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:
June 16th
1977
Kenny Rogers was at #1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Lucille’. It was the American Country music singer’s first of two UK #1’s.
1987
Hillbilly Deluxe by Dwight Yoakam was at #1 on the Country chart. It was Yoakam’s second consecutive #1 album on the Billboard Country Albums chart and four tracks were released as singles with each becoming Top 10 hits in 1987 and 1988.
1998
Manager Jack McFadden died of liver cirrhosis in Nashville, Tennessee. During his career, his clients included Buck Owens, Keith Whitley, Merle Haggard, Lorrie Morgan and Billy Ray Cyrus, among others.
1999
Clint Black was at #1 on the US Country music album chart with his debut album, Killin’ Time which featured the hits “A Better Man”, “Nothing’s News”, “Walking Away”, “Nobody’s Home”, and the title track.
2001
Tim McGraw was at #1 on the Billboard country singles chart with “Grown Men Don’t Cry”, the first single from McGraw’s Set This Circus Down album.
June 17th
1952
MGM canceled its movie contract with Hank Williams. The contract cancellation was a significant blow, particularly as it coincided with other problems in his career, including his dismissal from the Grand Ole Opry.
1965
The Beatles record the Buck Owens country #1 hit “Act Naturally,” for their next album Help!, with Ringo Starr singing lead, at Abbey Road Studios in London, UK. It was the same session in which they finished recording the new Paul McCartney song “Yesterday” and was released as the B-side of “Yesterday” in the United States.
1967
Born on this day in Germantown, Tennessee was Rivers Rutherford, country music songwriter. He has written several #1 country hits, including “Ain’t Nothing ’bout You” by Brooks & Dunn, “If You Ever Stop Loving Me” by Montgomery Gentry, and “When I Get Where I’m Going” by Brad Paisley and Dolly Parton. Other acts Rutherford has co written for include: Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Kenny Chesney and Toby Keith.
1978
Emmylou Harris was at #1 on the Billboard country charts with her version of Delbert McClinton’s “Two More Bottles Of Wine.”
1983
Born on this day was American country music artist Mickey Guyton. In 2020, in the wake of the George Floyd protests and the Black Lives Matter movement, Guyton released the single “Black Like Me”, the song resulted in her first ever nomination at the Grammy Awards, becoming the first Black woman to ever be nominated in the Best Country Solo Performance category.
1988
Garth Brooks signed with Capital Records. His eponymous first album was released in 1989 and peaked at #2 in the US country album chart and Brooks went on to brake records for both sales and concert attendance throughout the 1990s.
1992
Billy Ray Cyrus was at #1 on the US Country music chart with his breakthrough hit “Achy Breaky Heart”. Written by Don Von Tress it was originally titled “Don’t Tell My Heart” and recorded by The Marcy Brothers in 1991, its name was later changed to “Achy Breaky Heart” In the US it became a crossover hit on pop and country radio, peaking at #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and topping the Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart, becoming the first Country single to be certified Platinum since Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton’s “Islands in the Stream” in 1983.
1995
Dixie Chick Martie Erwin married pharmaceutical representative Ted Seidel. The couple divorced in November 1999.
June 18th
1955
Faron Young’s signature hit, “Live Fast, Love Hard, Die Young,” peaked at #1 on the Billboard country chart. The song idea came to Joe Allison while watching a gangster movie starring John Derek. Allison explained, “All through this picture he said, ‘I want to die young and leave a good-looking corpse.’
1969
Glen Campbell was at #1 on the Billboard country album chart with Galveston. The singers thirteenth studio album spent 11 weeks at #1 and 26 weeks on the chart. The album features session drummer Hal Blaine who has played on 50 #1 hits and worked with numerous artists including Elvis Presley, John Denver, The Ronettes, Simon & Garfunkel, The Carpenters, and The Beach Boys.
1976
Born on this day in Ada, Oklahoma, was Blake Shelton, country music artist. In 2001, he made his debut with the single “Austin” released from his self-titled debut album, which went on to spend five weeks at #1 on the Billboard Hot Country charts. Shelton is married to fellow country singer Miranda Lambert, whom he met at the CMT’s 100 Greatest Duets Concert.
