Conway...Warner Brothers...

Conway Twitty's Warner Brothers era is represented by an impressive streak of major Top-10 hits during a four year run, 1982-1986. In my last blog I had mentioned that Conway had left MCA Records after a 17 year association, 1965-1982. Conway debuted his Elektra/Asylum material in the spring of 1982 with the release of the somber heartbreak ballad "The Clown". His debut album for the label which included "The Clown" was titled Southern Comfort. The album featured the standard 10 songs with a mixture of material the fans and country music listeners came to expect from Conway. There was no surprises with Southern Comfort meaning that there was no so-called controversial themes explored or anything of that nature. The album was basically "safe" if one wants to interpret it like that. After "The Clown" hit the top, the second single became a huge hit in the summer of 1982. "Slow Hand" had been a huge pop/R&B hit for The Pointer Sisters in 1981 and Conway got the idea of recording the song from a man's point of view. This became one of Conway's signature songs, spending a couple of weeks at #1. Conway at the same time had re-recorded a lot of his previous hit songs. Elektra/Asylum issued the results in the form of two albums: Classics, Volume One and Classics, Volume Two. These 1982 re-recordings show up a lot on various low-budget CD's because the original recordings cost more money to re-distribute but a re-recording is cheaper by comparison so this is why a lot of record companies often use an artist's re-recordings of their hit songs instead of the originals. These recordings were also offered on an album sold exclusively at concerts, Solid Gold.

Twitty City opened up in 1982...several years later Conway rightfully admitted that 1982 was one the biggest years of his career. It was also the year he taped his only TV special, Conway Twitty On The Mississippi, which featured concert performances and interviews conducted on board the Mississippi riverboat as well as footage shot at Nashville's baseball park and in Friars Point, Mississippi where Conway was born. On the music front, Elektra/Asylum issued a new album late in 1982 called Dream Maker featuring a song Conway performed on the Riverboat special, "We Really Did But Now You Don't". The song was coincidentally Conway's new single, which hit the top spot in late 1982. The Dream Maker album was a bit more ballad heavy than the more up-beat Southern Comfort was. This album also consisted of 10 songs. An unusual aspect of this album is the first two songs were the two singles...while the rest of the eight songs were album tracks not issued to radio...usually, singles are sprinkled throughout an album instead of going in numerical order like that. In the winter of 1982, "The Rose" was issued as a single. It hit the top in early 1983.

The string of major #1 hits continued in tact albeit with a few lower ranked Top-10 hits added in. Elektra/Asylum merged with it's parent company, Warner Brothers, and as a result Conway's albums would carry the Warner Brothers logo.

The biggest hit single for Conway this year was "Lost In The Feeling", which featured lengthy steel guitar work by John Hughey and back-up vocals from Ricky Skaggs. An album of the same name was issued and it featured 10 romantic songs. In a few of the songs Conway gets playful...namely on "First Things First" about blind dates and the over amorous woman he comes in contact with. Then there's "I Think I'm in Love", a toe-tapper set in a bar that should have been released as a single but it wasn't. Lee Greenwood fans will recognize "You've Got a Good Love Coming", as that song is one of Greenwood's signature songs. Naomi Judd appears on the album's cover, playing the part of a nameless lover hanging onto Conway. The title track, "Lost In the Feeling", hit the top spot of several music publications and then Conway released back-to-back pop remakes.

In 1982 he had released "Slow Hand" which was a huge hit for him, originally a pop hit for The Pointer Sisters in 1981...then he released "The Rose" in late 1982 which had been a huge pop hit for Bette Midler in 1979. In the summer of 1983 he released the up-tempo rocker "Heartache Tonight" which was a pop hit for The Eagles. Conway's version hit the Top-5...which wasn't too bad...but it broke up his #1 hit streak. That winter he released his only Christmas album, Merry Twismas, and his TV special won the Music City News fan-voted award for TV Special of the Year.

