"Oh Lonesome Me" is a popular song written and recorded by Don Gibson

Don Gibson

Donald Eugene "Don" Gibson was an American songwriter and country musician. A Country Music Hall of Fame inductee, Gibson penned such country standards as "Sweet Dreams" and "I Can't Stop Loving You", and enjoyed a string of country hits from 1957 into the early 1970s.-Biography:Don Gibson was...

 with Chet Atkins

Chet Atkins

Chester Burton Atkins , known as Chet Atkins, was an American guitarist and record producer who, along with Owen Bradley, created the smoother country music style known as the Nashville sound, which expanded country's appeal to adult pop music fans as well.Atkins's picking style, inspired by Merle...

 producing for RCA Victor in Nashville

Nashville, Tennessee

Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...

 in 1958. The song topped the country

Country music

Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...

 chart for eight non consecutive weeks, in addition to reaching #7 on the Billboard Hot 100

Billboard Hot 100

The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...

. Its B-side was "I Can't Stop Loving You

I Can't Stop Loving You

"I Can't Stop Loving You" is a popular song written and composed by country singer, songwriter and musician Don Gibson, who first recorded it on December 30, 1957, for RCA Victor Records...

" which peaked at number seven on the C&W Jockey charts and became a standard song about unrequited love

Unrequited love

Unrequited love is love that is not openly reciprocated or understood as such, even though reciprocation is usually deeply desired. The beloved may or may not be aware of the admirer's deep affections...

.

Cover versions

Since Gibson's original release of "Oh, Lonesome Me", the song has become undoubtedly one of the most covered songs in both the country and pop genres.

Craig Douglas

Craig Douglas

Craig Douglas is an English pop singer, who was popular in the late 1950s and early 1960s...

 released a cover version in Great Britain

Great Britain

Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...

 in 1962 on the (Decca

Decca Records

Decca Records began as a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934; however, owing to World War II, the link with the British company was broken for several decades....

 label, under the production of Bunny Lewis

Bunny Lewis

Bunny Lewis was a London based manager, record producer and composer, whose songwriting abilities were used in a number of films. Sometimes this coincided with involvement in films of artists whom he personally managed, most notably the actor and singer, Craig Douglas. He also co-composed the...

. Douglas' version entered the British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 singles charts on October 20, 1962, stayed there for twelve weeks and the best position was as # 11.

Neil Young

Neil Young

Neil Percival Young, OC, OM is a Canadian singer-songwriter who is widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of his generation...

 covered the song on his 1970 album "After the Gold Rush

After the Gold Rush

After the Gold Rush is the third studio album by Canadian musician Neil Young. Released in August 1970 on Reprise Records, it was one of the four high-profile albums released by each member of folk rock collective Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young in the wake of their chart-topping 1970 album Déjà Vu...

," turning Gibson's lighthearted lament into a retro dirge (Stephen Stills is that back up voice at the end of the third verse).

Other charted covers on the country music charts include Johnny Cash

Johnny Cash

John R. "Johnny" Cash was an American singer-songwriter, actor, and author, who has been called one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century...

 (#13 in 1961), Stonewall Jackson (#63 in 1970), Loggins & Messina (#92 in 1975) and The Kentucky Headhunters

The Kentucky Headhunters

The Kentucky Headhunters are an American country rock band. They were founded in 1968 as Itchy Brother, which comprised brothers Richard Young and Fred Young along with Greg Martin and Anthony Kenney...

 (#8 in 1990). Loggins & Messina's version was the duo's only entry on the country music charts, and the Kentucky Headhunters' slower-tempoed but more cutting-edge version was that band's highest-peaking single.

Several other artists have covered the song for their albums as a "filler" or "album cut". A group of child singers who record under the name The Countdown Kids

The Countdown Singers

The Countdown Singers is a name given to Madacy Entertainment's revolving group of studio musicians, used since 1994. They perform sound-alike cover versions of well-known songs. Their albums have mostly been panned by critics...

 covered the song for a children's country music CD, which sounds very similar to Gibson's original recording.

Former Brady Bunch

The Brady Bunch

The Brady Bunch is an American sitcom created by Sherwood Schwartz and starring Robert Reed, Florence Henderson, and Ann B. Davis. The series revolved around a large blended family...

child star Maureen McCormick

Maureen McCormick

Maureen Denise McCormick is an American actress, celebrity and recording artist. She is most widely known as a child actress who played Marcia Brady in the television series The Brady Bunch from 1969 to 1974.- Early life and career :...

, as country singer Barbara Mandrell

Barbara Mandrell

Barbara Ann Mandrell is an American country music singer best known for a 1970s–1980s series of Top 10 hits and TV shows that helped her become one of country's most successful female vocalists of the 1970s and 1980s...

, performed the song in the Mandrell TV biopic Get To The Heart: The Barbara Mandrell Story.