This Conway Twitty cassette was released in 1989. It's called
House On Old Lonesome Road and it featured the Top-20 title track and the smash hit, "She's Got a Single Thing In Mind", which became the #3 song of the entire year and his 54th #1 hit. There was a third single, "Who's Gonna Know", which became a chart hit in early 1990...it was the first major release from Conway since 1967 to not enter the Top-40 of the country chart. It peaked in the Top-60...charting below #55. In an incredible display of chart discrepancy, the weekly Cashbox chart ranked the single at #19, making it a Top-20 hit...but Billboard ranked it in the Top-60. The rest of the album is a sampling of material that we've come to know from Conway...with a few surprises. "Child With Child" easily stands out as a song typically not associated with Conway's choice of material. It's a very topical song dealing with teenage pregnancy. There's another song on here, "Play Ruby Play", which makes long-time fans think of "Play Guitar Play" due to the similar title. That's where the similarities end, though, as "Play Ruby Play" is a kind of dance song...it has a roadhouse feel to it. One of my favorites is "Private Part of My Heart", track number six. It just has that feel to it...and it should have been released as a single in hindsight. The album closes with "Too White To Sing the Blues" which breaks up the overall theme of the album, which includes mostly somber songs dealing with various forms of heartache and heartbreak. "Take Me Home To Mama" is a 'boy meets girl/introduce me to your mother' song. It, too, is an up-tempo song. All in all it is a good album but it lacks a few monster hits and because of this it allowed the album to slip by and go out of print rather quickly. The main song, "She's Got a Single Thing in Mind", was being bought as a 45 RPM single...so a lot of people are not as familiar with this album.
This particular album on Conway was released in 1975. It's called
The High Priest of Country Music and it contains two major hit singles. "Touch the Hand" and "Don't Cry Joni" appeared on this album...each song went to #1, specifically "Don't Cry Joni" hit #1 in Record World, a now out of print weekly chart publication, one of Billboard's main competitors. The single featured his daughter, Joni, playing the part of the girl who requests the boy wait until she's of-age so the two can be married. At the time, she's 15 and he's 22. The boy, named Jimmy, which happens to be the name of one of Conway's sons, moves off but Joni remains vigilant waiting for Jimmy's return. Well, five years pass and Jimmy returns, knowing Joni is 20, and anticipates marrying her but reality deals him a crushing jolt. "Touch the Hand" is an aching love ballad about a man trying to convince the woman not to leave him. The name of the album came from Jerry Clower, a label mate and a legendary southern comedian. Clower nick-named Conway "the high priest of country music". It is on this album that Conway performs his version of "Before The Next Teardrop Falls", a monster hit for Freddy Fender. Conway also gives us his versions of "Sally Was a Good Ol' Girl", "It Keeps Right On A-Hurtin", and "Amanda". The album was certified GOLD in Canada.
This project was released in 1983, called
Lost in the Feeling. It features the #1 title track, a song that also features Ricky Skaggs as the harmony singer and several steel guitar solo's by John Hughey. The rest of the album is stocked with country-pop pretty much. "You've Got a Good Love Coming" is a Lee Greenwood smash hit...Conway's version is pretty much in the same arrangement. "First Things First" is a cute song about a blind date and how amorous the woman happens to be. "The Best Is Yet To Come" is a love song detailing the minute by minute account of a night together and the morning after. The album's second single, "Heartache Tonight", is a fabulous display of Conway's vocals. The song originates from The Eagles...they are the act who had a hit with the song first. Conway's version hit the Top-10 in the fall of 1983. "From a Strangers Point of View" is one of the few songs on the album that doesn't contain a pop over-tone with the others being "We're So Close" and the rollicking, up-tempo "I Think I'm in Love". The album's third single, "Three Times a Lady", became a Top-10 hit in early 1984...it had been a previous pop hit for The Commodores.
Not many country songs had quite touched the subject matter that a Conway Twitty song was known to touch and this album, well, this particular single, was touching forbidden places in the minds of music critics and radio DJ's. Pardon my shocked expression...I was acting like someone from the early 1970's upon hearing the song for the very first time. There were several radio stations that banned the song. You have to remember that it was 1973 when this album was released and not many, if any, country songs were accused of being naughty. I do not believe the song is naughty or dirty and once you hear Conway explain the lyrics of the song you, too, won't think the song is as naughty as some would lead you to believe. "You've Never Been This Far Before" became one of Conway's biggest hits...remaining a #1 single for multiple weeks and crossing over to the Top-30 on the pop chart, in spite of it's ban from several stations. The song is basically about a one night stand concerning a woman who's cheating on her husband with another man and she's nervous because she's never been that far before. The song's concept wasn't controversial...it was the choice of lyrics in a certain point in the song. Casual fans refer to this as the "bum, bum, bum song" because Conway says that phrase throughout the song to emphasize the sound of a heartbeat pounding harder as the married woman gets closer and closer to the other man. It's quite a song and one of Conway's signature #1 hits. The other material on the album, like much of the albums released in this era in country music, featured mostly cover songs. "Born To Lose", "Seasons of My Heart", and "Above and Beyond" had previously been recorded by others...George Jones and Buck Owens to name a few. "Baby's Gone", the other single from the album, hit #1 and it told the story of a man who comes home to find his wife has left him. It's a standard country music storyline but what sells the song is Conway's vocal performance. "I Love You More in Memory", "Til the Pain Outwears the Shame", and "The Easy Way Out" are good showcases for Conway's vocals but the drawing power remains "You've Never Been This Far Before". This was certified a GOLD album.
