My Kind of Country

Country music from a fan's point of view since 2008

Week ending 12/10/16: #1 singles this week in country music history

1 Comment Posted by on December 11, 2016

alan_jackson1956 (Sales):Singing the Blues — Marty Robbins (Columbia)

1956 (Jukebox): Singing the Blues — Marty Robbins (Columbia)

1956 (Disc Jockeys): Singing the Blues — Marty Robbins (Columbia)

1966: Somebody Like Me — Eddy Arnold (RCA)

1976: Good Woman Blues — Mel Tillis (MCA)

1986: It Ain’t Cool To Be Crazy About You — George Strait (MCA)

1996: Little Bitty — Alan Jackson (Arista)

2006: Before He Cheats — Carrie Underwood (Arista)

2016: Blue Ain’t Your Color — Keith Urban (Capitol)

2016 (Airplay): May We All — Florida Georgia Line featuring Tim McGraw (Republic Nashville)

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One response to “Week ending 12/10/16: #1 singles this week in country music history”

  1. Ken December 12, 2016 at 9:30 am

    Singing The Blues was Marty Robbins’ biggest country chart hit. It remained on the country charts for 30 weeks including 13 weeks at the top of the sales & jukebox charts and 11 weeks atop the disc jockey survey. Marty really liked the song at first listen but hesitated to record it as he was not satisfied with how to sing the line from the chorus “There’s nothing left for me to do but cry over you.” On the demo recording writer Melvin Endsley dropped his voice while extending the word “cry” to four syllables. Marty’s steel guitar player Jim Farmer channeled a Hank Williams classic for a different approach. He suggested that Marty yodel the word “cry” similarly to how Hank sang the word “blues” in “Lovesick Blues.” Marty’s performance created one of the most memorable hooks in country music. Guy Mitchell’s cover of that song followed Endsley’s original treatment of that line but added an infectious whistling intro and background that found favor with pop listeners that made his version into a #1 pop hit.

    For many years the original version of Marty’s “Singing The Blues” was not available. Columbia created a fake stereo version for the stereo release of his first greatest hits album. When the song was reissued on Columbia’s Hall Of Fame 45 RPM series in the early 1960’s the recording had been adulterated by the addition of excessive and unnecessary reverb. The original mono master did not surface again until 1982 when it was issued on the vinyl version of the Bear Family album ” Rockin’ Rollin’ Robbins” [BFX 15045] Unfortunately the 1991 CD version of that LP [BCD 15566] contained the reverb version. Finally in 1995 Time/Life resurrected the original master recording for the Marty Robbins volume in the Legendary Country Singers series [R990-06 A 25142]

    Here is the original 45 mix.

    Reply

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