About The Song
“I Just Came Home to Count the Memories” is a country song written by Glenn Ray and recorded by American country music artist John Anderson. It was released on November 21, 1981, by Warner Bros. Nashville as the title track and lead single from his third studio album, I Just Came Home to Count the Memories. The B-side is “Girl, for You.” The track runs 3:29 in length. Production was handled by Frank Jones and John Anderson. Recording took place at Columbia Recording Studios in Nashville, Tennessee.
The single peaked at number 7 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. It reached number 5 on the Canadian RPM Country Tracks chart. This marked one of Anderson’s early top-ten singles following previous hits such as “I’m Just an Old Chunk of Coal (But I’m Gonna Be a Diamond Someday)” and “Chicken Truck.” The parent album was released on October 14, 1981, and peaked at number 40 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart.
The song had been recorded previously. Bobby Wright released a version in 1975 that peaked at number 75 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. Cal Smith recorded it in 1977, reaching number 15 on the same chart and number 10 on the Canadian RPM Country Tracks chart. Anderson’s version became the highest-charting of the three. The song was later covered by Gillian Welch and David Rawlings on the 2022 John Anderson tribute album Something Borrowed, Something New.
Session personnel associated with the album include contributions from musicians such as Fred Carter Jr. and Harold Bradley on guitar, Bobby Thompson on guitar and banjo, Pete Drake and Buddy Emmons on steel guitar, Henry Strzelecki and Bob Moore on bass, Jerry Carrigan, Buddy Harman, and Kenny Malone on drums, Hargus “Pig” Robbins and Bobby Wood on piano, Buddy Spicher and Michael Kott on fiddle, and the Sheldon Kurland Strings. Background vocals appear from Donna Kay Anderson, Ronnie Drake, Beckie Foster, Joy Gardner, and Allen Henson.
Chart documentation confirms the number 7 peak on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart with no significant crossover onto the Billboard Hot 100. Publishing credits list Glenn Ray as the sole writer. Catalog editions preserve the original 1981 masters. The track later appeared on Anderson’s greatest-hits collections issued by Warner Bros.
Anderson’s overall chart history includes five number-one Hot Country Songs hits and twenty top-ten entries between 1977 and 2006. This single stands as part of his early commercial run with Warner Bros. and helped maintain his radio presence in the early 1980s. The album also yielded the follow-up single “Would You Catch a Falling Star,” which reached the top ten.
The combination of Ray’s composition, the production approach of Frank Jones and John Anderson, and the session work contributed to the single’s chart performance. Discography sources list the single under the Warner Bros. catalog. Subsequent reissues and digital releases continue to feature the recording as part of Anderson’s early catalog.
John Anderson has noted in interviews that he heard the song performed by its writer prior to recording it and expressed interest in cutting it once he secured a recording deal. The track remains a regularly anthologized recording from his Warner Bros. period.
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Lyric
I saw roses choking in the grass
Flaking paint in a broken window pane
A mailbox barely standin’ by the driveway
I can almost read the name
A swing set and forgotten toys
Where little girls and boys played happy games
Everything I ever cared about is gone now
But the mem’ries still remainThe old man from the house across the street
Asked how’s it goin’ and I said fine
But the expression on his face would make me think
That he could almost read my mind
That Johnson boy from down the road was asking
If the kids could come and play
Lord I wish I could have told them yes
But I just said I guess son not todayI just came home to count the mem’ries
That I’ve been carrying in my mind
Just came home to count the mem’ries
Of a better day and timeAll the birds that sang a pretty song
Aren’t singing like they did when we were here
‘Cause there’s no happiness in music
If somebody isn’t close enough to care
I picked a ragged daisy from its home
Out in the corner of the yard
She loves me, she loves me not
Now I don’t have to wonder anymoreI just came home to count the mem’ries
That I’ve been carrying in my mind
I just came home to count the mem’ries
I guess it’s time to say goodbye