The follow-up single to "Heartache Tonight" was his version of The Commodores "Three Times a Lady", which made the Top-10, but didn't enter the Top-5, in early 1984. The single's lack of acceptance on country radio can be traced to the on-going complaints from music critics angry over Conway re-doing pop hits for country radio. Perhaps as an answer to the complaining, Conway released By Heart in 1984 and it featured no cover songs of pop hits, which had become something of a habit during the late '70s/early '80s for most country artists. This album, by comparison to his previous three studio albums in 1982 and 1983, was stylistically more countrier...although it had it's share of experimentation specifically on the sexually charged song "Bad Boy" done in a groovy, urgent arrangement; and the soft-pop sound of "When The Magic Works". All in all, that album carried a countrier approach. The singles from the album were "I Don't Know a Thing About Love" and "Somebody's Needin' Somebody" and both of them hit the top of the charts in 1984. Warner Brothers then issued the compilation Conway's Latest Greatest Hits, Volume One to distinguish it from all of the various other Conway greatest hits albums available. As a trivia note, there wasn't a Volume Two.

The hits album featured the first nine singles Conway released during 1982, 1983, and 1984 after leaving MCA. A tenth song, the album's opener, "Ain't She Somethin' Else" was issued as a single in late 1984 and it climbed to the top spot in early 1985...number trackers and publicists were promoting the single as his 49th to claim a #1 spot...making somewhat of a deliberate marketing attempt at getting the next single to #1 as well, giving Conway an accomplishment of 50 #1 hits in the process. Could Conway reach #1 for a 50th time?? The answer is...of course!

Conway's 50th number one hit is a bit ironic because it's a funny song, more whimsical than laugh out loud funny...it isn't a lust-filled romantic rendering or top of his lungs vocal shouter. The song is "Don't Call Him a Cowboy" from the album of the same name. The song comes complete with sound effects of horses trotting...certainly not your typical Conway song...but the song succeeds because it's overall concept is a put-down on the Urban Cowboy era in country music...making pointed references to men who dress up and play cowboy in bars in an effort to win women over. After the thrilling feat of hitting #1 for the 50th time in his career, his next single "Between Her Blue Eyes and Jeans" peaked in the Top-5. The Don't Call Him a Cowboy album was another 10 song collection. The ballads were here and there were several mid-tempo songs as well. There were only three songs that I would consider as being fast/up-tempo and those are "Don't Call Him a Cowboy", "Between Her Blue Eyes and Jeans", and "Whichever One Comes First"....everything else ranges from mid-tempo to ballad. The following album, issued later in 1985, I already wrote about, Chasin' Rainbows, so I won't spend any time writing about it again.

He followed Chasin' Rainbows with Fallin' For You For Years in 1986. This album marked Conway's contemporary-country approach. Starting with this album he would deliberately look for songs that had a cutting-edge feel...songs that sounded more louder and energetic...his previous albums were all good, too...but Conway at the time remarked he was restless and wanted to get a louder sound on his recordings. This was accomplished throughout the 1986 album...the title track alone went a long way at showing just how incredible Conway's voice and vocal range was. The first single, "Desperado Love", was a catchy sing-a-long blending an old west image with a lusty lyric of a man who doesn't care if the woman he desires is with another man or not...the man in the song wants the woman no matter what the cost. The single hit the top...becoming his fifty-first #1 hit in the late summer/early fall of 1986. As previously mentioned, "Fallin' For You For Years" was simply amazing...it carried a lustful feel throughout the song, vocally comparable to his live performances of "Why Me, Lord?", "It's Only Make Believe", and 1983's "Heartache Tonight". The single became his fifty-second #1 in early 1987. After the release and #1 success of "Fallin' For You For Years" in early 1987, Conway left Warner Brothers and returned to MCA...and his first seven singles upon returning to MCA all hit the Top-10, 1987-1989.

Interested in song selections from his albums? Here's an over-view:

Southern Comfort; 1982 Elektra/Asylum
The Clown
The Boy Next Door
Love and Only Love
When Love Was Something Else
It Turns Me Inside Out
Slow Hand
Southern Comfort
Something Strange Got Into Her Last Night
She Only Meant To Use Him
I Was The First

Dream Maker; 1982 Elektra/Asylum
The Rose
We Really Did But Now You Don't
A Good Love Died Tonight
In My Eyes
One On One
Just When I Needed You Most
Close Enough To Love
Burn Georgia Burn There's a Fire In Your Soul
In My Dreams
Dream Maker

Lost In The Feeling; 1983 Warner Brothers
Lost In The Feeling
The Best Is Yet To Come
You've Got a Good Love Coming
We're So Close
Heartache Tonight
A Stranger's Point of View
I Think I'm In Love
Three Times a Lady
First Things First
Don't It Feel Good?

