as a reminder, these are songs from my tween/teen years that I heard on mainstream radio stations.. they are mostly from the late 60's through the 70's... the thing they all have in common is that they all contributed to my country conversion.. I never knew I loved country music until I learned that these songs ARE country songs! When my total conversion happened in the late 80's/ early 90's and I started hearing all THESE songs on country radio and I was like "THAT'S a country song??" I never knew....
- My Maria- B.J. Stevenson : before Brooks and Dunn's version, there was this fine one! When I first heard B and D's version, I thought, "I know that!" I had no idea it was country, or was it? Maybe it was a reverse cross over!
- Baby's Got Her Blue Jeans On- Mel McDaniel : decades after I fell in love with this song I was sitting in the Grand Ole Opry and out he comes and sings this song and I about screamed my lungs out! I had NO idea! What a great surprise that was! Since then, I have seen him do this many times on the Opry stage and each time is a treat and brings a smile to my face and fond memories back to my brain, but nothing beats the first time I heard it live and realized it was a country song all along!
- Okie From Muskogee- Merle Haggard : I remember thinking what's an okie? where's Muskogee? is he a tree? Why don't they wear their hair long there? Youthful/Yankee ignorance! Coming from NYC the whole song was so far from what I believed in as a 13 year old, but I liked it anyway.. it wasn't until years later that I learned he wrote it as satire!
- I Can Help- Billy Swan : I wanted him to help with his 2 strong arms!
- Funny Face- Donna Fargo : what could give more encouragement to a teenager in her awkward phase than this song?
- Long Haired Country Boy- Charlie Daniels : in my alternate universe, I wanted to bring back someone like that and introduce him to my mom.. can you imagine? lol I think this song taught me the meaning of being a redneck (not that there's anything wrong with that!)
- Let Me Love You Tonight- Pure Prairie League : so smooth and easy! I loved that California country/rock sound
- Dixie Chicken- Little Feat : I wondered how one could use the terms dixie chicken and tennessee lamb as terms of endearment! I reasoned it must be that redneck thing again! I loved it when Garth re-cut it.
- Fishin' In The Dark- Nitty Gritty Dirt Band : I knew a euphimism when I heard it! very cool! Likewise, I was thrilled when Garth re-cut it.
- The End Of The World - Skeeter Davis : such angst!
- Hooked on A Feeling, I Just Can't Help Believing, Hey Won't You Play Another Done Somebody Wrong Song, Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head- B.J. Thomas : I loved his voice.. I recently saw him on the RFD-TV show Country's Family Reunion..
- El Paso, My Woman My Woman My Wife- Marty Robbins : I see that El Paso came out in 1959, much before my radio days, so I guess I must have heard it as an "oldie" in my very first wave of consiousness from listening to AM radio in the mid 60's.
- Up On Cripple Creek, The Weight- The Band : classic
- The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down- Joan Baez : I was familiar with her version before The Band's. Either version is fantastic.
- Ok, I think that's it for now.. if I think of anything else, I'll post a part 3! Hope I've given you some new ideas for your i-Pods!
I, too, loved B J Thomas' songs. Have to look up some of his songs for my computer. Thanks for sharing and the memories.
ReplyDelete"I never knew I loved country music until I learned that these songs ARE country songs! When my total conversion happened in the late 80's/ early 90's and I started hearing all THESE songs on country radio and I was like "THAT'S a country song??" I never knew...."
ReplyDeleteI so relate to that comment, although most of the songs I remember are from the mid-50s and 60's, and not so much from the late 60's and 70's when I reverted to Oldies stations for my radio listening. Artists like Johnny Cash, Everly Brothers and Patsy Cline who crossed over...never thought of them as being country music artists for some reason. Then my Oldies station switched to a country music format in the early 90s and I was too lazy to switch...and proceeded to get hooked when I heard this song (a little ditty called Friends in Low Places) by someone who had been out a few years and who I had never heard of. Bam! That did it!
Thanks for sharing your memories. So glad you're back in writing mode!
I learned about lots of artists from Oldies radio too... Patsi among them... but I think I remember hearing the Everly Bros. on mainstream radio too... along with Dion... he had some late 60/s early 70's stuff so I knew those songs before I ever heard of the Belmonts.. thank you both for your feedback and encouragement
ReplyDeleteI need to clarify...my mainstream radio listening was in the mid-50's and 60's. I switched over to the Oldies stations during the late 60's and early 70's where I stayed until the early 90's. So I heard Patsy and the Everly Brothers when they crossed over, although I heard the Everly Brothers a lot on mainstream radio.
ReplyDeleteI like you Harriet heard all these songs on the radio and never knew they were "country".
ReplyDeleteI listened to the "oldies" in the 70"s and early 80's but as you know the "oldies" just keep repeating. I was looking for new music that didn't scream at me. My mother in law loved country and my sister in law and friend was listening also...
My first conscious turning the dial to country music was to Lee Greenwood in the early '80's. His Inside Out album caught my attention and I started to turn to the country station to hear him. I never changed back....
Ummmm I'm waiting for you to post the Times Square poem!!
ReplyDeleteI was holding on to the Times Square poem because I haven't even broached the Garth toopic yet, but perhaps that's not important, the poem stands on it's own... ok, I'll see about getting to that asap! :)
ReplyDeleteA lot of this songs are even very well known in my country. Love them all. Hardly ever hear a country song on the radio here anymore.
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