EVERY Billboard #1 country hit of the 1990's discussion thread

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by W.B., Jan 20, 2022.

  1. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector Thread Starter

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    There was an irony, however, in who co-wrote the B side. I'm otherwise keeping mum on the significance thereof.
     
  2. tim_neely

    tim_neely Forum Hall Of Fame

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    Central VA
    I almost mentioned it in my write-up.
     
  3. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector Thread Starter

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    Ah, I commend you for your restraint. :righton:
     
  4. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector Thread Starter

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    New York, NY, USA
    Now for the only other track in this year to have a #1 run for more than two weeks . . .
    "You Know Me Better Than That" by George Strait
    (#1 for 3 weeks - August 17-31, 1991)

    [​IMG]
    Wikipedia entry
     
  5. tim_neely

    tim_neely Forum Hall Of Fame

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    In a 2017 interview with Bart Herbison of Nashville Songwriters Association International, Anna Lisa Graham explained the genesis of "You Know Me Better Than That." She said the idea came to her on the front porch of her residence at two in the morning one day. She soon had the first verse and the chorus, but after sharing it with several others, she had a hard time finding someone who would help her finish it. The issue, as she recalled, was the couplet "You know me better than that / You know the me that gets lazy and fat"; her potential collaborators couldn't imagine anyone singing the line ending in "fat," and at least one saw the potential in the song, but wanted to change that line, and she refused.

    All but ready to give up on her song fragment, she ran it past Russ Zavitson, who was the head of Harold Shedd's Sheddhouse Music, for which Graham wrote. He imnediately thought of Tony Haselden.

    Haselden was one of the founders of the band Louisiana's Le Roux (also known as Le Roux); he wrote and performed on the band's biggest hit, "Nobody Said It Was Easy," which peaked at #18 pop in 1982. Since moving to Nashville, he had placed a few songs, including Keith Whitley's last Billboard #1 hit, "It Ain't Nothin'."

    Once the two got together, the song practically wrote itself; Graham recalled in the same interview that they finished it in their first writing session, evidently a rarity in Nashville.

    As it came together, Graham could hear George Strait singing it in her mind because he was not averse to songs with a touch of humor (such as "Ocean Front Property" and "All My Ex's Live in Texas"). Well, the song got to Strait, he loved it, and he took it to #1. And he later told Graham that his favorite line in the song was the one so many people wanted her to change -- "You know the me that gets lazy and fat."

    ---

    I never really understood the song until, first, I listened to it again this morning and finally heard the lyric that made it make sense, and second, I read the Wikipedia article linked above.

    The line I'd missed all these years was the very first line, "Baby, since you left me, there's somebody new." Without hearing and understanding that line, I couldn't make sense of the rest of the song: Was the woman who thought he was perfect his lover who was taking this relationship too seriously, and the "you" in the chorus the person he was cheating on? But the arrangement was too jaunty and upbeat to be a cheatin' song.

    It turns out that the woman he's addressing is his ex, and he sounds at first as if he's rubbing her nose in this incredible woman he's found. But, as the Wikipedia article notes, he's actually engaging in a form of impostor syndrome, where he can't believe his good luck and wonders what he did to deserve it! (Another song with a similar theme is "Angel Eyes," a hit for the Jeff Healey Band, where the singer, "a clown like me," is astounded that he's the one with the most beautiful woman at the venue.)

    A line in "You Know Me Better Than That" I find amusing is "Oh, she tells her friends I'm perfect / And that I love her cat." It seemed to come out of nowhere.

    I'm really going to have to re-assess this song sone more. It was always kind of a trifle before today...
     
  6. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector Thread Starter

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    Now for another first-timer to the top . . . or is that first-timers? . . . well . . .
    "Brand New Man" by Brooks And Dunn
    (#1 for 2 weeks - September 7-14, 1991)

    [​IMG]
    Wikipedia entry - and it's obvious listening to this (and seeing the video), that it ain't a duet between Garth and Holly. In all seriousness, the second band to have their debut single reach #1 after Diamond Rio.
     
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  7. JamieC

    JamieC Senior Member

    Location:
    Detroit Mi USA
    Rest in Peace Naomi Judd. Thank you for the music you gave to your children and to the world.
    An accidental legend and superstar. She was just there to help Wynonna who was unsure of herself. And they heard the sound of the two together, but that was never the plan. But there she was.
     
