Songfacts®:

• The first single from The Judds' sophomore album, Rockin' With The Rhythm, is a bluesy country number that finds Wynonna begging for mercy after seeing her man out carousing with another woman. It was a #1 hit on the Country chart for two weeks, making it their only single to hold the top position for more than a week.
• This was written by Paul Kennerley, an English adman-turned-songwriter, who also penned the album's tear-stained ballad, "Cry Myself To Sleep." Although that tune was the fourth single, The Judds recorded it before "Have Mercy" was even written. "Once they cut 'Cry Myself To Sleep,' I actually tried to write a song for them," he explained in The Billboard Book Of #1 Country Hits. "It's the first time I'd ever written a song specifically for an artist. I felt I had a measure of them, since they'd done another song."
  
  It helped having the green light from the duo's producer, Brent Maher. Kennerley continued, "Brent Maher, who I'd just recently met, called me up and was very encouraging. He's one of those producers that would come along and seek you out and sort of goad you along a little bit. In the case of 'Have Mercy,' I really tried to write something that had that rhythm & blues flavor."
• Maher traveled to Jackson, Mississippi, where The Judds were performing, to play them the song on their tour bus. "The first time they heard it, they just jumped up and down," he remembered. "I think the line that really grabbed Wynonna was, 'I could hear you was playin' Haggard and Jones.'"
• With five chart-topping hits and a pair of Grammys under their belts, The Judds were becoming one of the hottest country acts of the '80s. The family dynamic was a big part of their appeal. Although mother and daughter often had a contentious relationship off stage, The Judds showed their love for each other through their music and it resonated with their audiences.
  
  "I've had people tell me that even though they may not respond to our music, they can respond to the fact we're family," Wynonna told New Musical Express in 1985. "A lot of people have come up and said, Hey, the reason I caught on to y'all is because you're mother and daughter, you're family, and that shows me that mothers and daughters can stay in the same room for more than five minutes."