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disco country

In late 1978 Louise Mandrell recorded a somewhat discofied version of Everlasting Love, which had been a big pop hit for both Robert Knight and Carl Carlton.

I'm one of those who bought the pink 12-inch vinyl of Dolly Parton's Baby I'm Burnin'. A year before that song came out, she had released Here You Come Again and a lot of her fans thought she was "going pop." She told an interviewer for Country Music magazine, "I couldn't go pop with a mouthful of firecrackers!" It was a cute line...but it turned out to be inaccurate!
 
Dolly's duet with Kenny Rogers on "Islands in the Stream" (written by the Bee Gees) could also have been considered "disco." Of course, that one sort of slammed the door shut on "crossovers," at least for that generation, because it was years before another "country" tune made such inroads onto "pop" radio again after that.

Even "Let Your Love Flow" by the Bellamy Bros. has elements of "disco" in it, although not blatantly obvious. But it was definitely more "pop" than country, as evidenced by its peak positions on the respective charts, if nothing else. It was a year or two after that that the Bellamys settled on performing strictly country music, and never really "crossed over" ever again after that.
 
firepoint525 said:
Dolly's duet with Kenny Rogers on "Islands in the Stream" (written by the Bee Gees) could also have been considered "disco." Of course, that one sort of slammed the door shut on "crossovers," at least for that generation, because it was years before another "country" tune made such inroads onto "pop" radio again after that.
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The only thing disco about that song was that it was written by the Bee Gees.
 
Plus, they sang backup.
Anyway, it hit my brain that the chorus of "9 to 5" has the same chord progression (different key, I guess) as the chorus of "Heart of Glass"!
 
vchimpanzee said:
firepoint525 said:
Dolly's duet with Kenny Rogers on "Islands in the Stream" (written by the Bee Gees) could also have been considered "disco." Of course, that one sort of slammed the door shut on "crossovers," at least for that generation, because it was years before another "country" tune made such inroads onto "pop" radio again after that.
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The only thing disco about that song was that it was written by the Bee Gees.
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The only thing "country" about it was that it was sung by Kenny and Dolly. Like I said before, it was the "last hurrah" for "crossovers," at least for a while there.
 
firepoint525 said:
The only thing "country" about it was that it was sung by Kenny and Dolly. Like I said before, it was the "last hurrah" for "crossovers," at least for a while there.
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It may have been a matter of age more than format. 1983-1984 brought a huge wave of new, young pop artists and groups (not the least of which was Madonna), while the country stars of the Urban Cowboy era were mostly in their 30s, 40s, or even older. It wasn't until Garth Brooks that country music had a fresh young artist for people to get excited about.
 
kevtronics said:
It may have been a matter of age more than format. 1983-1984 brought a huge wave of new, young pop artists and groups (not the least of which was Madonna), while the country stars of the Urban Cowboy era were mostly in their 30s, 40s, or even older. It wasn't until Garth Brooks that country music had a fresh young artist for people to get excited about.
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In my market, the AM station, which had been more or less full service, branched out a bit, moving their top 40 over to their newly acquired FM station about 1983. It was (and still is) a small market, so that transition was later than in other markets. The AM kept an AC format. That first year or so, the FM played the likes of "Swingin'" by John Anderson, and of course, "Islands in the Stream." What you said is true. Many newcomers in '83-'84 (Cyndi Lauper also among that group) pushed the country crossovers off the "pop" charts. But it is also true that "crossovers" had really "worn out their welcome" with "pop" audiences by then. There continued to be country tunes that crossed over to AC over the next few years, like "What About Me?" by Kenny Rogers et al, that would have been pop hits, had pop still have been open to crossovers. "Islands in the Stream" was, to me, anyway, too obvious of an attempt at "crossover" success. And while it worked, I believe that it ultimately backfired on them. They were very obviously "trying too hard" to have a "crossover" hit. Later Rogers/Parton duets, like their cover of "Love Is Strange," were never even touched by pop radio.
 
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