And at #38 on Billboard's Hot Country Singles chart on March 2, 1974 was Tex Ritter's rendition of "Americans." That was its only week within the country chart's Top 40, and its only appearance on Don Bowman's American Country Countdown.
As part of the introduction to Tex Ritter's "Americans" on ACC, Don Bowman pointed out that American Forces Radio outlets around the world refused to play any of the three charted versions of the spoken word recording for fear that listening countries outside the U.S. might be insulted, and it "might bend a lot of foreign noses out of shape." Because AT40 had a one-hour AFRTS broadcast airing every week, that may also explain the reason for flip-flopping the MacGregor and Sinclair versions.
A bit of additional trivia about Tex Ritter's posthumous charting of "
The Americans" within the top 40:
* The website Praguefrank -- which lists a goldmine of information about country music artists' recordings (dates, places, producers, session personnel, etc.) -- indicates that Tex Ritter recorded this song on Dec. 20, 1973, less than two weeks before his death and at his last recording session within his lifetime; a flip side, "He Who Is Without Sin," was also recorded that same day. Just five days after his death, "The Ameicans" was released.
* Those early ACC shows are a goldmine for many artists of country music's pre-1950 era who were still viable recording acts and charting -- sometimes quite high -- within the top 40. On the March 2 show alone, there were four artists who were charting prior to 1950 that had top 40 hits; besides Tex Ritter (whose career dates to the early 1930s!), there were:
-- Lonzo and Oscar. A comedy duo -- in the vein of Homer and Jethro -- best known for their 1948 novelty single "
I'm My Own Grandpa," the duo made a brief comeback in the mid-1970s with an album not of comedy songs but of sentimental and religious songs. At No. 39 -- in its second of a five week stay within the top 40, where they'd eventually land at No. 29 was "
Traces Of Life," a song about home and people who made a difference in their lives.
-- Patti Page. The most successful female country-pop diva of the early 1950s, she had her first charted country hit in 1949 with "
Money, Marbles and Chalk." By the mid 1970s, she was recording almost exclusively country, and had a song that was at its peak on the March 2, 1974, show at No. 29: "
You're Gonna Hurt Me."
-- George Morgan. Best known for his 1949 hit "
Candy Kisses," the father of 1990s country star Lorrie Morgan had a comeback hit in 1974 with "
Red Rose From the Blue Side Of Town," an eventual No. 21 hit.
Eddy Arnold wasn't in the top 40 this particular week, but he was just coming off a top-25 hit "
She's Got Everything I Need," and would continue charting into the early 1980s. Ray Price had his first hit, "
Jealous Lies," in 1950, and was around 24 years later with his latest hit "
Storms of Troubled Times" (follow up to "
You're the Best Thing That's Ever Happened to Me" (which Gladys Knight and the Pips also did).
Also coming up the Hot Country Singles and just about to debut within the coming weeks were at least three more 1950-or-earlier artists:
-- Lefty Frizzell, with "
I Never Go Around Mirrors (I've Got a Heartache To Hide)."
-- Hank Snow, with his evenutal No. 1 hit "
Hello Love."
-- Hank Thompson and an eventual top 10 hit "
The Older the Violin the Sweeter the Music."
And there was Marty Robbins with "
Twentieth Century Drifter," his new hit bound for the top 10. He began releasing songs on a national basis in 1951, but had done some recording several years earlier.
No longer charting in the top 40 at this point, but still recording and releasing new singles were two icons of the early 1950s:
* Webb Pierce, who was in the final years of his MCA contract, with the non-charter "
You Better Treat Her Right." One of honky tonk music's top icons of the mid 1950s, younger artists were taking his place.
* Kitty Wells, the girl who warned "
It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels" in 1952, her music also had fallen out of favor by the early 1970s. Interestingly, one of her last songs recorded for MCA Records was a Bob Dylan composition called "
Forever Young." It's an interesting listen, but Kitty Wells was known to be just that in her music.
By the way ... you've heard "Forever Young," right? Not the Kitty Wells version, of course; I just listened to it for the first time ever a couple of weeks ago. You probably know a reworked version ... one with a melody similar to the Dylan original (which Wells followed) as done by Rod Stewart in 1988.
(To stress, the Kitty Wells "Forever Young" cover is
NOT exactly the same version as the one we know well and true by Rod Stewart, just one with similar lyrics and melody.)
Just thought some interesting notes about March 1974 on ACC were in order. And now, on with the countdown ...
Brian