About The Song
“There’ll Be No Other” is one of those Buck Owens songs that creeps up on you: not a show-stopper, but a quiet, unshakeable assertion that settles into the listener like a promise kept or a loss finally acknowledged. It lives in the middle of records and sets, the kind of number Buck used to put in when he wanted the room to change temperature. People who saw him live remember how the band could make a noisy dancehall feel suddenly small and close—this song was one of the tools they used.
Those who hung around Buck in the Bakersfield days liked to tell stories about how he collected material. He was a listener first, the sort of man who would stay after a gig and talk to the regulars. He heard the same lines over and over—phrases people muttered into their beer—and had a knack for turning them into songs that sounded like things folks might actually say to each other. “There’ll Be No Other” feels like one of those overheard truths: direct, almost conversational, with a tenderness that isn’t sentimental.
Bandmates often recall that Don Rich could make a single harmony note feel like an answer to an unspoken question. That tiny responsiveness is what made Buck’s quieter songs land. In the studio they chased a certain economy: don’t explain too much, don’t embellish what’s already real. Engineers later said they learned not to fix the little breaths or timing quirks because those were the moments that made the vocal human. Listeners hear that and think they’re being confided in, not performed to.
There are backstage anecdotes that feel right for this tune. Crew members remember evenings when Buck would walk the floor and watch couples, not to judge but to learn how people behaved when they were on the verge of leaving or staying. Those observations informed the way he sang about finality. The song’s calmness isn’t indifference; it’s the quiet understanding of someone who’s seen the pattern enough times to speak plainly about it.
On record it doesn’t demand drama. The chorus is almost a statement of fact, not a plea, and that is what makes it powerful. When Buck sang it in smaller rooms, audiences often fell silent—not out of reverence but recognition. Regulars later said the hush felt like an agreement, as if the crowd and the singer acknowledged the same unspoken rule: some things can’t be replaced, and some choices close doors forever.
Over time the track has become a kind of secret comfort for those who dig deeper into Buck’s work
Video
Lyric
There’ll Be No Other
There’ll be no other
To make me cry
There’ll be no other
To make me blue
I can’t deceive you
I’ll always believe you
There’ll be no other
While I’m lovin’ you.
No, other arms
No, other kisses
To thrill me now
So I’ll be true
Each night I’m sayin’
To him I’m prayin’
There’ll be no other
While I’m lovin’ you
— Instrumental —
Though I might find love
I’ll never try
‘Cause your my first love
My heart’s with you
My only heads out
I can’t forget thou
There’ll be no others
While I’m lovin’ you
No, other arms
No, other kisses
To thrill me now
So I’ll be true
Each night I’m sayin’
To him I’m prayin’
There’ll be no other
While I’m lovin’ you…