Acadiana’s Classic Country Mustang 107.1 is all about playing you the best in classic country hits.
Now, we want to bring you a look back at the biggest moments in country music history that happened this week.
Let’s take a look:
July 7th
1956
Johnny Cash was inducted into the Grand Ole Opry. He was expelled in 1965 for breaking the stage lights with his microphone stand during an Opry performance. Cash was reconciled in 1968 and remained a member the rest of his life.
1979
Born on this day in Hobbema, Alberta, was Cree-Canadian country music singer, songwriter Shane Yellowbird. He was named the Aboriginal Entertainer of the Year at the Aboriginal People’s Choice Music Awards, Chevy Trucks Rising Star of the Year at the Canadian Country Music Awards, and had one of the 10 most played country music songs of the year in Canada. Yellowbird died on April 25, 2022, in Calgary. He was 42 years old.
1986
Johnny Cash was honoured with the Shalom Peace Award from the Jewish National Fund at a testimonial dinner held at the Peabody Hotel in Memphis. Executive director of the JNF, Marcia Werbin, said “Johnny Cash was selected for this honour for his contributions and efforts to promote peace through music”.
1987
Alabama re-released their fifth 1981 studio album Feels So Right which became their first #1 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart. The album produced three #1 hits on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart: “Old Flame”, the title track and “Love in the First Degree”.
1990
“Love Without End, Amen” by George Strait became Billboard’s first five-week #1 song, matching 1977’s “Here You Come Again” by Dolly Parton. “Love Without End, Amen” is Strait’s first multi-week chart-topper, after his first 18 #1’s had spent just one week on top.
July 8th
1958
Born on this day was American drummer and singer Fred Young from country rock and Southern rock band The Kentucky Headhunters. Their 1989 album Pickin’ on Nashvillewon a Grammy Award for Best Country Performance in 1991.
1961
Born on this day in Clinton, Oklahoma, was Toby Keith, country music singer-songwriter, record producer and actor. His debut “Should’ve Been a Cowboy”, topped the US country charts and was the most played country song of the 1990s. The song has received three million spins since then. In June 2022, Keith announced that he had been diagnosed with stomach cancer, he died in his sleep in Oklahoma, on 5 February 2024, at the age of 62.
1970
Born on this day in Brownwood, Texas, was Drew Womack, singer, songwriter with Sons Of The Desert. Womack wrote Kenny Chesney’s “She’s Got It All”, from his 1997 album I Will Stand, which became Chesney’s first #1 single on the country charts.
1973
Kris Kristofferson was at #1 on the Country charts with “Why Me.” The single features backing vocals by soon-to-be wife Rita Coolidge and up-and-coming singer-songwriter Larry Gatlin and was included on the album, Jesus Was a Capricorn. The song became the biggest hit of his career.
1985
Merle Haggard was at #1 on the Country charts with “Natural High”, (which featured harmony vocals by Janie Fricke). It became Haggard’s thirty-third #1 Country single.
1992
Garth Brooks and wife, Sandy, had their first child, Taylor Mayne Pearl Brooks. The couple first met in May 1986 when Garth was working as a bouncer at a bar.
July 9th
1952
June Carter married the actor and composer Carl Smith. They had one child together, Carlene Carter. The couple divorced in 1956.
1953
Born on this day in Rock Hill, South Carolina, was David Ball, American country music artist. His highest-peaking chart entries are 1994’s “Thinkin’ Problem” and 2001’s “Riding With Private Malone”, both of which peaked at #2.
1954
During recording sessions at Sun studios in Memphis, Elvis Presley recorded a version of Bill Monroe’s “Blue Moon Of Kentucky”. Numerous artists have recorded the song, including John Fogerty, Patsy Cline, Ronnie Hawkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, LeAnn Rimes, Paul McCartney, Boxcar Willie, Ray Charles and Jerry Reed.
https://embed.spotify.com/?uri=spotify:track:0tPTyip9AM1l3Q6WTW89bV
1961
Born on this day in Mount Airy, North Carolina was singer and composer of bluegrass music Ronnie Bowman best known for his work with the Lonesome River Band. Bowman also co-wrote “Nobody to Blame” on Chris Stapleton’s Traveller album, “It’s Getting Better All the Time” by Brooks & Dunn and “Never Wanted Nothing More” for Kenny Chesney.
