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“Don’t Cry Joni” is perhaps the most well-known collaboration Conway Twitty ever recorded, featuring a duet with none other than his then sixteen-year-old daughter, Joni Lee.
Released as a single in 1975, the song peaked at No. 63 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart. It was a notable success, being one of just two non-Loretta Lynn duets that brought Twitty major chart recognition.
Written by Conway Twitty himself, “Don’t Cry Joni” tells the tale of a fifteen-year-old girl who develops a crush on Jimmy, her twenty-two-year-old neighbor. Joni begs for Jimmy to wait for her so they might one day get married. In the lyrics, Joni pleads, “Jimmy, please say you’ll wait for me. I’ll grow up someday you’ll see. Savin’ all my kisses just for you. Signed with love forever true.” Jimmy gently turns her down, responding, “Joni, Joni, please don’t cry. You’ll forget me by and by. You’re just fifteen, I’m twenty-two. Joni, I just can’t wait for you.”
Joni is left in tears. The story continues as Jimmy moves away and searches for the woman of his dreams, but he can’t forget Joni’s words. Five years later, Jimmy realizes that Joni, despite the seven-year age gap, might be the girl he was looking for all along. He decides to return to his hometown to ask Joni to marry him, only to discover his own heartbreak: Joni has married his best friend, John.
All of Conway Twitty’s children dabbled in country music careers, but after his other children, Kathy (Jessica James) and Mike (Charlie Tango), struggled to gain traction, Twitty was hesitant to let a young Joni Lee try her hand at it. However, the sixteen-year-old was determined to become an entertainer. Her father decided that allowing her to duet with him on the song he had written years earlier could provide some encouragement.
Twitty asked Joni to join him in the recording studio to cut a rough demo of the track. “I had no idea I was going to be on the actual record,” Joni recalled. “Dad kind of tricked me. He told me he was going to take my voice off of the track and replace it with a professional singer.”
Not long after, the song became an incredible hit record. Twitty finally revealed to his daughter that he had kept her vocals on the track, and they had a chart-topper. “I was going to college up in Virginia and said, ‘You’re not going to believe this. We have a hit record.’ I had no idea that my voice was still on the record,” she explained. “Being a kid, I started calling the radio stations asking them to play that new song by Conway Twitty and his daughter.”
Lyric
Jimmy please say you’ll wait for me
I’ll grow up someday you’ll see
Saving all my kisses just for you
Signed with love
forever trueJoni was the girl who lived next door
I’ve known her I guess 10 years or more
Joni wrote me a note one day
And this is what she had to sayJimmy please say you’ll wait for me
I’ll grow up someday you’ll see
Saving all my kisses just for you
Signed with love
forever trueSlowly I read her note once more
Then I went over to the house next door
Her tear drops fell like rain that day
When I told Joni what I had to sayJoni, Joni please don’t cry
You’ll forget me by and by
You’re just fifteen
I’m twenty two
And Joni I just cant wait for youSoon I left our little home town
Got me a job and tried to settle down
But these words kept haunting my memory
The words that Joni said to meJimmy please say you’ll wait for me
I’ll grow up some day you’ll see
Saving all my kisses just for you
Signed with love
forever trueI packed my clothes
And I caught a plane
I had to see Joni
I had to explain
How my heart was filled
With her memory
And ask my Joni if she’d marry meI ran all the way
To the house next door
But things weren’t like they were before
My tear drops fell like rain that day
When I heard what Joni had to sayJimmy, Jimmy please don’t cry
You’ll forget me by and by
It’s been five years since you’ve been gone
Jimmy I married your best friend John
