10 Great Songs You Didn’t Know Mel Tillis Wrote

Mel Tillis, who died Sunday at 85, was known to the casual country fan for being a guy who cracked good-natured jokes about his stutter on Hee Haw, but he was also responsible for writing some of the genre’s most indelible songs. While the Country Music Hall of Fame member enjoyed his own run of hits as a singer and performer, his many contributions as a songwriter kept his work on numerous charts over a period of more than four decades. From his early work with honky-tonk hero Webb Pierce to later recordings by George Strait and Ricky Skaggs, Tillis proved he had a knack for mixing humor with heartbreak, fitting true-to-life scenarios with expertly crafted melodies that were recorded again and again. Here are 10 of his finest.