Songfacts®:

• In this popular country duet, Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson warn mothers about the itinerant and often lonesome lives of cowboys, who "never stay home and they're always alone, even with someone they love." It's a fate they certainly wouldn't want for their babies.
• This was first recorded by country singer Ed Bruce, who wrote the tune with his then-wife Patsy. They were driving home from a jingle session when Bruce got the idea.
  
  "I had just left the studio and everybody was knocked out with what I did," he explained in The Billboard Book Of Number One Country Hits. "I was good at what I did, but nobody really knew, and my first thought was, 'Mammas, Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Play Guitars.' Then I changed it to 'Don't Let 'Em Grow Up To Be Cowboys,' and worked in guitars."
• Bruce considered pitching the tune to both Jennings and Nelson but decided to record it himself first. His version peaked at #15 on the Country chart in early 1976. It was also featured on Chris LeDoux's Songbook Of The American West album that same year. The following year, Bruce contacted Jennings about recording a new version and was surprised to learn that Jennings had already cut the track a couple weeks earlier.
  
  Jennings, however, didn't like his solo version so he brought it to a session with Nelson. The outlaw pair had already collaborated a few times, including on Jennings' 1972 hit "Good Hearted Woman," which was remixed with vocals from Nelson and re-released in 1976 to great acclaim. They also each had great solo success in the intervening years. Jennings released a trio of #1 country albums and Nelson hit big with the Honeysuckle Rose soundtrack and the standards album Stardust. It was the perfect time to get together and record a duets album.
  
  Jennings recalled, "Me and Willie were talking about recording again, and I said, 'Willie, I cut this thing, but I ain't sure about it.' I said, 'It don't sound right, but it might be a great duet.' The whole record was finished, and I just took part of my voice and put his on."
  
  
• Waylon and Willie's version went to #1 on the Country chart and won the Grammy Award for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal in 1979.
• Nelson recorded this tune a few more times. He did a solo version for the 1979 movie The Electric Horseman, starring Robert Redford and Jane Fonda; he cut it with Matchbox Twenty for the 2002 album Stars & Guitar; and he recorded a live version with Toby Keith that ended up on the 2017 album Outlaw - Celebrating The Music Of Waylon Jennings.
• "Mammas..." hit the Country chart again in 1994 when the Gibson/Miller Band took it to #49. It was featured on their album Red, White And Blue Collar and used in the movie The Cowboy Way that same year.
• This was used in a 2015 commercial for the Volkswagen Passat.
• The song was also featured in the movies W. (2008), Catch And Release (2006), Space Cowboys (2000), and The Ride (1997).
  
  In 1985, it was used on the sitcom Webster in the episode "How the West Was Once: Part 2."