Issue #37: This Week In Country Chart History - Football, UFOs and Cool, Clear Water
Issue #37: This Week In Country Chart History - Football, UFOs and Cool, Clear Water
I love it when country gets weird!
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I’m making an executive decision to make a similarly-titled post I did last summer a series, because there is very little in this world that I enjoy more than reading back issues of Billboard. Honestly, the only danger of assigning myself the task of trying to sum them up for you is that I inevitably go down about 500 rabbit holes, and the whole exercise winds up taking about 20 times longer than it should.
I felt that this week would be a particularly good one for a little chart dig because of our upcoming book club meeting with the chart-master himself, Chris Molanphy! It is not too late to read Old Town Road (it’s blessedly concise, and still packed with information), and also to catch up on Chris’ chart-centric column at Slate. Pick up a copy from DUP for 30% off with coupon code E23OLTWN, or grab it from your local library or bookstore of choice, and make sure you’re a paying subscriber to DRTI so that you can join in on the Zoom fun — the meeting will be this Wednesday, January 10 at 6 p.m. CT and we’ll send out a link to paying subscribers on Wednesday morning.
Now, for a taste of the charts 75, 50 and 25 years ago!
75 years ago: January 8, 1949
Just like last time, we’ve got a disarming amount of Eddy Arnold — as you can see here, “Bouquet of Roses” (the No. 1 last time we checked in) is in its 35th week on the chart…and still at No. 2. This era was huge for mopey guys insisting that women were all evil (“I begged you to be different, but you’ll always be untrue,” in Arnold’s case) or as I call it, Drake country. (Love Eddy, it was just a funny time...see the massive hit “joke” song “Never Trust A Woman,” which was written by a woman…a lot more writing on this to come! )
Jimmy Wakely is this week’s other heavy-hitter, with his two most famous songs charting simultaneously. “One Has My Name (The Other Has My Heart)” is on top here: Unlike a lot of the other country hits of the era, it is neither sexist nor racist — it’s just about being married and in love with a person that is not the one you’re married to. Unfortunately, propriety dictates that he has to remain in this bind until he dies (as he sings, at least). Classic! Mary Ford (soon-to-be Mrs. Les Paul) can be heard singing harmony on the recording, which is neat. The song has been covered by just about anyone who can imagine, and appeared twice more on the country charts: in 1965 via a bad version by Barry Young (sorry Barry) and in 1969 via a good version by a bad person (Jerry Lee Lewis).
The second, “I Love You So Much It Hurts,” was written and originally recorded by Floyd Tillman — Wakely’s version, though, wound up the bigger hit. My first exposure to the song (and maybe yours too) was way back via Ray Charles’ Modern Sounds Of Country and Western Music (I promise I will never stop talking about this album). What I learned writing this, though, was that stupid foundational divide in America(n music) that has long kept Black and white artists segregated was actually breached with this particular song over a decade prior to Charles’ recording: The Mills Brothers had a pop hit with a really lovely recording of it in 1949, one that clearly anticipates Charles’ (though FWIW Tillman’s swooning performance, I think, may have actually been Charles’ primary inspiration with its over-the-top pathos. who knows!). It was successful enough for them that they released a recording of “Someday (You’ll Want Me To Want You),” most famously recorded at that point by Elton Britt, a few months later. Not an unprecedented crossover by any means, but one worth noting all the same!
The Mills Brothers eventually appeared on the Hot Country Songs chart in 1970 with Charlie Louvin’s “It Ain’t No Big Thing.” See? Rabbit holes! This is the fun, and the danger. Also important: Yes, Gene Autry’s “Here Comes Santa Claus” was actually a new release. “Tennessee Saturday Night” is so close to being great, but it’s got an irredeemably racist refrain. There’s another classic on this one, the Sons of Pioneers’ “Cool Water” — which took three recordings and three movie appearances to finally stick. The first version was recorded for Decca in 1941, and the second and third — a pop version with Vaughn Monroe and full orchestra — were done for RCA in 1945 and both left unreleased until the 1948 record ban compelled the label to put them out. The version with Monroe went on the pop charts, and the Pioneers’ version went on the country charts — all as expected. Since, Hank Williams and everyone else have recorded it; a great song. (Aside: An amazing Nellie Lutcher version of the song that appeared on the Race Records chart that year.) Also, lovely early bluegrass from Bill Monroe and an evergreen Carson Robison tune:
50 years ago: January 5, 1974
A half century ago, the music industry was panicking about the oil crisis (50 years later, its cause remains just as newsworthy), the Oak Ridge Boys were considering stepping outside of gospel music, Charlie Rich’s Behind Closed Doors topped the country chart for the eighth out of its 21 (!) non-consecutive weeks in that spot (it was the biggest country album of both 1973 and 1974 per Billboard), and fiddles, banjos and steel guitars were back! Asleep At The Wheel, trendsetters? The more things change…
Anyway! Onto the charts. On top we have Merle Haggard’s “If We Make It Through December” — timeless, perfect, a song so good they had to give it its own non-Christmas album. You already know it I’m sure, so I won’t dwell. Loretta and Dolly are in the top 10 as they should be, along with Tom T. Hall and Charley Pride. I love little baby ducks and old pickup trucks, too.
