EVERY Billboard #1 country hit of 1975 discussion thread

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by W.B., Jul 30, 2018.

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  1. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector Thread Starter

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    As promised, here is a new thread dealing with the #1 hits from Billboard's Hot Country Singles chart in 1975. This is to complement @alphanguy's "EVERY Billboard #1 hit discussion thread 1958-present" thread, about to get into 1975 (and all those pages!) and "EVERY Billboard #1 rhythm & blues hit discussion thread" which has for months been under the steady stewardship of @Grant.

    I will be dealing on individual years per thread, not only on account of the number of pages already accumulated on both threads (especially the main one), but also in the vein of discussions of #1 British number ones of the '70's by @Bobby Morrow and @Randoms. The exercise (and I recognize it is such) is to look at this as a process, as each record (43 in all this year, same as on the Hot Soul Singles chart) took their turn at the top; I am all too aware of those who see (and only focus on) the end result and go way back and forth like a time machine gone haywire. So, y'all think linearly now, hear? If in the mood, I may look at prior years (starting from 1944, not necessarily chronologically).

    There is also a personal reason: Though I grew up in a home with a lot of country, ethnic and folk music in the house (i.e. cassettes of new Waylon product and LP's of budget repackagings of his old stuff), it was in 1975 that I was first exposed (via other places) to 1050 WHN, the country music station in New York. I have heard quite a few of the hits we will be looking at, plus such oldies as Red Sovine's 1967 "Phantom 309." Depending on circumstances, given that a few #1's here also topped the pop chart, we may or may not light a discussion fire in those cases.

    After these messages, I'll be right back with the first country #1 of the year.
     
    Last edited: Jul 30, 2018
  2. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector Thread Starter

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    Now for our first country #1 of 1975:
    "The Door" by George Jones
    (#1 for 1 week - January 4, 1975)

    [​IMG]
    (Click here for Wikipedia entry.)
     
  3. Black Thumb

    Black Thumb Yah Mo B There

    Location:
    Reno, NV
    This was only Possum's 7th #1 in his 20-year career up til then, which blows my mind. (Mrs. Jones had already had 16 in just 7 years!)

    Nobody, and I mean nobody, sang this kind of song more masterfully than Mr. Jones. Like "The Grand Tour" from the previous summer, he made you feel with every fiber of your being the desolation of being left.

    Add to that the fact that there were scores of returned Vietnam vets who had lived or were living those lyrics ... man oh man.

    As the Wiki says, even Billy Sherrill's usual ladle of heavy syrup can't drown something this potent.
     
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  4. John B Good

    John B Good Forum Hall Of Fame

    Location:
    NS, Canada
    This will probably be 'new' music to me as I wouldn't have been caught dead listening to country music back then.

    But it will be interesting to listen to the samples and the comments.

    Since I had to find a Canadian source on You Tube for the George Jones video, I am now listening to a stream of George Jones tunes. :)
     
    Last edited: Jul 31, 2018
  5. Black Thumb

    Black Thumb Yah Mo B There

    Location:
    Reno, NV
    Here's George performing "The Door" on Hee-Haw. The stage outfits are pure mid-70s!

     
  6. Black Thumb

    Black Thumb Yah Mo B There

    Location:
    Reno, NV
    Jones had been signed to Musicor/UA for most of his career after starting with Starday, so that might account for his relative lack of #1s. I don't recall UA being as much of a country music powerhouse in the '60s.
     
  7. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector Thread Starter

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    And as part of his joining Epic, Jones' Musicor masters would be reissued for years after 1972 on RCA. A few even charted.
     
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  8. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector Thread Starter

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    And now for the next #1:
    "Ruby, Baby" by Billy "Crash" Craddock
    (#1 for 1 week - January 11, 1975)

    [​IMG]
     
  9. Black Thumb

    Black Thumb Yah Mo B There

    Location:
    Reno, NV
    One would hardly expect a Leiber-Stoller classic to top the country charts in 1975, especially one so faithful to Dion's version, but covering pop oldies was Crash's niche.

    His first country hit in 1971 was a then-current pop hit, "Knock Three Times", but after that he stuck to pre-Beatles material for his singles.

    He wasn't strictly an oldies act of course, and was coming off his biggest hit "Rub It In" - the momentum from that was probably why "Ruby Baby" hit the top.

    Crash had actually started off in the late '50s as Columbia's answer to Elvis. It was a strategy that worked ... in Australia!

    His only teen idol era chart entry in the U.S. only got to #94:

     
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  10. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector Thread Starter

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    Now for the third country #1 of this year:
    "Kentucky Gambler" by Merle Haggard And The Strangers
    (#1 for 1 week - January 18, 1975)

    [​IMG]
    Written by Dolly Parton; click here for Wikipedia entry.
     
  11. Black Thumb

    Black Thumb Yah Mo B There

    Location:
    Reno, NV
    "Kentucky Gambler" is one of the finest songs ever written about my humble place of abode. Thankfully, I never came down with "the fever" but I've seen so many lives ruined by it that these lyrics have a very deep personal resonance.

