EVERY Billboard #1 country hit discussion thread 1970-1974

Amazingly, this individual had his first Number One with this . . .
"Come Live With Me" by Roy Clark
(#1 for 1 week - May 12, 1973)


Wikipedia entry - . . . and also, his last. As well, scraped up to #89 on the Hot 100.

 

Another first-timer comes forth . . .
"What's Your Mama's Name" by Tanya Tucker
(#1 for 1 week - May 19, 1973)


Wikipedia entry - managed to reach #86 on pop Hot 100.

 

The biggest (and only Number One) hit for this individual . . .
"Satin Sheets" by Jeanne Pruett
(#1 for 3 non-consecutive weeks - May 26-June 2 and June 23, 1973)


Wikipedia entry - and the first country Number One for the MCA Records entity, following the consolidation of Decca, Kapp and Uni into same.

 

One of those ironic cases of an artist so well-known as a songwriter for others having her/his biggest hit with a song composed by someone else.

God knows I played this song many times in the 70s. The country/rockabilly bar band I was in had another guitarist whose wife would sing just a few numbers with us. This was one of them. The rest of us did have the backing vocals all worked out.

Also in our repertoire was Marty Robbins' "Love Me," which Jeanne wrote.

 

That initial run of singles by Tanya Tucker of Columbia was really golden. Every one of them, right up through "Spring," was great.

I was working country radio in 1973 — a little 500-watt daytime station, but nevertheless Tanya came by for an interview, escorted by her dad. Not sure what month that was, but she either would have still been 14 or just turned 15.

She was wonderfully sweet and unaffected — a bit of a far cry from the image she began to cultivate just a few years later.

 

I met her at 16. She was touring her first MCA album. She was such a sweet kid. Saw her again in the late 80s in Vegas where she was appearing with Sawyer Brown, actually out in the casino playing Blackjack and slots badly, was drunk and loud. And THIS was what Glen Campbell hooked up with. To say I was disappointed would be an understatement.

 

Now for the first of two singles which explain why "Satin Sheets' " run was non-consecutive . . .
"You Always Come Back (To Hurting Me)" by Johnny Rodriguez
(#1 for 1 week - June 9, 1973)


Wikipedia entry - Mr. Rodriguez' first topper. 21 at the time, he set a record for 39 years as the youngest male ever to top the country charts.

 

Now, another famous one from the "First Lady of Country Music" . . .
"Kids Say The Darndest Things" by Tammy Wynette
(#1 for 1 week - June 16, 1973)

While this was in release, Epic's label design was a-changin':

Wikipedia entry - got to #72 on pop Hot 100.

 

Next song to play on the #1 jukebox . . .
"Don't Fight The Feelings Of Love" by Charley Pride
(#1 for 1 week - June 30, 1973)


Wikipedia entry

 

Now for one that took its sweet little time to become a hit . . .
"Why Me" by Kris Kristofferson
(#1 for 1 week - July 7, 1973)


Wikipedia entry - his only major hit on these here charts; its impact was most felt on the 'pop' Hot 100 where it stayed for 38 weeks, was in the Top 40 19 weeks, and ultimately peaked at #16.

 

This was the song and the artist that got me into country music big time. I saw him sing the song on the Johnathan Winters show and the next day we went out and bought the eight track of the album. It was the very first studio album by an artist that I had heard without a single weak song on it. It remains one of my top ten favorite albums of all time.

 

It's been a long time since a full on gospel song has been number one on the country chart and also crossed over to the pop chart as well. This song became quite the country music standard over the years and everyone from Elvis Presley, Charlie Rich, Tanya Tucker and George Jones has recorded there own cover versions of it.

 

I was actually a bigger fan of this single's B-side, "Help Me," and used to play it a lot when I worked country radio.

It actually starts out with Larry Gatlin singing the first verse (an immediate improvement!), and like the hit side features Larry and Rita Coolidge harmonizing with Kris on the chorus.

 

Now for the seventh Number One from this lass - and the first for her as on this label . . .
"Love Is The Foundation" by Loretta Lynn
(#1 for 2 weeks - July 14-21, 1973)


Wikipedia entry

 

I've been waiting for this one, and I have a story to tell about it. (Feel free to skip over it entirely if it's too long or doesn't interest you!)