1968
Tammy Wynette was at #1 on the US Country singles chart with “D-I-V-O-R-C-E.” Written by Bobby Braddock and Curly Putman, the song is a woman’s perspective on the impending collapse of her marriage. The lyrics begin with an old parenting trick of spelling out words mothers and fathers hope their young children will not understand, they (the children) being not yet able to spell or comprehend the word’s meaning. The original Tammy Wynette recording features in the films Five Easy Pieces and Brokeback Mountain.
1974
Born on this day in Savannah, Georgia was six-time Grammy Award-winning American record producer, songwriter Dave Cobb, best known for producing the work of The Highwomen, Chris Stapleton, Sturgill Simpson, Jason Isbell, Brandi Carlile and John Prine.
1981
Born on this day in Waterloo, Iowa, was Emily West, country music artist, who debuted on Billboard Hot Country Songs charts in early 2008 with the single “Rocks in Your Shoes” and also scored a hit with “Blue Sky”, a duet with Keith Urban, in 2010.
July 10th
1955
Born on this day in Easton, Pennsylvania, was Stan Munsey, songwriter and one of several writer-musicians to emerge out of the Muscle Shoals, Alabama music scene. His songs have sold more than 12 million worldwide and has penned tunes for Alabama, Shenandoah, The Statler Brothers, Glen Campbell, Shania Twain, Tim McGraw, The Kinleys, Butch Baker, Lorrie Morgan, Suzy Bogguss, Barbara Mandrell, Lee Greenwood, Jonathan Edwards, Mel McDaniel, Charly McClain, Wayne Massey, Ty Herndon, Collin Raye, John Michael Montgomery, Marty Raybon, and Marie Osmond.
1961
“Heartbreak U.S.A.” by Kitty Wells was at #1 on the US Country singles chart. The track became Kitty Wells third and final #1 staying at the top spot for four weeks and spending twenty-three weeks on the chart.
1965
Born on this day was American country music artist Ken Mellons who released his self-titled debut album in 1994. This album produced the single “Jukebox Junkie”, a Top Ten hit on the Hot Country Songs charts.
1970
Born on this day in Columbus, Ohio, was Gary LeVox, guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter with the American country trio Rascal Flatts who have scored 11 US Country #1’s.
1970
Johnny Cash recorded his third live album at the Grand Ole Opry as a tie-in with Cash’s then-current TV series of the same title The Johnny Cash Show. It spawned the highly successful single “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down”, which helped kickstart the career of singer-songwriter Kris Kristofferson. The song and album both reached #1 on the Country charts.
1991
Alan Jackson was at #1 on the US Country charts with, “Don’t Rock the Jukebox”, the lead single from the album of the same name. His second consecutive #1 single on the US Billboard Hot Country Singles also received an ASCAP award for Country Song of the Year in 1992. That same year, the song was covered by Alvin and the Chipmunks, featuring commentary by Alan Jackson himself, for their 1992 album Chipmunks in Low Places.
July 11th
1944
Born on this day in Boscobel, Wisconsin, was Bobby G. Rice, country music singer-songwriter. Between 1970 and 1988, Rice released nine albums and charted thirty songs on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart. His biggest hit, “You Lay So Easy On My Mind,” peaked at #3 in 1973.
1947
Hank Williams went into Castle Studio, Nashville and recorded versions of “My Sweet Love Ain’t Around”, “The Blues Come Around”, “Mansion On The Hill”, and I’ll Be A Bachelor ‘Til I Die”.
1947
Born on this day in Detroit, Michigan was singer-songwriter Jeff Hanna best known for his association with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. In 2006, his composition “Bless the Broken Road”, co-written with Marcus Hummon and Bobby Boyd in 1994, won a Grammy Award for Best Country Song. It has been recorded by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Marcus Hummon, and, in the Grammy year, Rascal Flatts.
1967
Following his departure from the New Christy Minstrels the day before, Kenny Rogers formed The First Edition with his friends Thelma Camacho, Mike Settle and Terry Williams – also from The New Christy Minstrels.
1973
Born on this day in Hollywood, Florida, was Scotty Emerick, country music artist, known primarily for his work with Toby Keith. Amongst his co-writing credits are the #1’s “I’m Just Talkin’ About Tonight,” the Willie Nelson duet “Beer for My Horses,” “I Love This Bar,” “Whiskey Girl,” and “As Good as I Once Was”, as well as the Top Five hits “Get Drunk and Be Somebody” and “A Little Too Late.”
1987
George Strait was at #1 on the US singles chart with “All My Ex’s Live In Texas.” Written by Sanger D. Shafer and Linda J. Shafer, the narrator declares that all four of his ex-girlfriends live in the state of Texas, in various towns, and that is why he lives in Tennessee.
Info from This Day In Country Music