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  8. tim_neely

    tim_neely Forum Hall Of Fame

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    For you and everyone else reading, here's the video of the only #1 single the Judds had in the 1990s, in the Feb. 23, 1991 Cash Box, "Love Can Build a Bridge":



    It got to #5 in Billboard and #3 in Radio & Records, and it's considered one of the Judds' signature songs.
     
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  9. tim_neely

    tim_neely Forum Hall Of Fame

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    Back to the countdown...

    They weren't exactly an accidental duo like the Judds or, much earlier, Loggins and Messina, but Brooks and Dunn had been two more-or-less failed solo artists before Tim DuBois of Arista Nashville suggested that the two, who had been paired as songwriters, would make a good singing duo as well.

    Before "Brand New Man," Kix Brooks had recorded two singles for the Nashville indie label Avion and an album and three singles for Capitol, none of which charted higher than #73. He also already had a name as a songwriter, with co-writes on three #1s in the 1980s for John Conlee, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, and Highway 101.

    Ronnie Dunn had recorded one single for the obscure Chattanooga label in the 1970s and six sides for the Tulsa, Oklahoma label Churchill in the 1980s, two of which got to #59. After that, Dunn returned to the honky-tonks of Tulsa. In 1989, spurred on by fellow Tulsa musician Jamie Oldaker, who had drummed for Bob Seger and Eric Clapton, among others, and a few years later would be one of the founding members of The Tractors, Dunn entered and won a talent contest sponsored by Marlboro cigarettes, the grand prize of which was a recording session in Nashville. Scott Hendricks, who produced that session, recommended Dunn to DuBois, and the rest is history.

    "Brand New Man" was co-written by Brooks, Dunn, and Don Cook, who became their regular producer. Coincidentally, Cook's first #1 as a songwriter had also been with John Conlee, "Lady Lay Down."

    This was already the third different artist to hit #1 from the upstart Arista Nashville label, which had just begun in 1989. And all three (the other two were Alan Jackson and Diamond Rio) would have long-lasting sucesss with the label.

    "Brand New Man" was a terrific debut single with a semi-regular theme (the right woman calms down a formerly wild man), using Evangelical and Pentecostal imagery (fire, flames, born again). I did start to tire of the Brooks & Dunn sound as the '90s went on, but those days were still well in the future. I'll consider this for a later volume of A Few of My Favorite Things.
     
  10. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector Thread Starter

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    Next up, this 'newie' to the top . . .
    "Leap Of Faith" by Lionel Cartwright
    (#1 for 1 week - September 21, 1991)

    [​IMG]
    Wikipedia entry - also, his last time at Numero Uno.
     
  11. tim_neely

    tim_neely Forum Hall Of Fame

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    Central VA
    "Leap of Faith" proved to be the country-music peak for Lionel Cartwright. He sometimes gets grouped with the "Class of '89" country singers, but he was by far the least successful of them.

    He had made his first single in 1988. Prior to "Leap of Faith," his biggest hit was "Give Me His Last Chance," from his self-titled debut, which peaked at #3 in 1989. A 1990 single, "I Watched It All (On My Radio," which got to #8, is another I remember hearing as a recurrent.

    Cartwright never even made the top 20 again. After neither of the first two singles from the planned album The Real Story could get higher than #50, MCA canceled it, and he was soon dropped by his label.

    Since then, Cartwright has done well for himself by writing musical cues and themes for hundreds of TV shows and streaming productions.

    ---

    I have a tendency to confuse "Leap of Faith" with "Walk on Faith." Both have similar titles; both hit #1 in 1991; and both were the only solo #1s by their artists, who were as close to one-hit wonders as country music usually gets. They even have thematic similarities.

    I think I prefer the Mike Reid hit, which is more uptempo, but I like the video for the Cartwright song. It's hard to go wrong with either one.
     
  12. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector Thread Starter

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    New York, NY, USA
    All right now, here's one where there shouldn't be such confusion:
    "Where Are You Now" by Clint Black
    (#1 for 2 weeks - September 28-October 5, 1991)

    [​IMG]
    Wikipedia entry - notice how more complex BMG's numbering system is now . . .
     
