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- Annique on About
- Jonathan Pappalardo on Classic Rewind: Patty Loveless – ‘Here I Am’
- Occasional Hope on Classic Rewind: Patty Loveless – ‘Here I Am’
- Paul W Dennis on Classic Rewind: George Strait covers ‘There Stands The Glass’
- Ray Reynolds and His Passion for Music - Manny Style Blog - A cognitive blog for everyone, just in a different style. - Manny Style Blog on Country Heritage: Tompall Glaser
- Luckyoldsun on Classic Rewind: George Strait covers ‘There Stands The Glass’
- Paul W Dennis on Classic Rewind: Patty Loveless – ‘Here I Am’
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The popularity of Sonny James forty years ago cannot be overstated. During the calendar year 1970 Sonny released four singles. Each scored multiple weeks at the top of the country chart. All told Sonny James topped the country survey for 14 weeks of that year.
“Don’t Keep Me Hangin’ On” was Sonny’s third single of the new decade and interrupted a string of pop remakes. Co-written with frequent collaborator Carole Smith, the song achieved #1 status in Billboard Magazine only 6 weeks after its debut. It earned Sonny his 12th consecutive number one hit and his 16th career chart-topper.
Though some have taken Sonny to task for recording so many pop remakes, I most always found his interpretations to be fresh and innovative. Sonny wisely chose songs that were familiar but not so closely identified with the original artist that his new version would suffer by comparison. Sonny’s amazing lead guitar picking added a freshness and vibrancy to those familiar melodies. Superb vocal arrangements for the background singers perfectly framed Sonny’s wonderful voice.
Interesting that two of the #1 songs listed above from this week in country music were remakes of pop classics. Mickey Gilley’s 1980 Urban Cowboy chart-topper was a great take on Ben E. King’s top five 1961 hit “Stand By Me” and Dan Seals struck gold a decade later with his version of Sam Cook’s 1964 top 20 single “Good Times.”