Born William Orville Frizzell in Corsicana, Texas in 1928, Lefty Frizzell broke through in 1950 with 'If You've Got the Money I've Got the Time,' a honky-tonk single that sold half a million copies in two months on the strength of his loose, behind-the-beat phrasing. Where most Nashville singers of the era clipped their vowels short, Frizzell stretched and slurred syllables across the beat in a conversational, almost bluesy style that became a direct template for how a generation of country singers, above all Merle Haggard, learned to sing. He died in 1975 at 47, but his vocal fingerprint remains audible in nearly every drawling, note-bending country singer who came after him.

the sound in question

1950

If You've Got the Money I've Got the TimeLefty Frizzell