I was working at a 500-watt country station in 1973. Somehow we hooked up with songwriter Jerry Foster, who had had considerable success up to that point with his co-compositions with Bill Rice (my favorite was Hank Williams Jr.'s "I'll Think of Something"). Jerry was at the time trying to get a career as a performer cranked up with the fledgling Cinnamon label — which had its biggest success with Narvel Felts. Jerry had a single out on Cinnamon called "The Copperhead" — the flip side of which was Otis Redding's "Hard to Handle," long before The Black Crowes got ahold of it!

Anyway, we booked him for some shows here in Ohio and played the hell out of his records. My sister even became president of his fan club for a while. One of the shows he got booked on was opening for Loretta Lynn in Akron. She had just recently had a big hit with "Love Is the Foundation," and also slated to appear on that show was William C. "Bill" Hall, who was the composer of that song. Bill was from the Canton area, and it was agreed that Bill's band would back up Jerry when he performed.

Me being a guitarist, I was dispatched to Bill's home to teach him the songs that Jerry was planning to play, so he could teach them to his band. I spent a very pleasant evening with him; truly a nice guy.

So the night of the show comes, and everything goes fine with Bill and Jerry. Then came Loretta's part of the show. When it was time to do "Love Is the Foundation," she introduced Bill again and invited him onstage to perform the song with her. She also said — and I remember this quite clearly — that next to "Coal Miner's Daughter," this was her favorite song out of all the ones she'd ever recorded. Maybe she was just being nice to Bill, but she seemed sincere in saying it.

The coda to this story is that many years later (ca. 2016), by chance I was able to meet up with Bill again. He said he had had a stroke a few years back, so that his memories of that series of events were hazy. But he was still playing and writing songs, and he ended up helping me record one of my own songs in his basement studio. He had a drummer friend and also one who was one hell of a guitar and pedal steel player. Bill played bass, and I was very happy with how it all turned out.

Bill is still a very nice guy (and "Love Is the Foundation" is still MY favorite Loretta Lynn song).

 

Posts like yours certifiably add to the experience of what the scene was like "back then," and thus are most appreciated.

Now to get to the next topper . . .
"You Were Always There" by Donna Fargo
(#1 for 1 week - July 28, 1973)


Wikipedia entry - could only climb to #93 on Hot 100.

 

Been a little bit since we last saw this picker at the top . . .
"Lord, Mr. Ford" by Jerry Reed
(#1 for 1 week - August 4, 1973)


Wikipedia entry

 

And then after Mr. Hubbard sings about Fords . . .
"Trip To Heaven" by Freddie Hart And The Heartbeats
(#1 for 1 week - August 11, 1973)


Wikipedia entry - the last topper to Mr. Hart's name.

 

I used to sing this one long ago. Freddie had quite a run there for a couple of years, after many years before it trying to make it with not a lot of success.

 

Now for another chart-topping duet from these individuals:
"Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man" by Loretta Lynn / Conway Twitty
(#1 for 1 week - August 18, 1973)


Wikipedia entry

 

Now for this number . . .
"Everybody's Had The Blues" by Merle Haggard And The Strangers
(#1 for 2 weeks - August 25-September 1, 1973)


Wikipedia entry - managed to make #62 on the Hot 100; I have another copy besides the one above, on which the A side had no label copy whatsoever:

 

Now for another song synonymous with this individual . . .
"You've Never Been This Far Before" by Conway Twitty
(#1 for 3 weeks - September 8-22, 1973)


Wikipedia entry - the only song after his becoming a country artist to make the pop Top 40 of the Hot 100, reaching #22.

 

Next up . . .
"Blood Red And Goin' Down" by Tanya Tucker
(#1 for 1 week - September 29, 1973)


Wikipedia entry - somehow got to #74 on pop Hot 100.

 

There is not a single Tanya track on Columbia that I do not love. And most of them were definitely not "age appropriate". She is 14 here.

 

You do have to wonder if, for all the "traditionalism," there was something of a subversive streak in Billy Sherrill in certain areas.