Songs that weren't country to begin with

[semoochie]

What I quoted Kris Kristofferson saying earlier still holds true. While a slight change in instrumentation can make a song sound more countryish, the real key to the sound that Kristofferson talked about is the vocal. There is no razor-sharp dividing line that separates sounding country from sounding pop. A vocalist with a country-sounding voice is going to sound "country", regardless of instrumental accompaniment. The vocalists mentioned who've had crossover hits from one chart to the other tend to be the ones whose vocals are not very country, so that the accompaniment plays a larger part in defining whether or not the song sounds "country".

Johnny Cash could sing acapella and he'd still sound country. Without a strong country backing band, Taylor Swift is just another pop princess.

A pop princess, who is the first woman EVER to replace herself at #1!

 

[semoochie]

Did it occur to you that a remake of an Andrews Sisters song from 30 years previous could be a hit, or did you buy the album after hearing "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" on the radio?

Back on topic ... two more songs you'd never think of as country are "America" (aka "My Country 'Tis of Thee") and "Layla." Yet country versions of both exist, by Dolly Parton and the Charlie Daniels Band, respectively.

Neither. I was referring to "Delta Dawn".

 

[K.M. Richards]

If a song is covered by a country artist and is done in the country style, then it's a country song and is therefore acceptable to be played on country radio. Of course all you need to be country these days is just to slap a steel guitar on your pop song, and voila.

Two examples from my experiences in country radio: "Kiss You All Over" was a pop hit for Exile in 1976 before they moved over to the country charts with a string of hits in the 1980s. They re-released that song with steel guitar added to the mix in order to get gold airplay, and it is that version that appears on their greatest hits CD.

The other example is from 1989, when Warner Bros. released a compilation CD called "Rock, Rhythm and Blues" which included a version of Randy Travis' cover of Brook Benton's hit "It's Just A Matter Of Time" mixed without the steel guitar in an attempt to get some pop airplay. When Travis' next album came out, that song had been remixed for it. Guess what was added.

 

[K.M. Richards]

Johnny Cash could sing acapella and he'd still sound country.

I don't think his cover of Depeche Mode's "Personal Jesus" sounds country.

 

[ContinuousWave]

Conway Twitty's cover of Heartache Tonight, The Rose, and Slow Hand. Conway was king of the pop covers.

Conway Bieber?? (As noted on "Family Guy")...... now running and ducking

 

[ContinuousWave]

A lot of "Today's Country Hits" are recycled top40 hits.....which a lot of them were recycled classics from 20+ years earlier..

When I was jocking in the 70s, one top40 station flipped to country.....3 weeks after the flip, the afternoon jock/MD showed me the latest add to the currents, "New Kid in Town" by the Eagles.....after it had dropped off the top40 charts...
At least I finally had a long song to do a bathroom break on!!

 

[CTListener]

Neither. I was referring to "Delta Dawn".

So was I. I can't seem to get multiple quotations to work on this site, no matter what icons I click, so it came out ambiguous. I knew you had said that "Delta Dawn" was the song from the album that you liked but never thought would be a hit, so I was asking you how you felt about "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" the first time you heard it, and whether you'd first heard it on the album or heard it on the radio, liked it, and then bought the album.

 

[firepoint525]

"Islands in the Stream" would NEVER have been a "country" hit, had it not been covered by Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton. (In fairness, it probably wouldn't have been a hit for the Bee Gees in 1983, because that was near the height of the anti-Bee Gees backlash.) But it seems that Rogers, especially, was seeking out "crossover" material at the time. A few years earlier, he had covered "Lady," written by Lionel Richie, who himself has been making inroads into country music over the years. "Islands in the Stream" was from the Rogers album Eyes that See in the Dark, as was its followup single "This Woman," which I believe did NOT "cross over." Rogers was probably what a former boss of mine would have referred to as "pop country." Seems like nearly every song on Eyes was a Gibb composition. Interestingly enough, a few years later, after that first "crossover" wave had subsided, Kenny and Dolly covered "Love is Strange," and despite it sounding almost exactly like the original, pop radio never touched it.

 

[Avid Listener]

A pop princess, who is the first woman EVER to replace herself at #1!

I didn't say she wasn't a good pop princess. And, replacing yourself on the charts could simply be a sign of lack of competition at the time, or sheer luck in release dates of singles.

 

[Avid Listener]

I don't think his cover of Depeche Mode's "Personal Jesus" sounds country.

Some folks just like to argue for the sake of arguing.

