Country Singles Jubilee 1.12.09: The Swinging 60s

Posted by Jasper Jones on 01.12.2009

Climb aboard the Jubilee's time machine and lets go back to the swinging 60s to enjoy some of the biggest country hits of that decade!

Welcome back to The Jubilee everybody! While I was looking for Top 40 songs to cover this week, I realized that I had covered just about everything on the charts right now. So, the format of The Jubilee will be different for the next couple of weeks. Instead of reviewing current Top 40 country songs, I'll be taking a special look at some of the most popular country songs (and some of my personal favorites) from each decade starting with the 1960s. Sound cool to you guys?

MUSIC TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Country Sounds of the 1960s

Johnny Cash - "Ring of Fire"

The first country song of the 60s I'm going to cover is a bona fide classic, Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire". Written by Cash's future wife June Carter and co-writer Merle Kilgore, the song was released in 1963 and went on to become Johnny's biggest song sitting at the top of the country charts for seven weeks. June has said that she read the phrase, "love is burning like a ring of fire", in an old poetry book and decided to write a song inspired by the line. This just happened to be around the time that Johnny and June were romancing each other. "Ring of Fire" was originally recorded by June's sister, Anita Carter, but failed to chart well. Johnny decided to record it, but he changed some of the words around and added the signature mariachi horns.



Merle Haggard - "Okie From Muskogee"

Much to Merle Haggad's surprise, his satirical song about Middle America during the Vietnam War quickly turned into an anthem for those who it mocked. "Okie From Muskogee" was written when Merle Haggard and Roy Burris were trading lines about life in small town America where life was conservative and straight-laced. It was meant to be a spoof of the views opposite of Merle's and the hippies of the day. However in reality it gave a voice to those who were upset over the Vietnam War protests, the burning of draft cards, and the smoking of marijuana. The song was released in 1969 and immediately hit it huge. A month after it's release, "Okie From Muskogee" was the number one song on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart and stayed there for four weeks. Surprisingly enough, it was also a minor pop hit just falling short of the Top 40.



Glen Campbell - "Wichita Lineman"

Last year I saw Glen Campbell play at a casino in Illinois. His voice and guitar work was still good, but no where near the level it was back in 1968 when "Wichita Lineman" was released. However, when he played the song it gave me goose-bumps anyway. "Wichita Lineman" was written by Jimmy Webb, who is also responsible for other Glen Campbell hits like "Galveston" and "By The Time I Get to Phoenix". The song's structure is quite unique. The strings mimic the hum commonly heard by lineman when they attach a telephone ear-piece to to a long stretch of raw telephone cable. And the mimic-ed sound of someone tapping out Morse Code on the telephone line can be heard after Glen sings the phrase "...is still on the line". Plus, this might be the only country song I know off the top of my head that features a bass guitar solo. The lyrics, about a lonely telephone lineman imagining that he hears a lost/absent loved one over the telephone wires he's working on, were inspired by an actual lonely-looking lineman working high on a telephone pole who Jimmy Webb passed on a solitary road in northern Oklahoma. The song reached number three on the pop charts, stayed in the Top 100 for fifteen weeks, and sat atop the country music charts for two weeks.



Jeannie C. Riley - "Harper Valley PTA"

Legendary country songwriter Tom T. Hall penned this little ditty in 1968 for Jeannie C. Riley. "Harper Valley PTA" tells the tale of a little girl who comes home from school with a note for her widowed mother from the Harper Valley PTA condemning her mother's scandalous behavior (wearing a mini-shirt too short, getting drunk with men, going wild, etc.). The mom gets angry, barges into the PTA meeting that afternoon in a mini-shirt, and points out the questionable behaviors of several of the members of the PTA themselves. This includes one board member who has asked her out for a date several times despite the fact that he is married, one board member whose secretary had to mysteriously leave town, one board member who is currently drunk at the meeting, and one who isn't even at the meeting because they stayed too late at the bars the night before. She promptly "socks it" to them all by calling them "Harper Valley hypocrites". The song was so successful that it made Jeannie C. Riley the first female singer to have a number one hit on the country charts and the pop charts at the same time.



Kenny Rogers and the First Edition - "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love To Town"

Kenny Rogers doesn't do much for me on his own, but Kenny Rogers and the First Edition from 1967 to 1975 is another story. They are one of my favorite acts to come from that era and "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love To Town" is one of their best songs. It was written by Mel Tillis and was unsuccessfully recorded by a few artists (Waylon Jennings, Roger Miller, and even Leonard Nimoy) before The First Edition released it in 1969. The song became a huge hit reaching number one in the UK and staying in the Top 20 for fifteen weeks. The song got its inspiration from one of Mel Tillis' neighbors who was a wounded, dying vet of World War II who had married his nurse. She started cheating around on him when he was on his death bed and the situation ended in a murder-suicide. Mel decided to only allude to the true ending in the song by using the lyric "If I could move I'd get my gun and put her in the ground."



Tammy Wynette - "Stand By Your Man"

A discussion of 1960s country music would not be complete without mentioning Tammy Wynette's "Stand By Your Man", which is regarded by some country insiders and fans alike as the great country song of all time. In fact, in 2004 CMT ranked it just that. The song was release in 1968 and written by Tammy Wynette and country music producer extraordinaire Billy Sherill. The song was slammed by the feminists organizations of the 1960s and 70s claiming that it encouraged woman to blindly follow their husbands. Wynette disagreed and defended her song by saying that the song tells women to forgive and forget their husband's short-comings if they really love them. "Stand By Your Man" hit number one on the country charts for three weeks in 1963 and peaked at number nineteen on the pop charts.



The Top 25 Most Played Songs on Jasper Jones' Ipod

Now for a new feature on The Jubilee. From now on at the end of the column I will list The Top 25 Most Played Songs on Jasper Jones' Ipod. This will give you, the readers, and I the chance to see what I am currently listening to at home, in my car, and at work.

25. "You're The Reason God Made Oklahoma" - David Frizzell and Shelly West
24. "Roughest Neck Around" - Corb Lund & The Hurtin' Albertin's
23. "The Poor House" - The Boxmasters
22. "Rock and Roll Mucis" - The Beatles
21. "Poison" - Alice Cooper
20. "Really Never Loved Her Anyway" - Trent Summar and The New Row Mob
19. "I Should've Been After You" - Rooney
18. "Take A Letter Maria" - R.B. Greaves
17. "Turn You Inside Out" - R.E.M.
16. "Indiana Wants Me" - R. Dean Taylor
15. "One Man's Ceiling Is Another Man's Floor" - Paul Simon
14. "Down From Dover" - Marianne Faithfull
13. "Spaceman" - Harry Nilsson
12. "Nights Are Forever Without You" - England Dan and John Ford Coley
11. "San Berdoo Sunburn" - The Eagles of Death Metal
10. "Hey, Lady Godiva" - Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show
9. "He Carries Me" - Cory Morrow
8. "Smokin' 100's Alone" - The Bottle Rockets
7. "Freedom" - Alice Cooper
6. "Tropical Island" - Adam Green
5. "Still Loving You" - The Scorpions
4. "The '59 Sound" - The Gaslight Anthem
3. "Kiss The Devil" - The Eagles of Death Metal
2. "Cold Gin" - KISS
1. "Wannabe In L.A." - The Eagles of Death Metal


See you next week when I cover country hits of the 1970s!