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Make Way for Willie Nelson

1967 studio album by Willie Nelson

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJun 9, 2025
Entity authorityQ4186688 ↗
Source-derived summary

Make Way for Willie Nelson is the fifth studio album by American country music singer Willie Nelson.

The single "One in a Row", Nelson's only original included on the album, peaked at number 19 on Billboard's Hot Country Singles. The album peaked at number nine on Billboard's Hot Country Albums.

Background

By 1966, Nelson was becoming increasingly frustrated with the sound of his records at RCA, which did not boast the vitality of his live shows. Producer Chet Atkins often couched Nelson’s stylized vocal delivery in lush strings and background singers that were the hallmarks of the Nashville sound in the sixties. “You’d walk into the studio,” the singer remembered, “and they’d put six guys behind you who’d never seen your music before, and it’s impossible to get the feel of it in a three-hour session. This was true for me, at least.” During the first months of 1966, Atkins delegated sessions to other producers due to his demanding schedule, and in March Nelson's next session was assigned to RCA Records staff producer Felton Jarvis, who had just started producing Elvis Presley.

Recording and composition

The recording took place in Nashville's RCA Studio B between March and June 1966. The musicians who joined the session were Jerry Reed on the guitar, bassist Junior Husky, guitarist Velma Smith and Jerry Smith on piano. Additionally, Nelson added two members of his road band, Johnny Bush on the guitar and Jimmy Day on the steel guitar.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Make Way for Willie Nelson” as 1967 studio album by Willie Nelson. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA useful identification and reception guide that helps separate the work itself from editions, performances, ownership and later interpretation. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1966—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1967-05. The account is most persuasive where Make, Willie and Nelson can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the arts & letters register because the source frames it as 1967 studio album by Willie Nelson. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 9, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q4186688. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1966.

Critical limits

Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Make Way for Willie Nelson”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Make Way for Willie Nelson primary sources, Make Way for Willie Nelson archive and Make research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Make Way for Willie Nelson”?
  2. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
  3. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Make Way for Willie Nelson” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.