  13. tim_neely

    tim_neely Forum Hall Of Fame

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    Central VA
    Y'know, no matter how complicated RCA's numbering system got, it was never as inscrutable as that of the PolyGram labels.

    In discussing Clint Black's past #1s of the 1990s, I hadn't mentioned his regular co-writer, Hayden Nicholas. He and Black met in 1987, when the latter was still a working stiff who played clubs on the weekends in Texas. Nicholas was a guitarist who had a home studio. The two hit it off immediately, and ever since Black was signed, Nicholas has been part of his touring band.

    "Where Are You Now" is not to be confused with a pop hit from 1989 with the same name, recorded by a band called Synch with lead singer Jimmy Harnan, which finally became a hit in its third attempt. Anyway, the Black song is much better. It's another one about feeling lost and bereft without a former lover around, though not as entertaining as "Nobody's Home." It's still good, though.
     
  14. tim_neely

    tim_neely Forum Hall Of Fame

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    Central VA
    It's time again, as we've finished the third quarter of 1991, to catch up on the #1s in Radio & Records and Cash Box since last we left off, as always avoiding spoilers. I will put in bold anything that didn't hit #1 in Billboard. If a song hit #1 in both other magazines but not in Billboard, it will be in bold italics.

    During this period, there were an extraordinary number of songs, 12 in all, that hit the top in either of the other two magazines that didn't get there in Billboard, including several all-time classics.

    Radio & Records country #1s

    Jun. 28-Jul. 5: "Don't Rock the Jukebox," Alan Jackson
    Jul. 12: "Somewhere in My Broken Heart," Billy Dean (BB #3)
    Jul. 19: "Here's a Quarter (Call Someone Who Cares)," Travis Tritt (BB #2)
    Jul. 26: "She's in Love with the Boy," Trisha Yearwood
    Aug. 2: "Here We Are," Alabama (BB #2)
    Aug. 9: "You Know Me Better Than That," George Strait (CB #2)
    Aug. 16: "Small Town Saturday Night," Hal Ketchum (BB #2, CB #4)
    Aug. 23: "Brand New Man," Brooks & Dunn
    Aug. 30: "Down to My Last Teardrop," Tanya Tucker (BB #2)
    Sep. 6: "Your Love Is a Miracle," Mark Chesnutt (BB #3)
    Sep. 13: "Where Are You Now," Clint Black
    Sep. 20: "I Thought It Was You," Doug Stone (BB #4, CB #3)
    Sep. 27: "Rodeo," Garth Brooks (BB #3)

    Cash Box country #1s

    Jul. 13: "Don't Rock the Jukebox," Alan Jackson
    Jul. 20: "I Am a Simple Man," Ricky Van Shelton (RR #2)
    Jul. 27: "Somewhere in My Broken Heart," Billy Dean
    Aug. 3: "Here's a Quarter (Call Someone Who Cares)," Travis Tritt
    Aug. 10: "She's in Love with the Boy," Trisha Yearwood
    Aug. 17: "Here We Are," Alabama
    Aug. 24: "Fallin' Out of Love," Reba McEntire (BB #2, RR #2)
    Aug. 31: "Down to My Last Teardrop," Tanya Tucker
    Sep. 7: "Brand New Man," Brooks & Dunn
    Sep. 14: "Since I Don't Have You," Ronnie Milsap (BB #6, RR #3)
    Sep. 21: "Your Love Is a Miracle," Mark Chesnutt
    Sep. 28: "Where Are You Now," Clint Black
    Oct. 5-12: "Rodeo," Garth Brooks
    Oct. 19: "The Walk," Sawyer Brown (BB #2, RR #2)

    Of the seven Billboard #1s the last three months, only four of them reached the top in both RR and CB. Of the other three, one hit #1 in RR but not in CB, and one hit #1 in CB but not in RR. And, for the first time since "Five Minutes" by Lorrie Morgan (April 14, 1990), a song hit #1 in Billboard but in neither Radio & Records nor Cash Box:

    "Leap of Faith," Lionel Cartwright (RR #2, CB #2)
     
  15. torcan

    torcan Forum Resident

    Location:
    Toronto
    In looking at these lists, I guess its clear that Billboard was the only trade magazine using the new technology to compile their chart. The others still must have been using stations reported playlists which automatically dropped a song after a week at No. 1.
     