Conway's Latest Greatest Hits; 1984 Warner Brothers
Ain't She Somethin' Else; 1984
Slow Hand; 1982
The Rose; 1983
Somebody's Needin' Somebody; 1984
Three Times a Lady; 1984
I Don't Know a Thing About Love; 1984
The Clown; 1982
Heartache Tonight; 1983
Lost in the Feeling; 1983
We Really Did But Now You Don't; 1982

Don't Call Him a Cowboy; 1985 Warner Brothers
Don't Call Him a Cowboy
Somebody Lied
Between Her Blue Eyes and Jeans
The Note
Whichever One Comes First
Everyone Has Someone They Can't Forget
Those Eyes
Except For You
Green Eyes Cryin' Those Blue Tears
Take It Like a Man

Chasin' Rainbows; 1985 Warner Brothers
The Legend and the Man
All I Can Be is a Sweet Memory
Keep On Chasin' Rainbows
True, True Love Never Dies
What's a Memory Like You Doing In a Love Like This
You'll Never Know How Much I Needed You Today
Lay Me Down Carolina
She Did
I'm The Man in the Song
Baby I'm A Want You

Fallin' For You For Years; 1986 Warner Brothers
A Thing of the Past
Desperado Love
Steady As She Goes
Fallin' For You For Years
Riverboat Gamblers
Jennifer Johnson and Me
You're The Best I Never Had
You Can't Say I Haven't Tried
If I Didn't Love You
Only The Shadows Know

And so, this closes my look at Conway's Warner Brothers era: 1982-1987.

Mr T

Conway Twitty's 1981 album is called Mr T and it is one of Conway's nicknames thought up by his fans. The album featured two number one singles and a couple of other chart singles that MCA released later on.

This album at the time of it's release was speculated to be Conway's last with MCA, the label he had called home since 1965. In Conway's schedule in 1981 was the ground-breaking of a country music park that at the time was un-named but in time it would be called Twitty City. The first single to be released from this album was the instant Conway classic "Tight Fittin' Jeans", which is a song about tight fittin' jeans...it blends the urban cowboy atmosphere of a couple at a bar with a typical love song approach. Conway puts himself in the song...further adding to his appeal with female country music listeners. The single did create a minor controversy, though...the idea of a song being specifically about women in tight pants and the lust it created for the men looking at them had some critics riled up.

Like in the past involving other Conway songs, the controversies surrounding this particular song didn't affect the single's popularity, either. "Tight Fittin' Jeans" became one of Conway's signature songs, sung in nearly every concert from 1981 onward.

The album cover of Mr T shown Conway on a golf course with classic-era green car. I don't necessarily think it was golf balls on the ground on the album cover...these were multi-colored and way bigger than golfballs...but Conway had a golf club slid under his arm, pulling on his gloves.

After the smash success of "Tight Fittin' Jeans", MCA released a second single from the album in late 1981. The single, "Red Neckin' Love Makin' Night", is a party song. The title itself created minor complaints...not only did it contain the phrase "red neck" but it also contained "love makin" as well. I'm not kidding you, either...back in 1981 country music critics seemed embarrassed or awkward whenever love or lust was explicit in a country recording.

Nevertheless, the single continued to climb the country charts in late 1981 and it hit #1 in early 1982. Conway made an appearance on Barbara Mandrell's TV show around this same time and the producers didn't want him to perform the song because "red neck" may come across offensive to rural America. In his own kind of way Conway let them know that if he wasn't allowed to perform his current single then he wouldn't appear on the show. This was not the first or last time that Conway stood up for his choice of material...other artists may have gave in and changed song choices in exchange for the exposure a TV show would give but Conway wasn't like that. One of his nick-names, besides Mr T, is The Best Friend a Song Ever Had. This name has a couple of meanings...but mostly it refers to the way Conway treated songs and songwriters. He fought hard for the songs he recorded...feeling that country audiences are mature and adult enough to accept intimate love songs and he felt that love songs can be mature in nature without ever veering into sleazy or trashy lyrics. Simply put, he championed songs and their writers.

