"Right or Wrong" is a jazz ballad from 1921. Composed by Arthur Sizemore and Paul Biese, with words by Haven Gillespie

Haven Gillespie

James Lamont "Haven" Gillespie was an American Tin Pan Alley composer and lyricist. He was the writer of "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town" as well as "You Go to My Head", "Honey", "By the Sycamore Tree", "That Lucky Old Sun", "Breezin' Along With The Breeze", "Right or Wrong," "Beautiful Love",...

, it is described by the original sheet music as "a beautiful fox-trot ballad."

The lyrics tell of the loss of a paramour. The title comes from a refrain in the chorus:

Right or wrong, I'll always love you.

Tho' you're gone, I can't forget.

Right or wrong, I'll keep on dreaming,

Tho' I wake with that same old regret.

All along I knew I'd lose you,

Still I pray'd that you'd be true.

In your heart, please just remember,

Right or wrong, I'm still in love with you.

"Right or Wrong" was recorded by many early jazz and swing orchestras, including; Mike Markel and His Orchestra (OKeh 4478, 1921), Original Dixie Jazz Band

Original Dixieland Jass Band

The Original Dixieland Jass Band were a New Orleans, Dixieland jazz band that made the first jazz recordings in early 1917. Their "Livery Stable Blues" became the first jazz single ever issued. The group composed and made the first recordings of many jazz standards, the most famous being Tiger Rag...

 (Oriole 445, 1925), Peggy English (Brunswick 3949, 1928), Tampa Red

Tampa Red

Tampa Red , born Hudson Woodbridge but known from childhood as Hudson Whittaker, was an American Chicago blues musician....

 (Bluebird 6832, 1936), and Mildred Bailey and Her Orchestra

Mildred Bailey

Mildred Bailey was a popular and influential American jazz singer during the 1930s, known as "The Rockin' Chair Lady" and "Mrs. Swing"...

 (Vocalion 3758, 1937). The recording with the longest lasting influence would be the one by the black-faced Emmett Miller and the Georgia Crackers

Emmett Miller

Emmett Miller was an American minstrel show performer and recording artist known for his falsetto, yodel-like voice. Little-remembered today, Miller was a major influence on many country music singers, including Hank Williams, Jimmie Rodgers, Milton Brown, Tommy Duncan, and Merle Haggard...

 (OKeh 41280, 1929).

Miller's version was picked up by an early Bob Wills

Bob Wills

James Robert Wills , better known as Bob Wills, was an American Western Swing musician, songwriter, and bandleader, considered by music authorities as the co-founder of Western Swing and universally known as the pioneering King of Western Swing.Bob Wills' name will forever be associated with...

 and became a standard Western swing

Western swing

Western swing music is a subgenre of American country music that originated in the late 1920s in the West and South among the region's Western string bands...

 dance tune. Both Wills (Vocalion 03451, 1936) and Milton Brown

Milton Brown

Milton Brown was an American band leader and vocalist who co-founded the genre of Western swing. His band was the first to fuse hillbilly hokum, jazz, and pop together into a unique, distinctly American hybrid, thus giving him the nickname, "Father of Western Swing"...

 (Decca 5342 , 1936) made early recordings. Western swing versions generally do not include any of the verses, only repetitions of the chorus. The song also appears on Leon Redbone

Leon Redbone

Leon Redbone is a singer and guitarist specializing in interpretations of early 20th-century music, including jazz and blues standards and Tin Pan Alley classics....

's 1990 album Sugar.

Wanda Jackson

Wanda Jackson

Wanda Lavonne Jackson is an American singer, songwriter, pianist and guitarist who had success in the mid-1950s and 60s as one of the first popular female rockabilly singers and a pioneering rock and roll artist...

's hit "Right or Wrong" in 1961 is not this song, but one written by herself.

George Strait version

The biggest hit for "Right or Wrong" came in 1984, when George Strait

George Strait

George Harvey Strait is an American country music singer, actor, and music producer. Strait is referred to as the "King of Country," and critics call Strait a living legend. He is known for his unique style of western swing music, bar-room ballads, honky-tonk style, and fresh yet traditional...

 recorded the old Bob Wills song for his best-selling album of the same name (See Right or Wrong). The single from that album (MCA 52337) reached #1, staying on the charts for 12 weeks.

George Strait's success led to the songwriter, Haven Gillespie, receiving an ASCAP award in 1985 for writing the song.

Chart positions

Chart (1984)	Peak position
U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles	1
Canadian RPM Country Tracks	1