In an earlier entry I examined Conway's Warner Brothers years. I won't examine Conway's MCA years in quite the same in-depth manner because MCA was the label Conway recorded for throughout his country career, with the exception of the 4 year Warner Brothers stint.
Conway signed with MCA, known at the time as Decca, in 1965. He was primarily known for his pop and rock material of the late 1950's and early 1960's and it was Harlan Howard, a legendary country songwriter, who became instrumental in Conway's switch from pop to country music. Conway had a slow start in country music due to the obvious reason...a former rock and pop singer wants to "go country". MCA continued to release singles on Conway in spite of their low chart placings...the material issued 1966 and 1967 included "Guess My Eyes Were Bigger Than My Heart", which actually became a Top-20 country hit in 1966 following a series of singles that didn't enter the charts; some others were the Top-40 country hits "I Don't Want To Be With Me" and "Don't Put Your Hurt In My Heart" and a song that didn't get as much airplay, "Funny, But I'm Not Laughing", which peaked outside of the Top-40.
As I mentioned, the label stuck with Conway and in 1968 after three full years as a country artist he had his very first Top-10 country hit, "The Image of Me". After this song hit, every single that MCA released on Conway for the next ten years reached the Top-10, thirty-two of those singles reached the #1 spot in the various weekly country charts. Conway was red-hot in country music during the 1970's and he continued this dominance throughout much of the 1980's, prompting Billboard Magazine to declare Conway the #1 Country artist of the 1970's and the #2 Country artist of the 1980's, all based on the success of his songs on the charts. His sales were extremely high for a country artist and he was one of the few artist's in country music to regularly sell hundreds of thousands of albums, as well as singles, year after year during the 1970's and half of the 1980's...
Conway shared pretty much all of the 1970's and early 1980's with Loretta Lynn in a string of duet recordings...their success as a duo was rewarded at the annual awards programs for a period of years during the 1970's. The two won various Vocal Duo and Vocal Duet awards from all of the awards organizations plus the two of them toured together quite a bit. In an interesting bit of marketing, Owen Bradley, the record producer, along with Conway and Loretta, insisted that there only be one duet single and one duet album a year. This was put into effect because Owen, Conway, or Loretta wanted their duet material to compete with their solo material. So, usually, the duet's would be released during the peak time of either two's solo single...so that by the time the duet recording was catching on and being played, the solo recording's from Conway and Loretta were falling back down the charts.
Conway had mentioned years later that they fought MCA because the label wanted to cash-in on the extreme success that the duo could potentially bring in but neither artist, nor Owen Bradley, wanted the duet's to over-shadow the solo work. Looking back it was a smart move because the songs that Conway and Loretta released separately from their duet recordings are popular, as were the duets they recorded. Another worry was publicity...Conway and Loretta didn't want to be known as a duet act...this, actually, was the impetus for everyone agreeing that there wouldn't be no more than one album and single a year.
Conway and Loretta...on the cover of their 1973 album, "Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man"
In 1978 Conway released a series of singles that didn't reach #1 and he felt this was a perfect time to change some things in his career. He had become even more of a producer in the studio...being given permission to do a lot of things in the studio that other record producers probably wouldn't allow. Conway, actually, became his own producer...leaving Owen Bradley after a long and successful run. Conway and co-producer, David Barnes, helmed the 1979 album, Crosswinds which featured another change: Conway's hair! He had dropped the familiar slick back look for the curlier style. At the time of this album's release, Conway hadn't had a #1 single for almost two years...which may have felt like forever for an artist known for having #1 hits. Conway had released a series of singles in 1978 that peaked at various places in the Top-10 but none of the singles hit #1. At the time, Conway's last #1 was in mid 1977, "I've Already Loved You In My Mind", it was his thirty-fourth #1 single.
After the almost two year drought from the top, "Don't Take It Away" soared Conway back up to #1 in 1979...making that his 35th #1 single. He continued to rack up #1 singles and the occasional Top-10 for MCA through 1981. His departure from MCA occurred, according to Conway, because the company had become too much business-driven instead of artistic-driven. In his words he felt the label wasn't really pushing his records at radio or promoting him heavily as they did in the past because the label had became too big. Anyway, he went to Elektra Records in 1982...a smaller label compared to MCA at the time. Asylum Records was a part of Elektra at the time, so Conway's records were on the Elektra/Asylum label. Then, as labels are prone to do, Asylum split from Elektra in 1983 and Warner Brothers merged with Elektra. Conway found himself on another "big, cumbersome" label once more. After spending a few more years on Warner Brothers, and gathering 11 number one hits in a little over four years, including his 50th, "Don't Call Him a Cowboy" in 1985, Conway returned to MCA in 1987. Conway would have three more #1 hits during the 1987-1990 time span, 1987's "Julia", 1989's "She's Got a Single Thing in Mind", and 1990's "Crazy In Love". This would become his 55th and final #1 hit. Sprinkled throughout the 1987-1990 time line were five additional Top-10 hits...and in early 1991 he scored another Top-10 hit, "I Couldn't See You Leavin". This single would be his last to reach the Top-10. It was the 75th single to enter the country Top-10 for Conway in a country music career that spanned 26 years up to that point, 1965-1991. As many of you know, Conway passed away in 1993 during his 28th year as a country music singer and his 36th year as a recording artist when you add in the 1957-1964 rock/pop career.
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