70 Fun Facts About 80s Country Music

Both the 1980 film 9 to 5 and Dolly Parton's title song took their name from what?

A working women's organization called 9to5, founded by Boston office workers in 1973, gave both their name; Jane Fonda built the film around stories its members told her about their jobs.

Songwriter Dallas Frazier named "Elvira," the Oak Ridge Boys' huge 1981 hit, after what?

A street in East Nashville, Elvira Street, gave Frazier the name when he noticed its sign; his own 1966 single was only a minor hit, but the Oak Ridge Boys' 1981 cover topped the country chart and went top ten in pop.

Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton's 1983 duet "Islands in the Stream" was written by which group?

The Bee Gees wrote it, and Rogers first recorded it alone; after days of struggling with his vocal he was ready to give up when Barry Gibb decided it should be a duet with Dolly Parton.

Emmylou Harris's 1985 concept album about a fictional singer was titled what?

The Ballad of Sally Rose, co-written with Paul Kennerley, was loosely based on Harris's own years singing with Gram Parsons, the country-rock pioneer who hired her as his harmony singer and died in 1973.

Kenny Rogers's 1980 chart-topper "Lady" was written and produced by which Motown star?

Lionel Richie was still fronting the Commodores, and "Lady" was the first record he produced for an outside act; its six weeks atop the pop chart pointed the way to his solo career.

Randy Travis's 1987 hit "Forever and Ever, Amen" was written by which songwriting pair?

Paul Overstreet and Don Schlitz, who had already written "On the Other Hand" for Travis, took the title from a little boy who ended his goodnights that way; it won the 1988 Grammy for Best Country Song.

Which 1986 Randy Travis debut album went triple platinum and helped launch country's neotraditional boom?

Storms of Life overcame a slow start: its single "On the Other Hand" stalled at number 67 in 1985, then went to number one when Warner Bros. re-released it the next year.

Which 1987 George Strait album was the first to debut at number one on the Top Country Albums chart?

Ocean Front Property entered the Top Country Albums chart at number one, the first album to do so; in the title track a man swears he won't miss her, then offers ocean-front land in Arizona if she buys it.

The band Alabama was formed by three cousins in which Alabama town?

Fort Payne is the cousins' home turf; from 1982 to 1997 the band staged its June Jam festival there, drawing as many as 60,000 fans and raising millions of dollars for local charities.

Which 1980 single, Alabama's first on RCA, began the band's streak of 21 consecutive country number ones?

"Tennessee River" followed a 1980 Nashville showcase for new acts that won Alabama its RCA deal, and it began 21 straight number ones, a run that ended when "Tar Top" stalled at number seven in 1987.

Before RCA signed them in 1980, Alabama spent years playing for tips at The Bowery, a bar in which beach resort?

Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, was the band's base from 1973; they played The Bowery six nights a week for tips, and named their 2013 reunion tour Back to the Bowery.

Which member of Alabama wrote the band's 1982 anthem "Mountain Music"?

Randy Owen, the band's lead singer, has said the song took him three years to write; on record he trades lines with bandmates Teddy Gentry and Jeff Cook, and it became Alabama's sixth number one.

Naomi Judd, one half of the Judds, was born in which Kentucky city?

Ashland was Naomi's hometown; she was working as a hospital nurse when she slipped a tape to a patient, the daughter of producer Brent Maher, which led to an RCA audition in 1983.

The Judds' 1986 hit "Grandpa (Tell Me 'Bout the Good Old Days)" was written by whom?

Jamie O'Hara won the Grammy for Best Country Song for it, and in 1986 the Nashville songwriter stepped out front himself, forming the O'Kanes with fellow writer Kieran Kane and topping the country chart a year later.

Gilley's Club, the giant honky-tonk at the heart of Urban Cowboy (1980), stood in which Houston suburb?

Pasadena, home to many petrochemical plant workers, housed Gilley's; with room for 6,000 it was listed by Guinness as the world's largest honky-tonk, and the film made it one of Houston's main tourist draws.

Who played Sissy, the wife of John Travolta's Bud, in Urban Cowboy?

Debra Winger played Sissy opposite John Travolta's Bud, a breakthrough that preceded her Oscar-nominated roles in An Officer and a Gentleman and Terms of Endearment.

Which Texas songwriter wrote "Pancho and Lefty", a 1983 number one for Nelson and Haggard?

Townes Van Zandt's 1972 original went largely unnoticed; Nelson first heard the song when his daughter Lana played it for him, cut it that night, and had to wake Haggard on his bus to sing his part.

The supergroup the Highwaymen took their name from a 1985 hit written by which songwriter?