So, the TV producers of Mandrell's show gave in and let Conway sing "Red Neckin' Love Makin' Night" on national TV. After the success of this song and a couple of duets with Loretta Lynn in late 1981/early 1982, Conway did in fact leave MCA for the smaller Elektra/Asylum label, which was merged with Warner Brothers in 1983. MCA, in the meantime, released a compilation in 1982 on Conway called Number Ones which featured a few singles that came short of #1 but were still big Top-10 hits. MCA, also, issued a single on Conway in 1982 called "Over Thirty But Not Over the Hill", which is contained on Mr T. The single, an un-official release, made the charts and peaked in the Top-70. In 1983 MCA was at it again...they released an un-official single called "We Had It All", which is also found on the 1981 album. This un-official single, however, did a decent chart-run, peaking in the Top-45...it's airplay was in competition with his official single at Elektra/Asylum, "The Rose". MCA also released another compilation album on Conway, this one called Classic Conway featuring a familiar performance pose on the album's cover. This compilation featured the 1982 and 1983 singles that MCA issued on Conway from the 1981 Mr T album.

This album has never been issued on CD under it's official name and probably never will since we're in the MP3 era where songs can be bought and downloaded onto Ipod's and computers from the comfort of your own home or workplace, putting aside the trip to the shopping mall for the latest music. The album did get a CD release in the mid 1990's under the name of Red Neckin' Love Makin' Night but that CD wasn't promoted/distributed heavily and little know about it. Amazon has that CD as a digital album, available for purchase.

Here are the ten tracks on this album:

1. Cheatin' Fire
2. I Made You a Woman
3. Slow Lovemakin'
4. We Had It All
5. Red Neckin' Love Makin' Night
6. Tight Fittin' Jeans
7. Over Thirty But Not Over the Hill
8. Hearts
9. I'm Already Taken
10. Love Salvation

Track #9 was co-written by Steve Wariner who recorded and released the song himself in the late 1990's and it was a big hit for him. Track #3 appeared on a 1985 compilation called The Best of Conway Twitty released by MCA even though it wasn't a single. It also contained a 1979 recording, "Heavy Tears", and a 1978 recording, "That's All She Wrote" among it's eight tracks.

Conway's Chasin' Rainbows in 1985

Conway has always been one of my favorite country singers. Unfortunately I was a kid during his biggest years and he passed away in June 1993 when I was 16...so I was never in any position to buy his albums or go to his concerts. I started finding out all I could about him in the years after his death...writing letters to people in Nashville and Hendersonville, etc etc. This was a pre-Internet time for me and so I literally wrote letters and mailed them out. Once I got a job I started to buy whatever I could that was available in the stores. I also bought things through the mail, 45 singles and vinyl albums that just weren't carried in shopping stores anymore, plus a poster advertising Conway's 1983 holiday album. When I got onto the internet I added to my Conway collection even more through eBay.

Warner Brothers released "The Legend and the Man" as a single. It is from his late 1985 album called Chasin' Rainbows that unfortunately went under-rated. When I learned that this single peaked in the Top-20 and it's follow-up, "You'll Never Know How Much I Needed You Today" peaked in the Top-30, I was a bit curious as to why because his previous two singles in 1985 both hit the Top-10, one going all the way to #1. Also, his follow-up singles in 1986 were both #1 hits so it's always been a mystery why these two particular singles didn't fare any better as the singles before and after them did. Here's a list in chronological order of his singles beginning with 1985 through 1987 to give you an illustration of what I'm talking about:

Ain't She Somethin' Else; 1985 #1
Don't Call Him a Cowboy; 1985 #1
Between Her Blue Eyes and Jeans; 1985 #3
The Legend and the Man; 1985 #18 Cashbox
You'll Never Know How Much I Needed You Today; 1986 #26
Desperado Love; 1986 #1
Fallin' For You For Years; 1987 #1 Radio and Records
Julia; 1987 #1 Radio and Records
I Want To Know You Before We Make Love; 1987 #2

Perhaps the timing wasn't right when Warner Brothers issued "The Legend and the Man" and it's follow-up? It's baffling how an artist can hit the Top-10 with amazing consistency but then release back-to-back lower charting singles but then hit the Top-10 with another stretch of singles. I've often bought vintage issues of Music City News...sometimes purposely buying copies from the late 1985/early 1986 time period to see for myself what was happening to cause that sort of a disruption in his Top-10 out put. After "Fallin' For You For Years" hit the top in 1987 he left Warner Brothers and returned to MCA, the label he departed from in late 1981.