 

[James Otto Sweet Heart]

Oh yes, I hate that. I usually don't like the remix made for pop radio. The worst ones for me, about ten years ago, were Diamond Rio's "One More Day" and LeAnne Womack's "I Hope You Dance". That one was awful, as not only did they take out the steel guitar, but they removed the Sons of the Desert backing vocals and inserted female vocals that sounded all poppy. I never understood why they did that. I used to get so mad every time Delilah would play that song.

I usually hate pop remixes too, but the ones that I have heard of those two songs are actually better than the original copies in my opinion. I know which copy of Lee Ann's song it is that you are referring to, but the one that I love is the one that the Sons Of The Desert are still very much a part of.

God bless you and them and Lee Ann and Diamond Rio always!!!

Holly

P.S. What made my favorite pop copy of Lee Ann's song be labeled a non country copy I guess are the instrumental differences that are there.

 

[oldiesgirl]

Wow I didn't know Islands in the Stream was a cover, as I've only heard the country version. You learn something new every day.

 

[K.M. Richards]

Some folks just like to argue for the sake of arguing.

I see. You can post all the opinions you want, but if I do the same, it's open to your criticism.

Instead of "sarcasm", maybe your signature file should describe "hypocrisy". Just my opinion.

 

[Avid Listener]

I see. You can post all the opinions you want, but if I do the same, it's open to your criticism.

Instead of "sarcasm", maybe your signature file should describe "hypocrisy". Just my opinion.

Your opinion was merely an attempt at trolling.

And that's a fact.

 

[semoochie]

So was I. I can't seem to get multiple quotations to work on this site, no matter what icons I click, so it came out ambiguous. I knew you had said that "Delta Dawn" was the song from the album that you liked but never thought would be a hit, so I was asking you how you felt about "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" the first time you heard it, and whether you'd first heard it on the album or heard it on the radio, liked it, and then bought the album.

I either bought the album because of her cover of "Do You Wanna Dance?" or because of word of mouth. I think I'd gone to her Portland concert before "...Bugle Boy" was a hit.

 

[firepoint525]

Wow I didn't know Islands in the Stream was a cover, as I've only heard the country version. You learn something new every day.

You can hear the Gibb brothers perform it live (and see it, too, if you have it on DVD) on One Night Only, a great live collection recorded in Vegas in 1997. They also perform other songs that they wrote which became hits for others, like "Grease" and "Heartbreaker." I have seen a studio recording of it on youtube as well.

Kenny and Dolly's rendition "Islands in the Stream" was a relatively rare "triple threat" number one, going to the top on the pop, country, and AC charts. "I Love a Rainy Night" by Eddie Rabbitt also accomplished that "hat trick."

 

[firepoint525]

I don't think his cover of Depeche Mode's "Personal Jesus" sounds country.

Pretty much everything that Cash recorded after about 1990 was junk. He became nothing but a "human karaoke machine," covering other performers' songs in a desperate bid to stay "relevant." The same thing happened to him that happens to all other aging performers, but instead of just accepting reality and opening a theater in Branson, he chose to complain about getting ignored by country radio, and in the process, made a spectacle of himself doing so.

 

[firepoint525]

So was I. I can't seem to get multiple quotations to work on this site, no matter what icons I click, so it came out ambiguous.

You can click on the little icon with the plus beside it, just to the right of the "reply with quote" link, for each message that you want to quote in a reply, then click "reply to thread" at the bottom, and all of the messages that you want to quote in your reply should show up in the box where you type your message.

Back to the countdown, I had no idea that the "Brownsville" referred to in "Delta Dawn" was the one in west Tennessee (between Memphis and Jackson) until recently. Even Stevens (Eddie Rabbitt's longtime collaborator) interviewed Alex Harvey (songwriter of "Delta Dawn") for his "originals" show, and that is how I learned that.

 

[oldiesgirl]

Were the Gibb Brothers singing in their natural voices or the falsettos they used in the disco days? I love the way they sounded in the 60s, but unfortunately I can't do the high voices on 70s recordings, as I have a rare form of synesthesia that is affected by sound, and I just can't handle hearing them sing a whole song like that.

 

[semoochie]

Were the Gibb Brothers singing in their natural voices or the falsettos they used in the disco days? I love the way they sounded in the 60s, but unfortunately I can't do the high voices on 70s recordings, as I have a rare form of synesthesia that is affected by sound, and I just can't handle hearing them sing a whole song like that.

I don't know about your particular condition but if you have an equalizer, try cutting off the frequencies in the 2.5KHz(upper midrange)control. That seems to do wonders with the screeching, in some listening environments. It can actually make older recordings of female vocalists quite bearable.