There’s such lovely, chaotic diversity on this chart, I’m just going to spotlight some of the more anomalous entries:
No. 12: Olivia Newton-John, “Let Me Be There” — ONJ’s first major American hit, and her first song on the country charts…a source of some consternation to the authenticity police.
No. 14: Buck Owens, “Big Game Hunter” — OK, so I thought this was going to be a kind of creepy thing about hitting on hot women (look, the ‘70s were a horny time), and I literally could not have been more wrong. It’s a song about a guy who’s so obsessed with watching football that he’s shirking his household duties (to comedic effect because the narrator is not doing his ~man’s work~ e.g. “On your way to get the hammer and the nails, could you bring me another brew?”). Incredible.
No. 17: Ferlin Husky, “Rosie Cries A Lot” — More like Ferlin “Feminine Mystique” Husky, amirite…
No. 19: Ronnie Milsap, “That Girl Who Waits On Tables” — It being Ronnie Milsap and 1974, of course there’s some horniness injected into this very specific lament.
No. 22: Deena Kaye Rose, “Biff, The Friendly Purple Bear” — Yes, a song written from the point of view of a toy horse and named after another toy that turns out to be a pretty affecting tune about kids growing up was in the top 25 on the Hot Country Songs charts, which as our upcoming book club guest explains in his book, was primarily dictated by radio at this point. Nearly impossible to fathom a half century later, but here we are (Mac Davis even covered it!). So thrilled that we once again get to talk about Deena, who was a crucial part of the last iteration of this series.
No. 24: Roger Miller, “I Believe In Sunshine” — Contractually not allowed to ignore Roger Miller.
No. 34: Johnny Cash and Mother Maybelle Carter, “Pick The Wildwood Flower” — “It was hard to find a job, and so I didn’t.”
No. 39: Jeannie Seely, “Lucky Ladies” — A contemporary reworking of an Appalachian folk song, which is pretty easy to get behind…
No. 40: Jean Shepard, “Come On Phone” — A creative take on waiting for the phone to ring from an underheralded legend of the genre!
No. 47: Terry Stafford, “Amarillo By Morning” — Living and learning that a bunch of people had already recorded “Amarillo By Morning” including Stafford, who co-wrote it and actually lived in Amarillo!
No. 54: Jerry Reed, “The Uptown Poker Club” — I’m Jerry-pilled, sorry. The production on this is awesome, also.
No. 58: Jeris Ross, “Moontan” — If a guy says he’s going to Florida and doesn’t come back with a tan, he’s got a _________. A little bit of a reach from friend of the newsletter Bobby Braddock!
No. 63: Jeannie C. Reilly, “Another Football Year” — Very similar to the previously mentioned football song vibewise…lazy football watching was an epidemic!!! It was also January (the end of the season), so the joys of Sundays on the couch were understandably wearing thin (the NFL-AFL merger had concluded in 1970, bringing the league close to some version of its current dominance…). This one interpolates the Battle Hymn of the Republic, lol.
No. 67: Buddy Alan, “All-Around Cowboy of 1964” — Buck and Bonnie Owens’ son! Good song, too.
No. 72: Porter Wagoner, “George Leroy Chickashea” — This might set the record for most racist song of all time, and there are so many racist songs! I will not be linking to it! Jesus.
No. 81: Brush Arbor, “Trucker & the U.F.O.” — The chart has a typo; it says it’s “Tucker & the U.F.O.” which was…confusing. This is just plain awesome, though — come for the U.F.O. sighting, stay for the line “There ain’t no U.F.O. gonna catch my diesel.”
No. 90: Stoney Edwards, “Daddy Bluegrass” — Stoney putting bluegrass on the charts!
No. 91: Glenn Barber, “Daddy Number Two” — Second husband anthem!!
No. 95: Charlie Louvin, “You’re My Wife, She’s My Woman” — lmao (also “One Has My Name” part II)
OK sorry! I can’t help myself :)
25 years ago: January 9, 1999
So I ran out of space! It looks like the chart is pretty Christmas-skewing anyway; this issue of Billboard did lead me to the existence of Groovegrass, though. Doc Watson and Bootsy Collins were on the same album! There is truly nothing new under the sun!