right away I'd written it about Abilene, Texas!" (p. 25).

Abilene Oldies Music Lyrics | How it all started for George Hamilton IV.

In 1956, 19 year old George Hamilton IV, recorded "A Rose and a Baby Ruth" for a Chapel Hill record label, Colonial Records. The song, written by John D. Loudermilk, climbed to No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

By 1960, "A Rose and a Baby Ruth" had attained gold record status for ABC-Paramount (which had acquired the song from Colonial).

His biggest hit came three years later with "Abilene", another song penned by Loudermilk and Bob Gibson. The song spent four weeks at No. 1 on Billboard's country singles chart and reached the Top 20 of the Hot 100.

As the music begins close your eyes and listen to the "Abilene" song lyrics.  

The smooth voice of George Hamilton IV, and the name "Abilene," summons up images of West Texas and of a town, located between Fort Worth and El Paso, that offers a place for escape, for romance, for fresh beginnings. 

Continue to the second video below and watch George IV and his son, George V,  perform the song together.  George appears as his son's special guest on a "Second Generations" country show.

Abilene Oldies Music Lyrics
Written by
John D. Loudermilk and Bob Gibson
Recorded 1963 by George Hamilton IV

Abilene, Abilene
Prettiest town I've ever seen
Women there don't treat you mean
In Abilene, my Abilene

I sit alone most every night
Watch those trains pull out of sight
Don't I wish they were
Carrying me back to Abilene
My Abilene

Abilene, Abilene
Prettiest town I've ever seen
Women there don't treat you mean
In Abilene, my Abilene

Crowded city, there ain't nothing free
Nothing in this town for me
Wish to the Lord that I could be in Abilene
Sweet Abilene...

Abilene, Abilene
Prettiest town I've ever seen
Women there don't treat you mean
In Abilene, my Abilene

Women there don't treat you mean
In Abilene, my Abilene

Nice father and son video singing this 1963 #1 song together.

Sadly, George Hamilton IV died on September 17, 2014. He was 77.     

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