In October 1970, Buck Owens walked into Capitol Records’ Studio B in Hollywood to track an arrangement that sounded nothing like the records that had made him famous.
For nearly a decade, the Bakersfield sound had been defined by sharp treble, driving rhythm tracks, and Owens leaning hard into a microphone over Don Rich’s Telecaster leads. Yet on the sessions for *The Great White Horse*, Owens pulled back the tempo entirely. He was sharing the vocal arrangements with Susan Raye, an Oregon native who had joined his touring organization only two years earlier, and the material called for restraint rather than honky-tonk volume.
The song itself emerged from a writing session between Owens and Leanne Scott, who was then married to Owens’ longtime guitarist and musical anchor, Don Rich. Rather than leaning on typical barroom themes of heartbreak or infidelity, the lyric took a fable-like look at romantic expectation, contrasting childhood daydreams of storybook rescues with the everyday choice to build a life together. Arranged as an acoustic-driven waltz with gentle strings, the recording positioned Raye’s bright, unaffected soprano squarely in front, while Owens settled underneath in a low, supporting harmony.
When Capitol shipped the single in late summer 1970, radio programmers were initially surprised by the lack of Bakersfield drive. Within weeks, however, the track climbed steadily, peaking at number eight on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart and crossing over to the Easy Listening surveys. The accompanying full-length album, produced by Owens himself, reached the country top twenty before the end of the year.
The collaboration was part of a deliberate effort by Owens to establish Raye as a major solo artist rather than a background singer in his Buckaroos revue. Born in Eugene, Oregon, Raye had sung on local radio and performed at military clubs before landing an audition with Jack McFadden, Owens’ longtime manager. McFadden brought her to Bakersfield, where Owens signed her to an artist management deal and immediately placed her on his syndicated television broadcast, *The Buck Owens Ranch Show*.
By 1970, Owens commanded one of the largest media footprints in American entertainment. Co-hosting the nationally syndicated variety show *Hee Haw* alongside Roy Clark, he brought his ensemble into thirty million homes every week. Instead of treating the television broadcast as a solo platform, Owens carved out regular feature segments for Raye, giving the twenty-six-year-old singer prime-time exposure that most country artists spent decades trying to secure.
Their working relationship was practical and demanding. In the studio, Owens insisted on clean vocal articulation and straight-ahead melodies that working-class listeners could catch on the first pass. Raye learned to adapt to his quick tracking schedules, often recording full master takes in just two or three passes alongside the core Buckaroos rhythm section of bassist Doyle Holly and drummer Jerry Wiggins.
The creative balance they established on *The Great White Horse* sparked a prolific five-year recording partnership. Over the first half of the 1970s, Owens and Raye released five joint studio albums for Capitol, scoring additional charting duets including “Togetherness,” “Love Is Strange,” and “We’re Gonna Get Together.”
That shared visibility provided the foundation Raye needed to launch her own independent catalog. Working with Owens in the producer’s chair, she cut solo hits like “Willy Jones” and her signature 1971 crossover single, “L.A. International Airport,” which earned international sales honors and established her as a headliner in her own right.
For Owens, stepping into a supporting role at the peak of his commercial career revealed a side of his artistry that loud amplifiers rarely showed. By making space at the microphone for a newcomer, he turned a quiet studio waltz into an enduring pathway for another artist’s voice to carry forward.