Music Friday: 'Golden Ring' Reflects the Turbulent Real-Life Romance of George Jones and Tammy Wynette

Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you great songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics. Today, a modest second-hand wedding band is the focus of "Golden Ring," a chart-topping duet by country legends George Jones and Tammy Wynette.

In the song, we follow a golden band through a cycle of young love, marriage and eventual heartbreak. Jones and Wynette were a married couple for six years, but divorced in 1975. They continued to perform after the breakup and scored a #1 hit in 1976 with a song that seemed to mirror the story of their tumultuous relationship.

The beginning of the song introduces the listener to a glittering ring that symbolizes all the promise of a young love. The second verse sees the couple exchanging vows and making a home for themselves. In the last verse, however, the relationship has gone sour and the ring reverts to the display case in a second-hand store where it was originally purchased.

The chorus punctuates the prevailing theme: "By itself it's just a cold metallic thing / Only love can make a golden wedding ring."

Written by Bobby Braddock and Rafe Vanhoy, "Golden Ring" was the title track to the Jones/Wynette duet album released in 1976 and the second of three #1 hits sung by the duo. The first was "We're Gonna Hold On" (1973) and the last was "Near You" (1977).

Even though their marriage didn't end well, in her autobiography, Wynette wrote, "The most fun, the most wonderful part of my career was working with George."

Born in a log cabin in the small town of Saratoga, Texas, Jones got his first guitar at the age of nine. By 1955, at the age of 24, Jones had already served in the Marines, was married twice and recorded his first hit song, “Why Baby Why.” In 1969, he married Wynette.

Over a career that spanned seven decades, Jones is credited with charting 168 country songs. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1992. Jones passed away in 2013 at the age of 81.

Wynette, who was born in Tremont, Miss., in 1942, is considered to be one of the most influential singers in country music history. She scored 20 #1 hits on the U.S. country singles charts (16 solo, three with Jones, and one with David Houston). She was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame and was ranked #2 in Country Music Television's "40 Greatest Women of Country Music."

Plagued by medical problems, which required 15 major operations, Wynette passed away in 1998 at the age of 55.

Please check out the performance of "Golden Ring" by Jones and Wynette. The lyrics are below if you'd like to sing along...

"Golden Ring"
Written by Bobby Braddock and Rafe Van Hoy. Performed by George Jones and Tammy Wynette.

In a pawn shop in Chicago
On a sunny summer day
A couple gazes at the wedding rings
There on display

She smiles n' nods her head
As he says, "Honey that's for you,
It's not much, but it's the best
That I can do."

Golden rings (golden ring) with one tiny little stone
Waiting there (waiting there) for someone to take you home
By itself (by itself) it's just a cold metallic thing
Only love can make a golden wedding ring

In a little wedding chapel later on that afternoon
An old upright piano plays that old familiar tune
Tears roll down her cheeks
And happy thoughts run through her head
As he whispers low, "With this ring, I thee wed."

Golden ring (golden ring) with one tiny little stone
Shining ring (shining ring) now at last it's found a home
By itself (by itself) it's just a cold metallic thing
Only love can make a golden wedding ring

Ooo-ooo
In a small two room apartment
As they fought their final round
He says, "You won't admit it,
But I know you're leavin' town."

She says, "One thing's for certain,
I don't love you any more."
And throws down the ring
As she walks out the door

Golden ring (golden ring) with one tiny little stone
Cast aside (cast aside) like the love that's dead and gone
By itself (by itself) it's just a cold metallic thing
Only love can make a golden wedding ring

In a pawn shop in Chicago
On a sunny summer day
A couple gazes at the wedding rings
There on display,
Golden ring.

Credit: Screen capture via YouTube.com.

A Star Is Born: Pink Diamond Sells for $71.2M, Shattering the Auction Record for Any Gemstone

A star was born Tuesday when a 59.6-carat, flawless, fancy vivid pink diamond shattered the world record for the highest price ever paid for any gem at auction. The Pink Star's hammer price of $71.2 million at Sotheby’s Magnificent Jewels and Jadeite sale in Hong Kong easily surpassed the $57.5 million achieved in May of 2016 by the previous record-holder, the 14.62-carat Oppenheimer Blue diamond.

The Pink Star was hardly a stranger to Sotheby's auction block. Back in November 2013, the extraordinary diamond made headlines around the world as it fetched an astounding $83 million in Geneva. All the fanfare turned sour a few months later when the buyer defaulted on the payment. Sotheby's paid the guaranteed minimum of $60 million and took ownership of the gem. In 2016, the auction house revealed that two firms — Diacore and Mellen Inc. — had purchased an interest in the Pink Star, with the third partner being Sotheby’s.

The newest owner of the Pink Star is Hong Kong-based luxury jewelry retailer Chow Tai Fook, which outbid two other contenders in an intense, five-minute contest. Chow Tai Fook operates more than 2,000 jewelry and watch stores throughout China. In 2016, the company purchased the Aurora Green diamond for $16.8 million at Christie's Hong Kong.

Diacore (formerly Steinmetz Diamond Group) was responsible for taking the original 132.5-carat rough diamond and fashioning it into an oval mixed-cut masterpiece — a process that would take two years. The gem had been unearthed by De Beers in Botswana in 1999. The gem was unveiled to the public as the Steinmetz Pink in 2003. It was sold four years later to an undisclosed buyer.

Sotheby's pre-sale estimate had been set at $60 million, a sum that still would have earned the world record. The final sale price exceeded the estimate by nearly 19%.

It is believed that pink diamonds owe their color to the effects of intense pressure and heat while they were still deep within the earth. These factors caused distortions in the diamond’s crystal lattice that influence the way the gem absorbs green light, thus reflecting a pink hue.

Credits: Images courtesy of Sotheby's.

Marvel at These Massive Chocolate Geodes Filled With Gem-Like Candy Crystals

In a video that's currently tearing up the internet, Culinary Institute of America student Alex O’Brien Yeatts redefines the term "rock candy" as he takes a hammer and cleaver to a giant chocolate geode. After five powerful hits, the boulder-like object cracks in half to reveal a gorgeous formation of sugar crystals that could easily be mistaken for amethysts.

Yeatts worked with fellow student Abby Lee Wilcox on a six-month school project to create a series of chocolate geodes, the largest of which weighed 50 pounds.

The 20-year-old Yeatts told Insider how he and his associate poured tempered chocolate into egg-shaped molds and then filled these shapes with colorful, concentrated sugar syrup. Over the next six months, the pair carefully rotated the eggs on a daily basis to ensure maximum crystal growth. As the syrup slowly evaporated, it transitioned from a liquid to a solid.

"During the process, you don't know what's going on inside the eggs," Yeatts told Insider. "You know they're growing, but you don't really know what they're going to look like until you crack them open."

The moment of truth couldn't have been more spectacular.

"You could kind of see everybody's jaw drop," Yeatts told Insider. "It was a pretty incredible moment."

The purple crystals were beautifully formed and the colors were vivid. A bit of the syrup was still in liquid form. Eleven other chocolate geodes yielded equally stunning results in colors that included deep purples and rich oranges.

Yeatts, a baking and pastry student at the Hyde Park, N.Y.-based school, posted a series of candy geode photos and videos on his Instagram page.

Also, check out the video by Insider, below.

Credits: Images via Instagram/alex.yeatts. Screen captures via YouTube.com.