The album Chasin' Rainbows was a Top-30 hit, which is even more ironic because the 1986 album, Fallin' For You For Years charted lower but contained two #1 singles. Oh well...some speculate that country radio deliberately under-played "The Legend and the Man" as well as "You'll Never Know How Much I Needed You Today". I have no way of knowing...had I been older back in 1985/1986 I probably would have a better answer.

Here's a look at the album's track list:

1. The Legend and the Man
2. All I Can Be Is a Sweet Memory
3. Keep On Chasin' Rainbows
4. True, True Love Never Dies
5. What's a Memory Like You Doing In a Love Like This
6. You'll Never Know How Much I Needed You Today
7. Lay Me Down Carolina
8. She Did
9. I'm the Man in the Song
10. Baby I'm a Want You

The choice of songs was a departure from his earlier 1985 album Don't Call Him a Cowboy but each song on here is performed well. You get the sense that he put everything into this Chasin' Rainbows album...but he puts everything into all of his albums...

Two of the songs from this album would become hits for other artists. Collin Raye came along in the early 1990's with his take on "All I Can Be Is a Sweet Memory". Actor-singer John Schneider had a hit with "What's a Memory Like You Doing in a Love Like This". The album also contains Conway's version of a former pop hit. "Baby I'm a Want You" was a pop hit for a group known as Bread. It's easy to give analysis after the fact, of course. 23 years after this album was released I will say that Warner Brothers and Conway were correct in releasing "The Legend and the Man". It's a wonderful song...whether it's commercial enough or not.

I would not have released "You'll Never Know How Much I Needed You Today" as a single. I like the song and it's 'classic Conway' all the way, right up to the narration at the beginning "Have a seat...I reached for you at dawn..." but in hind-sight I would have released "She Did" as a possible single. It carries a traditional heartbreak theme plus it also could have caused listeners to be reminded of Conway's 1982 #1 "We Really Did But Now You Don't" with all of the "did" words sprinkled throughout both songs and given the familiarity, "She Did" could have hit the Top-10 easily. "I'm the Man in the Song" is what i'd call Conway's favorite on the album. I say that because throughout his career he often used to say that he sang songs that said things women wanted to hear but men were unable to say. This song paints the picture that a couple is listening to a song and the man is telling the woman he's with to listen to the words the singer sings because it's telling her what he's wanting to say.

Chasin' Rainbows has it's share of ballads and up-tempo songs but several of the ballads are rather lengthy which makes the entire album come across ballad heavy even though the song sequences bounce from ballad to up-tempo throughout...especially "Keep On Chasin' Rainbows", "Baby I'm a Want You", and the over 4 minute long "The Legend and the Man". To be fair, "All I Can Be is a Sweet Memory" is also lengthy...but it's a sing-a-long, instead of a ballad, and it includes back-up harmony from Vince Gill. So, this album's lengthy ballads make the album come across as ballad heavy. For those curious...earlier I mentioned how this album was vastly different in material from his earlier 1985 album. Here are the songs from Don't Call Him a Cowboy...

1. Don't Call Him a Cowboy
2. Somebody Lied
3. Between Her Blue Eyes and Jeans
4. The Note
5. Whichever One Comes First
6. Everyone Has Someone They Can't Forget
7. Those Eyes
8. Except For You
9. Green Eyes Cryin' Those Blue Tears
10. Take It Like a Man

"Somebody Lied" became a major hit for Ricky Van Shelton and "The Note" became a hit in the late 1990's for Darryl Singletary. The only song that departs from the traditional love song theme is "Take It Like a Man", the album closer, which is a story about a man who is confronting the concept of a woman leaving him but fights with himself over his father's advice to take things like a man and hide his tears and feelings.

On the Chasin' Rainbows album were heard Conway sing several non-traditional love songs: "Lay Me Down Carolina", a sing-a-long that carries a religious/inspirational over-tone and it features The Whites as background vocalists. "The Legend and the Man" is the other obvious non-traditional love song on the album. "Keep On Chasin' Rainbows" is an inner-strength song carrying subtle touches of a love song. That's probably confusing but what I mean is, the song doesn't become a love song until near the end with a twist of the lyrics.