This Conway Twitty cassette was released in 1989. It's called House On Old Lonesome Road and it featured the Top-20 title track and the smash hit, "She's Got a Single Thing In Mind", which became the #3 song of the entire year and his 54th #1 hit. There was a third single, "Who's Gonna Know", which became a chart hit in early 1990...it was the first major release from Conway since 1967 to not enter the Top-40 of the country chart. It peaked in the Top-60...charting below #55. In an incredible display of chart discrepancy, the weekly Cashbox chart ranked the single at #19, making it a Top-20 hit...but Billboard ranked it in the Top-60. The rest of the album is a sampling of material that we've come to know from Conway...with a few surprises. "Child With Child" easily stands out as a song typically not associated with Conway's choice of material. It's a very topical song dealing with teenage pregnancy. There's another song on here, "Play Ruby Play", which makes long-time fans think of "Play Guitar Play" due to the similar title. That's where the similarities end, though, as "Play Ruby Play" is a kind of dance song...it has a roadhouse feel to it. One of my favorites is "Private Part of My Heart", track number six. It just has that feel to it...and it should have been released as a single in hindsight. The album closes with "Too White To Sing the Blues" which breaks up the overall theme of the album, which includes mostly somber songs dealing with various forms of heartache and heartbreak. "Take Me Home To Mama" is a 'boy meets girl/introduce me to your mother' song. It, too, is an up-tempo song. All in all it is a good album but it lacks a few monster hits and because of this it allowed the album to slip by and go out of print rather quickly. The main song, "She's Got a Single Thing in Mind", was being bought as a 45 RPM single...so a lot of people are not as familiar with this album.
This particular album on Conway was released in 1975. It's called The High Priest of Country Music and it contains two major hit singles. "Touch the Hand" and "Don't Cry Joni" appeared on this album...each song went to #1, specifically "Don't Cry Joni" hit #1 in Record World, a now out of print weekly chart publication, one of Billboard's main competitors. The single featured his daughter, Joni, playing the part of the girl who requests the boy wait until she's of-age so the two can be married. At the time, she's 15 and he's 22. The boy, named Jimmy, which happens to be the name of one of Conway's sons, moves off but Joni remains vigilant waiting for Jimmy's return. Well, five years pass and Jimmy returns, knowing Joni is 20, and anticipates marrying her but reality deals him a crushing jolt. "Touch the Hand" is an aching love ballad about a man trying to convince the woman not to leave him. The name of the album came from Jerry Clower, a label mate and a legendary southern comedian. Clower nick-named Conway "the high priest of country music". It is on this album that Conway performs his version of "Before The Next Teardrop Falls", a monster hit for Freddy Fender. Conway also gives us his versions of "Sally Was a Good Ol' Girl", "It Keeps Right On A-Hurtin", and "Amanda". The album was certified GOLD in Canada.
This project was released in 1983, called Lost in the Feeling. It features the #1 title track, a song that also features Ricky Skaggs as the harmony singer and several steel guitar solo's by John Hughey. The rest of the album is stocked with country-pop pretty much. "You've Got a Good Love Coming" is a Lee Greenwood smash hit...Conway's version is pretty much in the same arrangement. "First Things First" is a cute song about a blind date and how amorous the woman happens to be. "The Best Is Yet To Come" is a love song detailing the minute by minute account of a night together and the morning after. The album's second single, "Heartache Tonight", is a fabulous display of Conway's vocals. The song originates from The Eagles...they are the act who had a hit with the song first. Conway's version hit the Top-10 in the fall of 1983. "From a Strangers Point of View" is one of the few songs on the album that doesn't contain a pop over-tone with the others being "We're So Close" and the rollicking, up-tempo "I Think I'm in Love". The album's third single, "Three Times a Lady", became a Top-10 hit in early 1984...it had been a previous pop hit for The Commodores.
Not many country songs had quite touched the subject matter that a Conway Twitty song was known to touch and this album, well, this particular single, was touching forbidden places in the minds of music critics and radio DJ's. Pardon my shocked expression...I was acting like someone from the early 1970's upon hearing the song for the very first time. There were several radio stations that banned the song. You have to remember that it was 1973 when this album was released and not many, if any, country songs were accused of being naughty. I do not believe the song is naughty or dirty and once you hear Conway explain the lyrics of the song you, too, won't think the song is as naughty as some would lead you to believe. "You've Never Been This Far Before" became one of Conway's biggest hits...remaining a #1 single for multiple weeks and crossing over to the Top-30 on the pop chart, in spite of it's ban from several stations. The song is basically about a one night stand concerning a woman who's cheating on her husband with another man and she's nervous because she's never been that far before. The song's concept wasn't controversial...it was the choice of lyrics in a certain point in the song. Casual fans refer to this as the "bum, bum, bum song" because Conway says that phrase throughout the song to emphasize the sound of a heartbeat pounding harder as the married woman gets closer and closer to the other man. It's quite a song and one of Conway's signature #1 hits. The other material on the album, like much of the albums released in this era in country music, featured mostly cover songs. "Born To Lose", "Seasons of My Heart", and "Above and Beyond" had previously been recorded by others...George Jones and Buck Owens to name a few. "Baby's Gone", the other single from the album, hit #1 and it told the story of a man who comes home to find his wife has left him. It's a standard country music storyline but what sells the song is Conway's vocal performance. "I Love You More in Memory", "Til the Pain Outwears the Shame", and "The Easy Way Out" are good showcases for Conway's vocals but the drawing power remains "You've Never Been This Far Before". This was certified a GOLD album.
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