Jimmy Webb, of "Wichita Lineman" fame, wrote "Highwayman" in London after a vivid dream; he recorded it in 1977 and Glen Campbell put it on a 1979 album before the Highwaymen's version won him a Grammy.

In the Highwaymen's recording of "Highwayman," Johnny Cash sings the final verse as what?

A starship captain is the last of the song's four lives, after a highwayman, a sailor and a dam builder; Glen Campbell played the tune for Cash in 1984, and its four verses gave each Highwayman one.

A decade before Willie Nelson's 1982 hit, "Always on My Mind" was a UK top-ten single for which singer?

Elvis Presley's 1972 single reached the British top ten; a decade later one of its writers played the song for Nelson and Merle Haggard, Haggard passed, and Nelson's solo version earned three Grammys.

George Jones's 1980 comeback "He Stopped Loving Her Today" was written by which duo?

Bobby Braddock and Curly Putman wrote it; Jones, deep in a personal tailspin, feared the song was too sad to sell, yet it hit number one in July 1980 and won CMA Song of the Year two years running.

Loretta Lynn picked Sissy Spacek to play her in Coal Miner's Daughter (1980) based on what?

A photograph of the actress was all Lynn had seen, never one of her films; Spacek asked to do her own singing hoping to scare the studio off, then sang every song and won the Best Actress Oscar.

Which bluegrass-rooted singer and mandolin prodigy joined the Grand Ole Opry in 1982?

Ricky Skaggs joined the Opry in May 1982; Bill Monroe had pulled him onstage to sing when he was a small boy with a mandolin, and at seven he played on Flatt and Scruggs's TV show.

Which big-city mayor made a cameo as a cabdriver in the 1985 country video "Country Boy"?

Ed Koch, New York's mayor at the time, drives the cab in a video shot around Manhattan, where the singer sets out to show Uncle Pen, played by bluegrass patriarch Bill Monroe, that he is still country.

Dwight Yoakam's 1986 debut 'Honky Tonk Man' was a cover of a 1956 hit by whom?

Johnny Horton cut the 1956 original; Yoakam, who had made little headway in a pop-minded Nashville, built his following in Los Angeles rock and punk clubs, and his cover reached number three.

What was the title of Steve Earle's 1986 debut album?

Guitar Town topped the country album chart twelve years after Earle arrived in Nashville at 19, working blue-collar jobs by day and playing music at night; its title song earned two Grammy nominations.

Which Nashville legend produced k.d. lang's 1988 album Shadowland?

Owen Bradley, producer of Patsy Cline's classic records, was a natural choice: lang had named her band the Reclines in Cline's honor, and the album also teamed her with Kitty Wells, Loretta Lynn and Brenda Lee.

Which 1981 single, written by Rosanne Cash herself, was the title track of her breakthrough album?

"Seven Year Ache" began as a long poem Cash wrote after a fight with her husband at a Los Angeles restaurant; it topped the country chart in 1981 and crossed over to the pop top 40.

Who first won CMA Entertainer of the Year in back-to-back years, 1980 and 1981?

Barbara Mandrell won in 1980 and 1981, the first artist to repeat, while hosting NBC's Barbara Mandrell and the Mandrell Sisters; the workload strained her voice so badly that she ended the show in 1982.

In Ronnie Milsap's "Smoky Mountain Rain", the narrator has left Los Angeles for which Tennessee city?

The narrator thumbs his way from LA back to Knoxville, then flags down a trucker bound for Gatlinburg; in 2010 the Tennessee legislature made "Smoky Mountain Rain" an official state song.

Why was young Ronnie Milsap sent away to a state school in Raleigh, North Carolina?

He was nearly blind from birth, and his mother had handed him to his grandparents to raise; at the state school for the blind he studied classical music before turning to country.

Which Eddie Rabbitt hit knocked Dolly Parton's "9 to 5" off the top of the Hot 100 in February 1981?

I Love a Rainy Night grew from a fragment Rabbitt sang into a tape recorder in the 1960s and found again in his basement in 1980; two weeks after it hit number one, "9 to 5" took the top spot back.

Which singer turned "Queen of Hearts", first cut by Welsh rocker Dave Edmunds, into a 1981 crossover smash?

Juice Newton took Hank DeVito's song to number two on the Hot 100; Dave Edmunds's 1979 original had reached number 11 in Britain, but his label never released it as a single in America.

Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the U.S.A." got an early boost from a Republican convention film about which president?

Ronald Reagan was the subject of the film, shown at the 1984 Republican convention the summer the single came out; the song surged again during the Gulf War and after the September 11 attacks.