Twitty-City

Conway opened up Twitty-City in 1982. The complex had been under construction since 1981. According to Conway, he built the tourist attraction because he felt country music fans were kept too far away from the singers they idolized and were fans of. He opened this complex with the goal to allow his fans the opportunity to tour his property and look at his career through the help of pictures and other souvenirs on display.

His family lived on the complex which included his four children and his mother. He lived in the big house you see behind him in the picture. At the time of the 1982 opening Conway was still one of the biggest country music acts and his singles were reaching #1 with unequaled rivalry from his peers. At the complex there was an area known as the Showcase. This was the place where Conway's Wall of Gold was on display. The records were not officially "gold records" by the RIAA...instead, these gold records were in reference to his number one hits. Each chart-topping single that Conway had in his career was spotlighed under glass in the Wall of Gold...by 1990 the Wall of Gold contained 55 plaques representing each #1 single.

The name of the complex you might think was dreamed up by Conway or one of his associates but in reality the name of the place was un-titled until critics began calling it 'Twitty-City' as a joke. Conway liked the name and so that's what it officially became. It's location was in Hendersonville, Tennessee. Music Village, USA became a tourist attraction and Twitty-City was the main draw in both the summer AND winter months...each winter Conway put on his Christmas At Twitty-City light display. The Opryland Hotel in Nashville did a similar event in the winter months leading up to Christmas where they, too, would put on a dazzling display of Christmas lights. Conway did a TV special in 1982 called Conway On The Mississippi that featured a line-up of singers popping in and out. Tammy Wynette, Loretta, Charley Pride, and Jerry Lee Lewis made appearances as did Barbara Mandrell. She and Conway appeared together in a segment taped/filmed at the Nashville ball-park, footage from a celebrity ball-game. George Lindsay appeared in a stand-up comedy routine and Ralph Emery acted as co-host in a few of the segments. There was a segment on Twitty-City in this special.

In 1983 Conway released a very rare album...his only holiday album...called Merry Twismas and it featured spoken and sung selections as Conway "strolled" through Twitty-City with Twitty Bird, the mascott. He and the bird talk back and fourth and make jokes plus sing a few songs together. After the release of this album, it would be the main soundtrack heard as visitors came to Twitty-City during the holidays.

Twitty-City never really had a down-year. Each summer, specifically, throughout the 1980's as Conway ruled the country charts his fans planned their vacations around the place. In June of each year he hosted a celebrity softball game for charity...often playing against a team headed up by Barbara Mandrell. Also, Fan Fair happened in June...Conway would often put together a concert called 'Country Explosion' which would feature Conway and usually Loretta plus anyone else that Conway could get to appear.

Robin Leach's TV show, Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous came calling and they did a story on Conway's tourist attraction in 1986. The special also spoke of Conway's media shyness and how his "luxurious mansion" sits smack dab in the middle of the entire complex. It was out of place to see a show like that do a segment on Conway...even though I suspect the publicity didn't hurt. The fifth anniversary of Twitty-City was a local media event in 1987. In 1991 he started allowing fans the ability to tour his own house...where as before they could only see his house from a distance. Twitty-City continued thriving until 1993...Conway's death in June amidst the upcoming Fan Fair festivities sent a shock wave through Nashville...his untimely death at 59 was even more shocking. Fans from all over went to Twitty-City throughout 1993...a dedication show was put together called 'Final Touches'. The complex was shut down in early 1994...and during the infamous auction of Conway's personal property, the Christian company, Trinity Broadcasting, bought the complex and turned it into a religious complex.

The Top-40 Hits

There were some songs released by Conway Twitty that did not reach the Top-10. There was a handful of singles that peaked outside the Top-10 but ranked in the Top-40 (singles ranging in peak positions of #40 through #11). Conway's statistics are mind-blowing because when you go by the numbers and factor in both his pop and country success Conway placed 97 singles on the Top-40 charts during a 36 year career span: 1958-1996. The amazing statistics are of those 97 Top-40 singles, 78 of them entered the Top-10 and 55 of those 78 reached #1. The difference is 19. There are 19 singles that entered the Top-40 for Conway that did not go into the Top-10.

