Forgotten Classic Country Songs

Unless you have a really cool country radio station in your area or you're at a Legion hall, you're not likely to hear some of the greatest country songs ever. Seems most country radio avoids anything before the late 80s, which is a crime. Country records in the 70s are some of the better sounding albums I've heard.

Waylon Jennings, Merle Haggard, George Jones, Buck Owens, Loretta Lynn, Johnny Paycheck, Conway Twitty, Tammy Wynette, Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton...the whole gang. Have any in mind?

My Top 5 Forgotten Country Classics:

The Cave - Johnny Paycheck (one of the creepiest Cold War era songs)
Sweet Dream Woman - Waylon Jennings
Branded Man - Merle Haggard
Streets of Baltimore - Bobby Bare
Made in Japan - Buck Owens

 

There are dozens of all-but-forgotten classics by Waylon, Merle and Buck. Three that come quickly to mind: Rainy Day Woman, Big City and Think Of Me, respectively

Bobby Bare is one of the best. Streets of Baltimore -- classic. I believe Gram Parsons covered that one, and Bobby's other '60s "hits," 500 Miles, Four Strong Winds, and Detroit City are fantastic.

Charley Pride had two singles that I really liked: Is Anybody Going to San Antone, and Kiss An Angel Good Morning.

I may have to work on a longer list. Cool thread!

 

Depends on what fan you ask. Most of classic country is probably ignored or forgotten by many of todays "country" fans. Hell, most of them probably dont even know who Marty Robbins is.

 

Paycheck "Wherever you are" "Touch my heart," which there are several good versions of, but I like his best.

 

As I work for a country station that dedicates an hour every morning to the country classics, and intersperses some of them during the day, there are times that whenever I start playing a song a listener hadn't heard for a long time, we end up getting tons of requests for that particular song.

 

Radney Foster, one I never hear anymore, one of my favorites

 

Joe Stampley - All These Things (I had this song in my head and it took me years to figure out the name of it and who sang it. One of my favorites.)


Charlie Rich - Rollin With The Flow (One of my favorite CR songs)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYQ7PKQis24

John Conley - Lady Lay Down (I know now where Keith Whitley got his sound from)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Vr8UC1TeNE

 

All very late 70's songs

Love or Something Like It - Kenny Rogers
Don't It Make Your Brown Eyes Blue - Crystal Gayle
Suspicious - Eddy Rabbit
Coat Of Many List - Dolly Parton

 

A couple more:

Mac Davis - I Believe In Music (not sure if this is really country, but I believe it was played on country radio)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09rBsH9l8bg

Kenny Rogers - Reuben James

 

''What Is Truth'' Johnny Cash

 

Great song! But I remember when this was part of the early 90s "Hot New Country" wave of music that arrived with Garth, and traditionalists were moaning even then about the lack of airplay for a lot of the songs noted in this thread.

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose...

 

The Teddy Bear Song - Barbara Fairchild

 

"Don't Touch Me" - Jeannie Seely
"Party Time" - T.G. Sheppard

 

I love this song, one of the few that takes me back to a particular moment in time. I can close my eyes and be back in 1981 with this one.

 

It's funny because to me, those songs you mentioned are staples of the genre but so many modern country fans wouldn't even know who they are. I used to get drunk after work to the whole Big City album by Haggard. Recently discovered that Bobby Bare was responsible for Waylon getting signed at RCA. Good call on that one, Bare. I imagine those Baltimore streets aren't too friendly these days.

Here's one of the most obscure masterpiece's about being locked in an asylum. Eerie. From the "Butcher of West Plains", Porter Wagoner: The Rubber Room. Apparently old Porter was no stranger to the looney-bin. He had himself committed to Parkview for a "nervous breakdown". Interesting character.

 

Outside of movies and TV, I don't remember the last time I heard Johnny Paycheck's "Take This Job and Shove It". It may not be forgotten but it seems to be forgotten by radio.

I do hear 80s material from Alabama, Reba McIntyre and The Judds occasionally on the radio.

 

That is the tricky thing about this thread. Big fans of classic country music will not find most of these songs obscure. Someone who lists modern country as their preferred genre would, but I doubt they are on this board.

 

There is a Cumulus radio station available nationwide, Nash Icon, which mixes classic country songs in all day long with the current country hits. I have often heard Merle Haggard's "Big City," the Willie Nelson/Merle Haggard duet on "Pancho and Lefty," and Dwight Yoakum's "Honky Tonk Man" on it, for example.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nash_FM

 

"The Last Game of the Season (A Blind Man in the Bleachers)"

 

My Dad really dug that song!

 

Hey, cut me some slack guy. I threw some uncommon choices in the pot! Haha. Just kidding, but I see your point. I guess I mean it more for those who are familiar to point out songs that we may know but seem to never get plays anymore. I might live in an echo-chamber in this part of the country because there's absolutely no radio channel that will play most of these songs aside from a SiriusXM station or the local college radio that might throw something like this in on occasion.

Just listened to your boy on vinyl last night. Have a NM copy of this record. The Spirit of Hank Williams. One of the million MGM compilation albums they put out. I never realized he had so many gospel-themed songs. I love it.

 

No doubt you're right. I assume most people checking on this thread are like me and dabble in classic country music though.

 

I feel like Tom T. Hall is all but forgotten by the industry and most fans. Its a damn shame, he was a great story telling song writer.

 

Pop A Top by Jim Ed Brown

 

And the SQ is very interesting, too.