For National Moonshine Day:
In his 1997 autobiography, I Lived To Tell It All, George Jones recalls arriving for the 1959 recording session under the influence of a great deal of alcohol and the track took approximately 80 takes. This was perhaps understandable since his lifelong friend the Big Bopper – whose composition he was recording – had been killed during the preceding week on "the day the music died." To make matters worse, Buddy Killen, who played the upright bass on the recording, was reported as having severely blistered fingers from having to play his bass part 80 times. Killen not only threatened to quit the session, but also threatened to physically harm Jones for the painful consequences of Jones' drinking.
Ultimately, producer Pappy Daily opted to use the first take of the song, even though Jones flubs the word "slug" (Jones would intentionally mimic this mistake in live performances and subsequent re-recordings of the song). Former Starday president Don Pierce later explained to Jones' biographer Bob Allen, "We tried doing the song again, but it never was as good as it was that first time. So we just released it that way."