Here is the list of the handful of Top-40 singles:

1. The Story of My Love; 1959 Top-30 pop
2. Mona Lisa; 1959 Top-30 pop
3. What Am I Living For?; 1960 Top-30 pop
4. Is A Bluebird Blue; 1960 Top-40 pop
5. C'est Ci Bon; 1961 Top-30 pop
6. Guess My Eyes Were Bigger Than My Heart; 1966Top-20 country
7. Look Into My Teardrops; 1966 Top-40 country
8. I Don't Want To Be With Me; 1967Top-40 country
9. Don't Put Your Hurt In My Heart; 1967 Top-40 country
10. The Grandest Lady of Them All; 1978 Top-20 country
11. The Legend and The Man; 1985 Top-20 Cashbox
12. You'll Never Know How Much I Needed You Today; 1985 Top-30 country
13. House On Old Lonesome Road; 1989 Top-20 country
14. Who's Gonna Know?; 1990 Top-20 Cashbox
15. Fit To Be Tied Down; 1990 Top-30 Radio and Records
16. One Bridge I Didn't Burn; 1991 Top-40 Cashbox
17. She's Got a Man On Her Mind; 1991 Top-20 Radio and Records
18. Don't It Make You Lonely; 1994 Top-40 Cashbox 
19. Rainy Night In Georgia; 1994 with Sam Moore Top-40 Canada Adult-Contemporary

The 18th single was issued by MCA with little fan-fare. Also, it appeared nearly a year after Conway had passed away. It is on his final studio album for MCA, entitled Final Touches, and it can be found on the career look-back box set MCA released in 1994 called The Conway Twitty Collection. The single at 19 was the last thing Conway ever recorded. It happened in the spring of 1993 for a duets project of various artists titled Rhythm, Country, and Blues.

The music video became a popular staple of The Nashville Network...showing Conway and Sam inside the recording studio performing the song. Throughout the clip we see footage of Conway, Sam, producer Don Was, producer Tony Brown, and others kidding around in the studio during the instrumental solo's. The duet reached the Adult-Contemporary chart in Canada for a brief run in 1994. In spite of the duet having both Conway and Sam Moore, two legendary music figures, it didn't reach the mainstream country or pop charts in America.

The single at 17 was the last major hit for Conway, reaching the Top-20, as you can see. That single is on Even Now which featured another single, "Who Did They Think He Was". That particular recording was the last single of his on the charts in his lifetime. It peaked at #45 on the Cashbox chart in early 1992. A music video was made of this song. It was his second music video...his first being his 1990 #1 "Crazy In Love".

Conway Twitty: The Top-10 Hits

Conway Twitty, in addition to reaching #1 a total of 55 times in his career, reached the Top-10 twenty-three other times with singles that peaked below the top spot. So, in an over-all count, that adds up to 78 singles that Conway sent into the Top-10. The first two singles on the list are from the Hot 100 pop chart and the rest are from the country chart. The singles with Loretta Lynn are marked with this *** symbol.

Here are the Top-10 singles that didn't reach #1:

1. Danny Boy; 1959 #10-pop
2. Lonely Blue Boy; 1960 #6-pop
3. The Image of Me; 1968 #5
4. I Can't Love You Enough; 1977*** #2
5. Georgia Keeps Pulling On My Ring; 1978 #3
6. From Seven 'Til Ten; 1978*** #6
7. Boogie Grass Band; 1978 #2
8. Your Love Had Taken Me That High; 1979 #3
9. You Know Just What I'd Do; 1979*** #9
10. I've Never Seen The Likes of You; 1980 #5 Cashbox
11. It's True Love; 1980*** #5
12. A Bridge That Just Won't Burn; 1980 #2 Cashbox
13. I Still Believe In Waltzes; 1981*** #2
14. Lovin' What Your Lovin' Does To Me; 1981*** #7
15. Heartache Tonight; 1983 #5 Radio and Records
16. Three Times a Lady; 1984 #7
17. Between Her Blue Eyes and Jeans; 1985 #3
18. I Want To Know You Before We Make Love; 1987 #2
19. That's My Job; 1988 #6
20. Goodbye Time; 1988 #7
21. Saturday Night Special; 1988 #6 Cashbox
22. I Wish I Was Still In Your Dreams; 1989 #4
23. I Couldn't See You Leavin'; 1991 #2 Radio and Records
Conway sold ten million pop records...the bulk of those sales came from the eight million in sales of the world-wide hit single, "It's Only Make Believe". "Lonely Blue Boy" was a Gold record as well.