Which broadcast used a reworked 'All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight' as its theme from 1989 to 2011?

The reworked version opened Monday Night Football from 1989 until ESPN dropped it in October 2011 over the singer's on-air political remarks; "Are you ready for some football?" became the show's catchphrase.

Which artist won the CMA Entertainer of the Year award in both 1987 and 1988?

Hank Williams Jr., nicknamed Bocephus by his father, won in 1987 and 1988, a dozen years after a 500-foot fall on Montana's Ajax Peak; the beard, hat and sunglasses that hid his scars became his trademark.

What was the cause of country star Keith Whitley's death at 34 in 1989?

Acute alcohol poisoning killed Whitley at home on 9 May 1989, just as "I'm No Stranger to the Rain" had made him a star; two singles released after his death also went to number one.

Keith Whitley was married to which fellow country singer, whose daughter he adopted?

Lorrie Morgan married Whitley in November 1986, and he adopted her daughter from her first marriage; a duet released a year after his death, "'Til a Tear Becomes a Rose", won them a CMA award.

Which Kathy Mattea hit was named CMA Single of the Year in 1988?

Eighteen Wheels and a Dozen Roses follows Charlie, a trucker making his last run after thirty years so he can spend his time with his wife; it topped the country chart and won CMA Single of the Year in 1988.

Sawyer Brown landed their Capitol Records deal in 1984 after winning the grand prize on which TV show?

Star Search, Ed McMahon's talent show, handed Sawyer Brown its $100,000 grand prize in its first season; the group had been singer Don King's road band and chose to stay together when he quit touring in 1981.

Which 1988 Rodney Crowell album was the first country album to send five singles to number one?

Diamonds & Dirt made a star of Crowell, long better known for writing other singers' hits: all five of its singles topped the country chart, and one, "After All This Time", won him a Grammy.

Which singer was the first to pull four country number-one singles from one album, in 1984?

Earl Thomas Conley did it with Don't Make It Easy for Me; the former steel-mill worker had written hits for Conway Twitty and Mel Street before his own career took off, and he ended the 1980s with 18 number ones.

Which single from Clint Black's 1989 debut Killin' Time was Billboard's top country song of 1989?

"A Better Man", Black's debut single, came out of the end of a long relationship; guitarist Hayden Nicholas brought the tune, and Black wrote of leaving a better man for having known her.

Which future superstar's self-titled 1989 debut album included "The Dance" and "If Tomorrow Never Comes"?

Garth Brooks's first trip to Nashville, in 1985, lasted less than a day before he went home to Oklahoma; he moved back in 1987, signed with Capitol the next year and released the album in April 1989.

Willie Nelson wrote "On the Road Again" for the soundtrack of which 1980 film, in which he also starred?

Honeysuckle Rose's director and producer asked Nelson, mid-flight, for a song about life on the road, and he jotted it down on an airsickness bag; it won the Grammy for Best Country Song and an Oscar nomination.

Waylon Jennings's "Good Ol' Boys" was the theme of which TV series, which he also narrated?

Jennings narrated The Dukes of Hazzard as the unseen Balladeer, a job he got after narrating Moonrunners (1975), the film the series was based on; "Good Ol' Boys" hit number one in 1980.

In which city was the first Farm Aid concert held in September 1985?

Champaign, Illinois hosted the first Farm Aid at the University of Illinois's Memorial Stadium on 22 September 1985; Willie Nelson helped organize it after Bob Dylan's remark at Live Aid about struggling family farmers.

The 1987 album Trio brought together Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris and which third singer?

Linda Ronstadt completed the Trio; the three had tried to record together in the mid-1970s but were tied to different labels, and the 1987 album won a Grammy and went platinum.

Which 1987 Nitty Gritty Dirt Band hit was written by Wendy Waldman and Jim Photoglo?

Fishin' in the Dark became the band's signature song, and its co-writer ended up in the lineup: three decades later Jim Photoglo joined the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band himself, playing bass.

Willie Nelson's 1984 hit "To All the Girls I've Loved Before" was a duet with whom?

Julio Iglesias had built his career singing in Spanish; the duet, a song Albert Hammond first recorded in 1975, topped the country chart, went top ten in pop and made him a star in English.

Which George Strait signature song was first recorded in 1973 by its co-writer, Terry Stafford?

Amarillo by Morning came to Stafford on the drive home to Amarillo after his band played a San Antonio rodeo; his own single was a minor hit, and Strait's 1983 version never reached number one yet became his signature.

Which 1983 John Anderson hit won the CMA's Single of the Year award?

Swingin', which he co-wrote, became a million-seller for Anderson, who had arrived in Nashville in the early 1970s and worked construction on the roof of the Grand Ole Opry House.

