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 9th
1977
Waylon Jennings was at #1 on the US country album charts with Ol’ Waylon. The album features one of his signature songs, a track featuring Willie Nelson called “Luckenbach, Texas (Back to the Basics of Love)”, as well as the Neil Diamond song “Sweet Caroline”, a version of Kenny Rogers’ “Lucille” and a medley of the two Arthur Crudup songs previous recorded by Elvis Presley.
1979
Kenny Rogers was at #1 on the Billboard country chart with “She Believes In Me”. The song became one of his biggest crossover hits in the late spring of 1979, reaching #5 on the Billboard Hot 100 pop singles chart.
1990
George Strait started a five-week run at #1 on the Billboard country chart with “Love Without End, Amen”, the lead-off single from his #1 album, Livin’ It Up.
June 10th
1978
Johnny Cash was presented with the United Nations Humanitarian Award at the annual United Nations Citation Dinner in New York City.
1979
Born on this day, in Sumter, South Carolina. was Lee Brice, country music singer signed to Curb Records. His highest-charting single “A Woman Like You”, reached #1 in April 2012. He also scored Billboard’s Top Country Song of 2010 with “Love Like Crazy”, the title track to his 2010 debut album; the song spent 56 weeks on the Hot Country Songs chart, peaking at # 3 and setting a record for the longest run in the chart’s history.
1987
Dwight Yoakam scored his second consecutive #1 album with Hillbilly Deluxe. Four of its tracks would find their way into the Top 40 of the Hot Country Singles chart in 1987 and 1988, all topping out in the lower half of the Top Ten. Chronologically, they were “Little Sister”, “Little Ways” “Please, Please Baby” and “Always Late with Your Kisses”.
1991
Brooks & Dunn released their debut single “Brand New Man” which peaked at #1 on the Country charts. It made them only the second country music band in history to have its debut single reach #1 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart (behind Diamond Rio’s “Meet in the Middle” from four months earlier).
June 11th
1949
25 year-old Hank Williams was inducted into the Grand Ole Opry where he became the first performer to receive six encores. On August 11, 1952, he was dismissed and membership revoked for habitual drunkenness and missing shows.
1969
True Grit the American western film directed by Henry Hathaway, starring John Wayne and Glen Campbell was released. The film gave Campbell a Golden Globe nomination for ‘Most Promising Newcomer’.
1978
Willie Nelson’s remake of Hoagy Carmichael’s “Georgia On My Mind” was at #1 on Billboard country singles chart. Nelson won a Grammy award for Best Male Country Vocal Performance for the song.
1988
Reba McEntire was at #1 on the country chart with Reba the singer’s fifteenth studio album, the title signifying that she had become so well known that she could be identified by first name alone, but also signaling an entirely different style to her music. Gone were the steel guitars and fiddles of My Kind of Country and Have I Got a Deal for You, to be replaced by a highly produced and orchestrated sound. Two of its tracks, “I Know How He Feels” and “New Fool at an Old Game”, reached #1 on the Billboard country singles charts.
June 12th
1973
Dolly Parton recorded “I Will Always Love You” during sessions at RCA’s Studio B in Nashville. Parton wrote the song for her one-time partner and mentor Porter Wagoner, from whom she was separating professionally after a seven-year partnership. When released in March 1974 the song reached #1 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. Whitney Houston’s version of the song for the 1992 film The Bodyguard holds the record for being the best-selling single by a woman in music history.
1977
Waylon Jennings was at #1 on the US country album charts with Ol’ Waylon. The album features one of his signature songs, a track featuring Willie Nelson called “Luckenbach, Texas (Back to the Basics of Love)”, as well as the Neil Diamond song “Sweet Caroline”, a version of Kenny Rogers’ “Lucille” and a medley of the two Arthur Crudup songs previous recorded by Elvis.
1988
Randy Travis was at #1 on the US Country charts with, “I Told You So”, taken from his 1988 album Always & Forever. Carrie Underwood released a cover version of the song on her 2007 album Carnival Ride.
June 13th
1947
Born on this day in Hazard, Kentucky, was Mary Lou Turner, country music artist. Between 1976 and 1977, she recorded two duet albums with Bill Anderson, and charted four duets with him. One of their duets, “Sometimes”, reached #1 in 1976.
1959
Roy Drusky was inducted into the Grand Ole Opry. The American country music singer and songwriter popular from the 1960s through the early 1970s was known for his baritone voice and for incorporating the Nashville sound and for being one of the first artists to record a song written by Kris Kristofferson (“Jody and the Kid”). His highest-charting single was the #1 “Yes, Mr. Peters”, a duet with Priscilla Mitchell.
1987
Randy Travis’ “Forever and Ever, Amen” spent three weeks at #1 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart. It is the first multi-week chart-topping song since “Lost in the Fifties Tonight (In the Still of the Night)” by Ronnie Milsap spent two weeks atop the chart in September 1985.
1991
The IRS held a public auction where people bought Dottie West’s personal possessions in an attempt to payback debts of over £1.5m. The items had been seized by the IRS after they discovered the singer was hiding some valuable items. Some fans bought items and returned them to West. Items sold at the auction included West’s baby grand piano which sold for $4,900 and her 1976 Cadillac Fleetwood. Despite the proceeds from the auction, West was still left with debt owing to the IRS.
2010
Jimmy Dean the American country music singer, television host, and businessman died at the age of 81. Dean who had the 1961 country crossover hit “Big Bad John”, became a national television personality in the late 50’s with his television series, The Jimmy Dean Show and was also famous as the creator of the Jimmy Dean sausage brand.
Info from This Day in Country Music