This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these template messages) The topic of this article may not meet Wikipedia's notability guideline for music. Please help to demonstrate the notability of the topic by citing reliable secondary sources that are independent of the topic and provide significant coverage of it beyond a mere trivial mention. If notability cannot be shown, the article is likely to be merged, redirected, or deleted.Find sources: "Play It Cool, Man" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (July 2015) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) This article does not cite any sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.Find sources: "Play It Cool, Man" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (July 2015) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)
"Play It Cool, Man"
"Play It Cool"
Single by George Jones
from the album The Grand Ole Opry's New Star
B-side
  • Wrong About You
  • (w/ Sonny Burns)
ReleasedMay 29, 1954
RecordedJanuary 19, 1954
Beaumont, TX
GenreCountry, rockabilly
Length2:33
LabelStarday
Starday 146
Songwriter(s)George Jones
Producer(s)Jack Starnes
George Jones singles chronology
"No Money in This Deal"
(1954) 		"Play It Cool, Man"
"Play It Cool"
(1954) 		"You All Goodnight"
(1954)

"Play It Cool, Man" is a song by George Jones. It was released as his second single on May 29, 1954 on Starday Records. It is the oldest recording to be included on his debut album in 1956.

Recording and background

Jones' first recording session wrapped up 5 songs (2 unissued). The third song cut was a rockabilly slide titled "Play It Cool, Man." Like the other songs recorded during the session, the song was greatly influenced by his idols. "No Money in This Deal," "For Sale or For Lease," and "If You Were Mine" displayed a very evident Lefty Frizzell influence. However, Play It Cool, Man displayed a clear Hank Williams influence (Jones' favorite singer). From Jones' bluesy vocal delivery to the steel guitar break, which is reminiscent of Hank's "Honky Tonk Blues," the song's swing and swagger also points unerringly towards rockabilly. Nick Tosches notes in his 1994 Texas Monthly article "The Devil in George Jones", "Though Jones would never acknowledge it, the rockabilly impulse of the early fifties had affected his sound as much as the lingering voices of Acuff and Williams. 'Play It Cool, Man, Play It Cool,' recorded by Jones in 1954, several months before Elvis's debut, had bordered on pure rockabilly..."

The b-side includes one of the two tracks recorded from his first collaboration recorded in April and June of that year in Houston: "Wrong About You" with Sonny Burns."

Personnel

Categories