The Nashville Network (TNN) launched in March 1983, broadcasting from which location?

The Opryland USA theme park housed TNN's studios when it launched on 7 March 1983; rival Country Music Television had beaten it onto the air by two days.

What was Reba McEntire's first Billboard country number one?

"Can't Even Get the Blues" reached number one in January 1983, more than seven years after Mercury signed McEntire; her 1977 debut album had sold poorly, and the hit came just before she left for MCA.

Reba McEntire's first music video was made for which 1986 number-one single?

"Whoever's in New England" casts McEntire as a wife who suspects her husband's Boston business trips; the video ends with him turning back at the airport, and the song won her first Grammy.

Which 1982 Sylvia hit was the only single of her career to reach the Billboard Hot 100?

"Nobody", sung by a wife who suspects her husband of cheating, topped the country chart and reached number 15 on the Hot 100; its success had Sylvia touring more than 250 dates a year.

Ray Stevens's "Mississippi Squirrel Revival" is set at a Sunday service in which Mississippi town?

The song's First Self-Righteous Church is in "that sleepy little town of Pascagoula"; a boy smuggles a squirrel into the service, and the chaos sets off a wave of confessions and baptisms.

Dan Seals's first country number one, 1985's "Meet Me in Montana", was a duet with which singer?

Marie Osmond had not topped the country chart since "Paper Roses" in 1973, when she was 14; the duet, written by Paul Davis, made the pair the CMA's Vocal Duo of the Year in 1986.

Randy Travis, billed as Randy Ray, recorded an early live album at which club managed by Lib Hatcher?

Randy Ray Live at the Nashville Palace (1982) was cut at the Nashville Palace, the club where Hatcher was manager and Travis cooked in the kitchen; she managed his career and married him in 1991.

From 1980, Kenny Rogers starred in Emmy-nominated TV movies based on which of his songs?

The Gambler had been recorded by Bobby Bare without success before Rogers made it a hit in 1978; from 1980 he played gambler Brady Hawkes in a run of TV movies that lasted until 1994.

Which band topped the Hot 100 in 1978 with 'Kiss You All Over', then became a country act?

Exile, from Richmond, Kentucky, scored ten country number ones between 1983 and 1987 — more chart-toppers than they ever managed on the pop side, where "Kiss You All Over" was their only one.

Which band, formed in LA in 1986 with singer Paulette Carlson, hit number one with "Somewhere Tonight"?

Highway 101 gave Paulette Carlson the success her three solo singles on RCA had not: "Somewhere Tonight", written by Rodney Crowell and Harlan Howard, reached number one in December 1987.

Before going country in 1984, Vince Gill sang lead for which soft-rock band?

Gill sang lead for Pure Prairie League on "Let Me Love You Tonight" (1980), then played in Rodney Crowell's Cherry Bombs before Tony Brown signed him to MCA, where "When I Call Your Name" made him a star in 1990.

Which singer's 1987 debut album Wild-Eyed Dream produced the number ones "Somebody Lied" and "Life Turned Her That Way"?

Ricky Van Shelton won his Columbia audition after a Nashville newspaper columnist heard one of his demo tapes; the album went platinum and "Somebody Lied" topped the chart in December 1987.

What was George Strait's first number one single, in 1982?

"Fool Hearted Memory" came from the 1982 thriller The Soldier, in which Strait appears as himself singing it; it became the first of his dozens of country number ones.

Which K.T. Oslin single became her first major hit in 1987?

"80's Ladies" made a star of a 45-year-old newcomer: Oslin had spent years singing commercial jingles before RCA signed her in 1986, and the song won her a Grammy.

Who sang the 1983 duet "We've Got Tonight" with Kenny Rogers?

Sheena Easton and Rogers took the Bob Seger ballad to number six on the Hot 100, higher than Seger's own single had reached, and their version also topped the country chart.

Which band did Nashville producer Tim DuBois assemble in 1984 just to record demos of his songs?

Restless Heart began as a studio group for DuBois's demos; the tapes went over so well that the players became a real band, signed to RCA and scored six country number ones.

The Forester Sisters grew up on Lookout Mountain, just below the Tennessee line, in which state?

Georgia's Lookout Mountain was home to the four sisters, who learned to harmonise rehearsing for church choir every week; their first 14 singles all reached the country top ten.

Which "If I Had a Boat" singer grew up in Klein?

Lyle Lovett's mother was a Klein: the Texas farm community north of Houston is named for his great-great-grandfather, the German immigrant Adam Klein. In 2002 a bull pinned Lovett against a fence on the family farm there.