The Number One Hits

I thought I would start off my Conway Twitty blog by providing a list of his number one singles. The reason I do this is because over the years historians and critics often make reference to the fact of Conway having the "most #1 hits in country music". I am also providing this list as a reference because Conway's number one hit total is a combination of the chart-topping singles he accumulated not only on the weekly Billboard chart but also on the competitive music charts in publication during his career: Cashbox, Record World, Radio and Records. Historians rightfully single-out Billboard magazine as the only resource and reference because of the publication's longevity and impact. However, in some cases, even a publication as prestigious as Billboard can have policies and rules that prevent singles from attaining the #1 position in spite of public acceptance and airplay. Ticky-tack rules sometimes prevent heavy played songs from reaching #1...so this brings us to the topic of my first Conway blog...here are all 55 of Conway's number one hits. His first chart-topper happened on the Hot 100 pop chart in 1958 and the next 54 were country.

The singles in italics indicate those that hit #1 in the other music publications in competition with Billboard.

The year indicates when it reached #1...for late in the year releases, his singles often peaked early the following year.

Conway's duets with Loretta Lynn are specified with three symbols following the year it reached number one ***

1. It's Only Make Believe; 1958 Pop
2. Next In Line; 1968
3. Darling, You Know I Wouldn't Lie; 1969
4. I Love You More Today; 1969
5. To See My Angel Cry; 1969
6. That's When She Started To Stop Loving You; 1970
7. Hello Darlin'; 1970
8. Fifteen Years Ago; 1970
9. After The Fire Is Gone; 1971***
10. How Much More Can She Stand; 1971
11. I Wonder What She'll Think About Me Leaving; 1971
12. Lead Me On; 1971***
13. I Can't See Me Without You; 1972
14. I Can't Stop Loving You; 1972
15. Lost Her Love on Our Last Date; 1972
16. She Needs Someone To Hold Her When She Cries; 1972
17. Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man; 1973***
18. You've Never Been This Far Before; 1973
19. Baby's Gone; 1973
20. There's a Honky Tonk Angel; 1974
21. As Soon As I Hang Up the Phone; 1974***
22. I'm Not Through Loving You Yet; 1974
23. I See The Want To In Your Eyes; 1974
24. Linda On My Mind; 1975
25. Feelins; 1975***
26. Don't Cry, Joni; 1975 duet with daughter, Joni Jenkins
27. Touch The Hand; 1975
28. This Time I've Hurt Her More Than She Loves Me; 1976
29. After All The Good Is Gone; 1976
30. The Letter; 1976***
31. The Games That Daddies Play; 1976
32. I Can't Believe She Gives It All To Me; 1977
33. Play, Guitar Play; 1977
34. I've Already Loved You In My Mind; 1977
35. Don't Take It Away; 1979
36. I May Never Get To Heaven; 1979
37. Happy Birthday Darlin; 1979
38. I'd Love To Lay You Down; 1980
39. Rest Your Love On Me; 1981
40. Tight Fittin' Jeans; 1981
41. Red Neckin' Love Makin' Night; 1982
42. The Clown; 1982
43. Slow Hand; 1982
44. We Really Did But Now You Don't; 1982
45. The Rose; 1983
46. Lost In The Feeling; 1983
47. Somebody's Needin' Somebody; 1984
48. I Don't Know a Thing About Love; 1984
49. Ain't She Somethin' Else; 1985
50. Don't Call Him a Cowboy; 1985
51. Desperado Love; 1986
52. Fallin' For You For Years; 1987
53. Julia; 1987
54. She's Got a Single Thing In Mind; 1989
55. Crazy In Love; 1990

As the 1970's came to a close you will notice some gaps...the entire year of 1978 isn't shown because none of his Top-10 singles that year went to #1 and only one single in 1980 reached #1. The #1 hit-making would continue to thrive, though. The chart toppers went strong through 1986 when he obtained his 40th and final #1 country hit on the Billboard chart. When you add in his #1 pop hit, that gives him 41 Billboard chart topping singles. Fourteen additional country singles reached the top spot in the other music publications, which are listed above in italic print, adding to the 41 total...bringing it to 55 overall.

His Billboard achievement of 40 #1 country hits was broken by George Strait a few years ago and so Conway slips to #2 on the Billboard Most #1 Hits list. Conway had held the 40 #1 country hit record for 20 years, before George Strait took over in 2006.