  16. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector Thread Starter

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    New York, NY, USA
    Speaking of Billboard, let's get to the next #1 they had here:
    "Keep It Between The Lines" by Ricky Van Shelton
    (#1 for 2 weeks - October 12-19, 1991)

    [​IMG]
    Wikipedia entry - alas, his 10th and final time at the top.
     
  17. JamieC

    JamieC Senior Member

    Location:
    Detroit Mi USA
    I love this one. What was the other one about this time, The Car? Rebuilding the car together. Daddy songs. That one and Paul Overstreet(Seeing My Father In Me) were just killing me.
     
  18. tim_neely

    tim_neely Forum Hall Of Fame

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    Central VA
    Are you thinking of "The Car" by Jeff Carson? That was from 1995.
     
  19. tim_neely

    tim_neely Forum Hall Of Fame

    Location:
    Central VA
    Like several other songs we've heard so far, "Keep It Between the Lines" was based on real life.

    Co-composer Kathy Louvin is the daughter of Ira Louvin of The Louvin Brothers. In an interview with blogger Robert von Bernewitz published in 2020, she explained how the song happened: "I was a single parent for a long time. My oldest son Travis was trying to get me to color with him. I think I was cooking dinner or something. I was making excuses like we all do and then finally I said 'I’m not sure I remember how to color.' He said, 'Oh c’mon Mom, I’ll sit beside you. You’ll do just fine if you stay between the lines.' We had an old saying in the south 'Keep it between the ditches.' I had a writing appointment the next day with Russell Smith and I told him about it. We just started writing it… that’s how it happened."

    Russell Smith got his start as lead singer of the Amazing Rhythm Aces of "Third Rate Romance" fame. After the group broke up in the early 1980s, he began writing both for himself and for others; he had one country Top 40 solo hit in 1989, "I Wonder What She's Doing Tonight," which is neither the Barry & the Tamerlanes hit nor the Tommy Boyce & Bobby Hart hit. We'll hear from him again in this thread.

    Though "Keep It Between the Lines" was Ricky Van Shelton's final #1 hit, he would hit #2 once more with the title song from the album Backroads in 1992. After his first greatest-hits album in 1992, Shelton never regained momentum and was dropped by Columbia in 1995. He would do three more albums for independent labels, the last of which came out in 2000.

    In 2006, he announced his retirement from music. Ever since, he and his wife of almost 40 years have lived outside Nashville on his 150-acre farm, and he keeps himself busy with other interests, including painting and collecting classic cars.

    ---

    My memory was faulty on "Keep It Between the Lines." I remembered it as an uptempo song, but it's a slow one. And just as I'd forgotten that, I forgot how good it is.

    Wow, 1991 had some top-notch #1 hits.
     
  20. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector Thread Starter

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    Now movin' on again . . .
    "Anymore" by Travis Tritt
    (#1 for 2 weeks - October 26-November 2, 1990)

    [​IMG]
    Wikipedia entry
     
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  21. tim_neely

    tim_neely Forum Hall Of Fame

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    Travis Tritt's co-composer on "Anymore," Jill Colucci, got a relatively late start as a professional singer-songwriter, as she didn't make her first record until she was in her 30s. By the end of the 1980s, she was in demand as a singer for commercials, TV shows, and films; she was all over Julia Roberts' breakout movie Mystic Pizza, and she sang the theme song for the Bob Saget version of America's Funniest Home Videos.

    Her connections brought her to Nashville, where she began writing with numerous collaborators, including Travis Tritt. She co-wrote, with Stewart Harris, Tritt's earlier #2 hit (#1 in Radio & Records and Cash Box), "I'm Gonna Be Somebody." We'll hear from her again before long.

    The album from which this came, It's All About to Change, was released on vinyl only through Columbia House (1P-8138).

    "Anymore" has moved me since I first heard it back in 1992 as a recurrent. I think I was delighted to find out that it had hit #1, thus it would become part of ny collection eventually. But guess what? I completely misinterpreted this song for 30 years!