1976
Born on this day in Walnut Creek, California, was songwriter, record producer and record label executive Michael James Ryan Busbee (known professionally as busboy). He worked with Keith Urban, Jon Bellion, Kelly Clarkson, Florida Georgia Line, and Lady Antebellum. Busbee was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Country Song in 2017 for his work on Maren Morris’ debut single, “My Church.” He died on September 28, 2019 from brain cancer age 43.
1984
Rhinestone starring Dolly Parton and Sylvester Stallone, premiered at Nashville’s Roy Acuff Theater. The Dolly Parton-composed soundtrack produced two Top Ten country singles: “God Won’t Get You” and the chart-topping “Tennessee Homesick Blues”. Parton stated in her memoirs, My Life and Other Unfinished Business, that she regards the soundtrack album as some of her best work.
1986
Born on this day in Milton, Delaware was singer and songwriter Jimmie Allen. His 2018 single “Best Shot” taken from his debut album Mercury Lane. was a #1 Airplay hit.
1995
Country legend Johnny Cash performed his famous concert at the Glen Campbell Museum in Nashville. It was one of his last major performances before his health began to decline.
1997
George Strait was at #1 on the Country chart with Carrying Your Love With Me. The album produced four singles for Strait on the Billboard country charts. “One Night at a Time”, the title track, and “Round About Way.”
June 19th
1952
Born on this day was American country music singer Bobby Borchers. He charted nine times within the Top 40 of the Hot Country Songs charts, including the #7 “Cheap Perfume and Candlelight” in 1977.
1954
“I Don’t Hurt Anymore” by Hank Snow began a 20 week run at #1 on the Country Best Seller list. Also on the chart, “One by One” by Red Foley and Kitty Wells began a 21 week run at #2 on same chart, managing a single week at #1 later in the year.
1956
Born on this day, in Newnan, Georgia, was Doug Stone, country music artist who had the 1991 US #1 Country hit “In A Different Light.” Stone made his acting debut in the film Gordy.
1956
Born on this day in Nacogdoches, Texas, was Jim Collins, country music singer-songwriter. Between 1985 and 1998, Collins released three studio albums. As a songwriter, Collins has had more than fifty of his songs cut, including singles by Kenny Chesney (“She Thinks My Tractor’s Sexy”, “The Good Stuff”, “Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven”), Chad Brock (“Yes!”), Jason Aldean (“Big Green Tractor”), and Gretchen Wilson (“I Don’t Feel Like Loving You Today”). “The Good Stuff” was Billboard’s #1 country single of 2002.
June 20th
1949
Born on this day in Tuskegee, Alabama, was Lionel Richie, singer, songwriter and one time member of the Commodores. Kenny Rogers scored the 1980 crossover country hit with the Richie written and produced track “Lady”. Richie released his tenth studio album, Tuskegee in 2012 which features 13 of his hit songs performed as duets with country stars including Sugarland’s Jennifer Nettles, Jason Aldean, Tim McGraw, Blake Shelton, Darius Rucker, Rascal Flatts, Kenny Chesney, Billy Currington, Little Big Town, Shania Twain, Kenny Rogers, Willie Nelson and Jimmy Buffett. The album returned him to the top of the Billboard 200 chart, his first #1 album there for more than 25 years.
1965
Ira Louvin from The Louvin Brothers was killed in a car crash. His fourth wife, Anne Young, and he were on the way home from a performance in Kansas City when they came to a section of construction on Highway 70 outside of Williamsburg, Missouri, where traffic had been reduced down to one lane. A drunken driver struck their car head-on, and both Ira and Anne were killed instantly. At the time, a warrant for Ira’s arrest had been issued on a DUI charge. Rolling Stone ranked the Louvin Brothers #4 on its list of the 20 Greatest Duos of All Time.
1967
Born on this day, Dan Tyminski, American bluegrass composer, vocalist, and instrumentalist with Alison Krauss and Union Station who has also released the solo albums Carry Me Across the Mountain (2000) and Wheels (2008).
1991
Garth Brooks was at #1 on the US country chart with his third studio album, Ropin’ the Wind. The album replaced his previous album No Fences at the #1 postion, where it enjoyed a combined 18 weeks at the top of the charts.
Info from This Day in Country Music
