Ella Langley Sings Her Rendition Of Kitty Wells’ Pioneering Country Music Hit, “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels”
Back in 1952, country artist Kitty Wells was a 32-year-old wife and mother, and she was preparing to give up on her career as a recording artist.
“I was gonna stay at home with the children and be a homemaker,” Wells told the Nashville Scene in 1999.
Noting that the union scale pay for recording a song was $125 at the time, she decided to record “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels” for the easy money, but found unlikely success in a big way.
Since then, the song has been recorded by Terri Clark, Waylon Jennings and Jessi Colter, and as a trio with Dolly Parton, Loretta Lynn, and Tammy Wynette.
Today, April 10, Ella Langley has released her rendition of the classic song, including it as a track on her newly released second album, Dandelion.
Prior to the release of Dandelion, Ella had performed “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels” live at some of her concerts. One of those performances can be seen below…
Listen To Ella Langley’s Version Of “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels”
There’s a lot of reasons why Ella Langley would want to record her take on “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels,” and the song’s place in country music history is certainly one of them.
Speaking on the surprise success of “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels,” which was the first song by a solo female country artist to go No. 1 on the Billboard Hot Country, Kitty Wells added, “I wasn’t expecting it to make a hit. I just thought it was another song. It was just the women getting back at the men.”
By “getting back at the men,” Wells was referring to why J.D. Miller wrote the song.
The song was written as a response to Hank Thompson’s No. 1 hit, “The Wild Side of Life,” which features the lyric, “I didn’t know God made honky tonk angels. I might have known you’d never make a wife.”
As the title suggests, Kitty’s song responds, “It was’t God who made honky-tonk angels, as you said in the words of your song. Too many times married men think they’re still single. That has caused many a good girl to go wrong.”
The Nashville Scene wrote of Kitty’s song:
““Honky Tonk Angels” was a bit risqué for its day. What rendered it less threatening, though, was Wells’ own matronly persona. Just the opposite of the woman she played in the song, Wells was a 32-year-old housewife and mother who wore the gingham associated with the Carter Family instead of the spangly new Western wear of her ’50s counterparts. Even listeners who hadn’t seen Wells knew from the quiet dignity with which she delivered the song’s lyrics that she was playing a role.”
Beyond this history, the song is also catchy as can be.
Listen to Ella Langley’s take on the song, and revisit Kitty Wells’ version below, here:
Here’s Kitty Wells performing her hit song in the Circle of the Grand Ole Opry in 1952:
Watch Ella Langley perform the song live in 2025, here:
@love.country.music Ella performed "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels" by Kitty Wells in Helotes, TX! @Ella Langley #ellalangley #country #fyp ♬ original sound – love.country.music
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