    Because of the melancholy feel of the song, and the obvious line "I don't love you anymore," I thought for sure it was a breakup or parting song. But after listening to it again, and looking at the lyrics at the same time, it's almost the opposite: The singer is tired of hiding that he's really in love.

    I am on the verge of living this song with a woman I've had an on-again, off-again crush on for almost three years. I can think of every reason why it could never work out between us, but I will never know how valid those concerns are unless I stop living it in my mind and bring it into the open.

    Oh, and that guitar solo is right out of classic rock. Had "Anymore" come out even two years later, it either would have been covered by a pop-rock singer or given a pop remix. I definitely could hear this song on adult-contemporary radio.

    This is yet another 1991 #1 that will find a place on A Few of My Favorite Things.
     
    Last edited: May 10, 2022
  22. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector Thread Starter

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    The next one up . . .
    "Someday" by Alan Jackson
    (#1 for 1 week - November 9, 1991)

    [​IMG]
    Wikipedia entry
     
  23. tim_neely

    tim_neely Forum Hall Of Fame

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    Central VA
    Jim McBride, Alan Jackson's co-writer on "Someday," had his first big hit as a songwriter with "A Bridge That Just Won't Burn," a #3 hit in early 1981 for Conway Twitty. Later in the '80s, McBride co-wrote "Rose in Paradise," Waylon Jennings' last #1 hit.

    In the 1990s, McBride became a regular collaborator with Jackson. Before this, they had already written the hit "Chasin' That Neon Rainbow," a #1 in Radio & Records, and they would write more, including one of Jackson's biggest and most remembered hits, later to come in this thread.

    The last line of the chorus reminds me of the last single by Creedence Clearwater Revival when the band was still together, "Someday Never Comes," in 1972. The tempo isn't the same, but it explores some of the same ideas.

    I watched the video after re-listening to the song without it. I can't decide if the video is a cop-out or not; after all, it has a happy ending, whereas the song does not.



    Oddly, I don't really remember this song from ny country-radio listening days. Perhaps I blocked it out, because it hits way too close to home. Except that she "left" by forcing me to leave... My goodness, she even said she still loved me...
     
  24. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector Thread Starter

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    Next one up . . .
    "Shameless" by Garth Brooks
    (#1 for 2 weeks - November 16-23, 1991)

    (Live performance shown here: )

    [​IMG]
    Wikipedia entry
     
  25. tim_neely

    tim_neely Forum Hall Of Fame

    Location:
    Central VA
    With "Shameless," Billy Joel joins that list of songwriters who aren't known for country music but wrote a #1 country hit. Some of his predecessors included Jimmy Reed; Barry, Robin & Maurice Gibb; Tom Petty and Benmont Tesch; Phil Spector; and John Lennon & Paul McCartney.

    "Shameless" was first recorded by Joel for his 1989 album Storm Front, which yielded the #1 pop hit "We Didn't Start the Fire" and the Top 10 "I Go to Extremes." After those two, Columbia, Joel's label, got dininishing returns from three more singles -- "The Downeaster 'Alexa'," "That's Not Her Style," and "And So It Goes."

    When Garth Brooks' version became a #1 country hit, Columbia serviced adult-contemporary radio with a promo CD single of Joel's version of "Shameless," probably because some unsolicited crossover airplay of the Brooks version was noted in the fine print of the Radio & Records CHR and AC surveys. (I know I heard Garth's version in the Philadelphia area on non-country radio.) The Joel version was released as a cassette single, but not on a vinyl 45, and it got to #40 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart in early 1992.

    As "Rodeo" had ended Brooks' Billboard streak of #1 singles, this was the first single from Ropin' the Wind to hit the top. That album was the last of his to see a vinyl release in the U.S. before the Legacy box set, through Columbia House. Instead of using the CD cover for the LP, the club used the CD longbox picture on the front cover. Even more peculiarly, though the album had 10 songs, the record was released with six songs on Side 1 and four songs on Side 2 rather than a 5-5 split.

    It also was on LP in Europe, but with 14 songs instead of 10. The extra cuts were four non-hit songs from the Garth Brooks album, which at the time had not been released in Europe.

    Why on earth Columbia didn't release Billy Joel's version as a single earlier than it did is a mystery, because Joel's version is very good. But it worked out for all in the end. "Shameless" is another terrific single from Garth.
     

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