By 1979, Jennings was on the tail end a hot streak that had made him one of the biggest superstars in country music. He had scored twelve Top 10 country hits since 1973 and had recorded 4 straight #1 country albums, with 1977's Ol' Waylon also hitting #15 on the pop charts. Along with fellow outlaw Willie Nelson, he was at the forefront of what was being referred to as outlaw country, a musical movement rooted in a rock and roll attitude and musical freedom. Jennings had also become a big box office draw and in-demand recording artist; in 1979, he sang with Nelson and country legend Ernest Tubb on "You Really Lose Your Mind" for Tubb's The Legend and the Legacy album and also appeared on his friend George Jones' duet album My Very Special Guests. Unfortunately, Jennings enormous commercial success ran parallel with a crippling cocaine addiction that was draining his resources. In his autobiography, he admitted to spending as much as $20,000 each time he scored, or about $1,500 a day. A 1977 drug bust had rattled him but he continued using, and in 1980 he would discover that he was broke.
Recording and composition
Released when the outlaw country movement was already visibly past its prime, What Goes Around Comes Around was Jennings' first album since 1975 not to reach #1 on the Billboard country albums chart, peaking at #2. It remained at #2 for 14 weeks and would have likely topped the charts had it not been for the crossover success of Kenny Rogers' Kenny. Production duties were largely left to longtime Waylors drummer Richie Albright, with Jennings later saying, "As the seventies closed, Richie moved formally into producing me. What Goes Around Comes Around and Music Man were bookends of my music in overdrive." "I Ain't Living Long Like This", a song written by Rodney Crowell, reached the top of the country charts and played off Jennings' 1977 drug bust for cocaine possession, with the singer recalling in the audio version of his autobiography Waylon: The album contains several cuts written by songwriters who helped shape the outlaw movement in the 1970s, including Shel Silverstein, who collaborated with Jennings on the waltz "It's the World's Gone Crazy", and Mickey Newbury, who composed the beautifully sad "If You See Her." In fact, despite his hellraising persona and reckless drug use at the time, the second half of What Goes Around Comes Around is composed of mostly ballads, and although the LP is often viewed as the beginning of the end as far as Jennings' commercial run goes, AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine cautions: One of these ballads, Chuck Howard's "Come With Me," was released in August 1979 and stayed at #1 for two weeks, spending a total of thirteen weeks on the country chart. The album cover was Jennings' first studio album to feature his distinctive logo on the cover, surrounded by neon and stars. The uncharacteristically garish cover concept came from RCA executive Jerry Bradley, who was unperturbed by the bad publicity surrounding his star's drug problems: "A little bit of drugs was selling records for Waylon in my mind. Maybe a rebellious attitude, along with the Outlaws album, didn't hurt. I'm not trying to be mean when I say that, but the mafia didn't hurt Sinatra." The photograph on the cover was taken by Charlyn Zlotnik.
Reception
At the time of its release, music critic Marsha Hume stated, "Side two consists of ballads the likes of which Jennings hasn't sung in some time. In the hands of a lesser talent, a few of these songs...would sound overly sentimental. But Jennings' rough baritone can handle a soulful ballad, and his masculine style makes him seem all the more vulnerable." AllMusic: "Since Waylon's first-rate work is so good and so bountiful, it's easy to overlook the relatively modest pleasures of a record like this, but only a fool would dismiss it out of hand, because there's a lot of good music here - more than enough to justify his continued hot streak."
Track listing
"I Ain't Living Long Like This" – 4:44
"What Goes Around" – 2:54
"Another Man's Fool" – 2:53
"I Got the Train Sittin' Waitin'" – 2:38
"It's the World's Gone Crazy " – 2:24
"Ivory Tower" – 2:41
"Out Among the Stars" – 3:31
"Come With Me" – 2:59
"If You See Her " – 3:24
"Old Love, New Eyes" – 4:38
Personnel
Waylon Jennings - vocals, electric and acoustic guitar, banjo
Rance Wasson - electric and acoustic guitar
Gordon Payne - electric and acoustic guitar, harmonica