    Dolly appeared in the showrooms here many a time, alone and with Porter - I'd love to ask her about her inspiration for this song.

    And I'd love to know how much airplay it got here. The old school casino owners were still around and it wouldn't surprise me if they made a few ... "requests".

    It's interesting how the "four kids and a wife" pop up again as they did in Hag's "Working Man Blues".
     
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  12. Joey Self

    Joey Self Red Forman's Sensitivity Guru

    Hmmm. I was never a fan of country music, but in 1975, I heard a lot of it. I grew up in rural Arkansas, and there were a couple of popular country stations I couldn't avoid completely, and I watched HEE HAW a lot with my dad. But I can't place any of these by the title. I may come back to listen to them when I have more time.

    JcS
     
  13. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector Thread Starter

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    Movin' on (given our examination of this latest Hag #1) . . .
    "(I'd Be) A Legend In My Time" by Ronnie Milsap
    (#1 for 1 week - January 25, 1975)

    This came in basically two label colors, depending on where pressed - light grey for Indianapolis . . .
    [​IMG]
    . . . or orange if pressed in Hollywood . . .
    [​IMG]
    The record was mastered by Randy Kling at RCA's Nashville studios. The Wikipedia entry for this one can be found here.
     
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  14. Black Thumb

    Black Thumb Yah Mo B There

    Location:
    Reno, NV
    Like Ray Charles with "I Can't Stop Loving You" and Patsy Cline with "Sweet Dreams", Ronnie turns in the definitive version of a Don Gibson song.

    The big ending comes straight out of the Roy Orbison handbook. (Ironically, Roy's own version doesn't have a dramatic close).

    I couldn't find any session credits, so I'm wondering if that's The Nashville Edition on backing vocals. They were everywhere back then.

    Here's Don's version from 1960. It was the B-side of "Far, Far Away":

     
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  15. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector Thread Starter

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    Next up . . .
    "City Lights" by Mickey Gilley
    (#1 for one week - February 1, 1975)

    [​IMG]
    Wikipedia entry on history of this song
     
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  16. John B Good

    John B Good Forum Hall Of Fame

    Location:
    NS, Canada
    Like City Lights. Don't remember it from back then, but I know it from a Ray Price cd.

    I can hear it on a triple play with Bright Lights, Big City (Jimmy Reed) and The Night Life, by Ray Price.
     
  17. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector Thread Starter

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    I have a version of "City Lights" but that wasn't why I got it: I got Debbie Reynolds' 1960 rendition on Dot, only because the B side center label was die-cut so off center you could see the bleed of the design.
     
  18. Black Thumb

    Black Thumb Yah Mo B There

    Location:
    Reno, NV
    IMHO, Ray Price was one of the greatest voices ever to walk the earth, so few singers are going to come close to that standard on any song he cut.

    Mr. Gilley does a capable job on "City Lights" but I'm not a fan of this arrangement. The "Cousin of the Killer" piano just doesn't work here.

    I was always more of a fan of Whisperin' Bill Anderson as a songwriter than as a singer, and this is one of his best.

    It was intriguing to learn Debbie Reynolds covered it! I also just discovered Ivory Joe Hunter had a minor pop hit with it as well.
     
  19. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector Thread Starter

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    Who would've thought at the time of Mr. Price's original, that he would go turn "countrypolitan"?

    As for Mr. Gilley, he was certainly one of the steadiest sellers Playboy Records ever had, considering how it was one of the company's most unsuccessful ventures in the final analysis.
     
  20. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector Thread Starter

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    Now for our next see-and-dubyah chart topper . . .
    "Then Who Am I" by Charley Pride
    (#1 for 1 week - February 8, 1975)

    [​IMG]
    (Indianapolis pressing)
    [​IMG]
    (Hollywood pressing)

    Wikipedia entry
     
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  21. Black Thumb

    Black Thumb Yah Mo B There

    Location:
    Reno, NV
    Charley's 14th #1 is solid but fairly unremarkable. Most country artists have stretches where they seem to go on autopilot, which is inevitable when you were expected to have 3 - 4 singles a year for decades.

    It's surprising the record preceeding this one, "Mississippi Cotton Picking Delta Town" only got to #3. I heard it a lot more than "Then Who Am I".

    Nice to hear a vibraphone on the track. It's an instrument that had very much fallen out of favor on country tracks by '75.

    Co-writer Dallas Frazier's most well-known country song is probably "There Goes My Everything" and pop oldies fans all know his "Alley-Oop"!
     
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  22. WLL

    WLL Popery Of Mopery

    ...I'm definitely interested in this line, FWIW:)!
     
  23. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector Thread Starter

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    Now on to the next topper on this list . . .
    "Devil In The Bottle" by T. G. Sheppard
    (#1 for 1 week - February 15, 1975)

    [​IMG]
    Wikipedia entry
     
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  24. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me!

    No comment on the song, but T.G. Sheppard is notable for being on the Motown label! Berry Gordy was really trying to branch out in the 70s!
     
  25. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector Thread Starter

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    Yeah, this did seem to be among Motown's most successful efforts to "branch out" into the country market, no?
     
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