Bookending chart trivia for the 70s…
The December 22, 1979 survey was the final Hot 100 tabulation for the 1970s. Looking back to the first chart (dated January 3, 1970), there were at least four artists with Top 40 singles on each survey:
*Michael Jackson (“I Want You Back” w/Jackson 5 and “Rock With You”)
*Stevie Wonder (“Yester-Me, Yester-You, Yesterday” and “Send One Your Love”)
*Smokey Robinson (“Point It Out” w/The Miracles and “Cruisin’”)
*Dionne Warwick (“I’ll Never Fall In Love Again” and “Déjà Vu”)
Ah ... what the heck ... I'll do a Country Connections that's the equivalent of the above – artists that were within the top 40 of both the first Billboard Hot Country Singles chart of the 1970s (Jan. 3, 1970) and final Billboard Hot Country Singles chart of the decade (Dec. 22, 1979):
* Charley Pride: Nearly mirroing chart positions on pole opposites of the decade – he was at No. 2 with a former No. 1 hit when the new decade dawned with "
(I'm So) Afraid Of Losing You Again"; 519 weeks later, he was at No. 3 (and eventually on his way to No. 2 on the Jan. 5, 1980 chart) with "
Missin' You."
* Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings: Each had solo hits on the Jan. 3, 1970 chart – the Man In Black with "
Blistered," just off its No. 4 peak and fallen to No. 7, and Ol' Waylon with the Chuck Berry-penned "
Brown-Eyed Handsome Man," at No. 17. The final 1970s chart had the two future Highwaymen in a duet, singing "
I Wish I Was Crazy Again"; they were at No. 24 this week and would peak at No. 22 on Jan. 5, 1980.
* Loretta Lynn: "
Wings Upon Your Horns," this week at No. 14, started off the decade and a year she'd release the single "
Coal Miner's Daughter," which she had recorded in the final weeks of 1969. In December 1979, as production wrapped on the biopic movie
Coal Miner's Daughter, Loretta had two songs, both in or near the top 10 – her solo hit "
I've Got a Picture Of Us On My Mind" (at No. 4, where it peaked), and her soon-to-be 10th duet hit with Conway Twitty, "
You Know Just What I'd Do" (at No. 13 but bound for the top 10); the Conway-Loretta duet had a B-side that was also getting lots of airplay, "
The Sadness Of It All." Conway, incidentally, was just a week away on Jan. 3, 1970, from debuting in the top 40 with "
That's When She Started To Stop Loving You," so he just missed being on in the top 40 of the first and last country chart of the decade. ("... Stop Loving You" was at No. 45 on Jan. 3, 1970, on its way into the top 5 by the end of February; while his solo hit – like Loretta, he, too had a solo hit in the top 15, so they were all over country radio around Christmastime of '79 – "
Happy Birthday Darlin'" was at No. 1 for its second week on Dec. 22, 1979, and get a third week by way of its frozen week.)
* Dottie West: It was very different sounding and public-imaged Dottie at each end of the 1970s. On Jan. 3, 1970, she and Don Gibson were enjoying their duet hit with "
There's a Story (Goin' Round)," and the very catchy tune, at No. 20 this week, was bound for No. 7 later in January. At decade's end, she was reflecting on a pair of successful duets with her best-known duet partner, Kenny Rogers (she'd also have a duet hit or two with Jimmy Dean in the early 1970s), but her chart entry this week was a very pop-country solo effort: "
You Pick Me Up and Put Me Down," which was at its No. 12 peak, and it was her biggest solo hit since her cover of Diana Ross' "
Last Time I Saw Him" in 1974.
* Jim Reeves: His string of posthumous hits was amazingly long, and his post-mortem chart career was longer than the one when he alive and recording all those songs country music fans would enjoy as new songs as late as 1982. On the first new country chart of the 1970s, Reeves was at No. 23 with "
Nobody's Fool," an eventual top-10 hit some 5-1/2 years after his death. In 1979, singer-songwriter Deborah Allen (who was 10 years old when Reeves died) recorded new tracks which were mixed with early-1960s recordings by Gentleman Jim, new music tracks were recorded … and one of the results was "
Oh, How I Miss You Tonight," at No. 9 on Dec. 22, 1979 but would peak on Jan. 12, 1980 at No. 6, their highest-charting "duet."
* Freddy Weller: The former Raider was a country star at both ends of the decade. Jan. 3, 1970 saw him at No. 25 (his peak position) with a cover of future country star Billy Joe Royal's "
Down In the Boondocks." He was still with Columbia Records in 1979 when he released "
Go For the Night," and on Dec. 22, 1979, he debuted in the top 40 at No. 40 with the song that eventually reached No. 33. (Weller, incidentally, had appeared on the TV series "Fantasy Island" earlier in 1979, singing a song called – appropriately enough – "
Fantasy Island" (the episode "The Comic"/"The Golden Hour," a song that perfectly summarized the series).
A few artists just missed being on the first and last country charts of the 1970s decade, and one of the most notables was Tom T. Hall, who in December 1979 had dropped out of the top 40 with "
You Show Me Your Heart" just two weeks earlier; he just reached the top 10 on Jan. 3, 1970, with that week's hottest song, his first No. 1 hit, "
A Week In a Country Jail.."
And that's a look at some Country Connections for this week!
Brian