The tunes "Thrills That I Can't Forget", "I'm Thinking Tonight Of My Blue Eyes" and "The Great Speckled Bird" provide the basis for "Wild Side Of Life". Jimmie Heap and His Melody Masters (vocalist Houston "Perk" Williams, Horace Barnett, Arlie Carter, Bill Glendining and Louie Rincon) were first to record "Wild Side Of Life" in 1951 but with little chart action.

Hank Thompson's version of "Wild Side Of Life" (Arlie Carter - William Warren) with His Brazos Valley Boys (various members through the years) was released in 1952 spending almost four months at the top of the Country chart. The "answer" song was another country classic, "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels".

Burl Ives had a top ten pop hit with "Wild Side Of Life" at the same time Hank Thompson was enjoying his country breakthrough. Wikipedia: "Ives traveled about the U.S. as an itinerant singer during the early 1930s, earning his way by doing odd jobs and playing his banjo. He was jailed in Mona, Utah, for vagrancy and for singing "Foggy Dew", which the authorities decided was a bawdy song."