“Morning Song to Sally” (Jerry Jeff Walker/Nanci Griffith)

It’s likely that you haven’t heard today’s classic song of the day, at least not by the guy who wrote it. I know you’ll like it when you listen to it, however.

“Morning Song to Sally” is a beautiful and lyrically moving ode to lost love by singer-songwriter Jerry Jeff Walker. He wrote the song in 1968 and released it on his 1969 album, Driftin’ Way of Life. The poignant lyrics say it all:

As the morning light stretched in across my bed
I thought of you
Remembering your laughing eyes and all we said
I love you too
As all my thoughts of you pass ‘fore my face a thousand times
The way they race my heart, I cannot say it all in lines

How the short time together lasts so long
Makes me strong
As two weeks came and went then you and I were gone
Living on
For it seems our love was destined to be caught in other nets
But the love we held so brief I’d chance again without regrets

Well, standing by the road its been my song before
Much too long
And now somehow I’m forced to see me there once more
And that’s this song
For my waking thoughts of you are but extensions of a dream
Without you here beside me, I’ll never know all they mean

While only hardcore fans of Mr. Walker might know the original, “Morning Song to Sally” was introduced to a new and larger legion of music lovers when Nanci Griffith included it on her 1993 album, Other Voices, Other Rooms. That album is nothing but covers of often-little-known songs from some of her favorite songwriters. Jerry Jeff Walker was obviously one of them, and when you listen to this song—either the original or Ms. Griffith’s version—you’ll know why. It’s a good one.