Morgan Wallen Dangerous hit #1 on the country chart for first of 97 weeks

Dangerous: The Double Album Morgan Wallen

Released: January 8, 2021 Peak: 110 US, 197 CW, 77 UK, 18 CN, 2 AU Sales (in millions): 6.0 US, -- UK, 6.4 world (includes US and UK) Genre: country

Tracks, Disc 1: Song Title (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to charts. Sand in My Boots (1/23/21, 30 BB, 11a CW) Wasted on You (1/11/21, 9 BB, 25 AC, 14 A40, 19 CW, 10 CN) Somebody’s Problem (12/5/20, 25 BB) More Surprised Than Me (1/23/21, 66 BB) 865 (1/23/21, 46 BB) Warning (1/23/21, 42 BB) Neon Eyes (1/23/21, 63 BB) Outlaw (with Ben Burgess) (1/23/21, 86 BB) Whiskey’d My Way (1/23/21, 83 BB) Wonderin’ ‘Bout the Wind (1/23/21, 93 BB) Your Bartender (1/23/21, 84 BB) Only Thing That’s Gone (with Chris Stapleton) (1/23/21, 90 BB, 32 CW) Cover Me Up (12/5/20, 52 BB) 7 Summers (8/14/20, 6 BB, 36 A40, 11 CW, 8 CN) More Than My Hometown (5/2/20, 15 BB, 11a CW) Tracks, Disc 2: Still Goin’ Down (12/5/20, 45 BB) Rednecks, Red Letters, Red Dirt Dangerous (1/23/21, 62 BB) Beer Don’t Blame It on Me Somethin’ Country This Bar (1/23/21, 92 BB) Country A$$ Shit Whatcha Think of Country Now Me on Whiskey Need a Boat Silverado for Sale (34 CW) Heartless (Wallen album mix) Livin’ the Dream (12/5/20, 74 BB) Quittin’ Time

Rating: 3.817 out of 5.00 (average of 18 ratings) Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album: Country singer/songwriter Morgan Wallen was born in 1993 in Tennessee. He got his big break appearing on the television talent show The Voice. While he didn’t win, he got signed to Panacea Records and in 2015 released the EP Stand Alone. He moved on to Big Loud and released his debut album, If I Know Me, in 2018. It topped the country charts and was certified three times platinum, spurred by three songs which topped the country airplay chart. In 2021, he released Dangerous: The Double Album. The album is far and away the biggest #1 in the history of the country album chart, spending 97 weeks at the pinnacle. The next highest – both Shania Twain’s Come on Over and Luke Combs’ This One’s for You – have logged 50 weeks on top. The album’s four official singles – More Than My Hometown, 7 Summers, Sand in My Boots, and Wasted on You – all topped the Billboard country singles chart and/or country airplay charts. “Wasted on You” also won the American Music Association Award for Country Song of the Year. The idea for a double album started as a joke, but became a reality when Covid-19 hit and Wallen had much more time on his hands to finish up the myriad of songs he’d accumulated over the last few years. WK The length was criticized by Chris Richards, who wrote in The Washington Post that the album “feels about 19 songs too long.” WK The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Dan DeLuca said it was “overstuffed with radio-ready cliché.” WK Rolling Stone’s Jonathan Bernstein criticized the move as “part album, part playlist, part content dump” WK and said Wallen wasn’t always “up to the heavy task of pumping fresh life into well-worn topics.” WK On the opposite side, however, Stereogum’s Chris DeVille said the album was “a massive leap from his debut” WK and even said Wallen was “capable of becoming Garth Brooks for a new generation.” WK Notes: The Target edition of the album added bonus tracks “This Side of a Dust Cloud,” “Bandaid on a Bullet Hole,” and “Sand in My Boots” (THe Dangerous Sessions).

Resources and Related Links: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Morgan Wallen WK Wikipedia First posted 3/21/2024.

 

Today in Music (1969): The Flying Burrito Brothers The Gilded Palace of Sin released

The Gilded Palace of Sin The Flying Burriot Brothers

Released: February 6, 1969 Charted: date Peak: 164 US, -- UK, -- CN, -- AU Sales (in millions): -- Genre: country rock

Tracks: Song Title (Writers) [time] Christine’s Tune (aka “Devil in Disguise”) (Gram Parsons, Chris Hillman) [3:04] Sin City (Hillman, Parsons) [4:11] Do Right Woman Chips Moman, Dan Penn) [3:56] Dark End of the Street (Moman, Penn) [3:58] My Uncle (Parsons, Hillman) [2:37] Wheels (Hillman, Parsons) [3:04] Juanita (Hillman, Parsons) [2:31] Hot Burrito No. 1 (aka “I’m Your Toy”) (Chris Ethridge, Parsons) [3:40] Hot Burrito No. 2 (Ethridge, Parsons) [3:19] Do You Know How It Feels (Parsons, Barry Goldberg) [2:09] Hippie Boy (Hillman, Parsons) [4:55] Total Running Time: 37:24 The Players: Gram Parsons (vocals, acoustic guitar, piano, organ) Chris Hillman (guitar, vocals, mandolin) “Sneaky” Pete Kleinow (pedal steel guitar) Chris Ethridge (bass, backing vocals, piano)

Rating: 3.902 out of 5.00 (average of 22 ratings) Quotable: “No one ever brought rock and country together quite like the Flying Burrito Brothers, and this album remains their greatest accomplishment.” – Mark Deming, All Music Guide Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album: After a stint with the International Submarine Band, Gram Parsons joined the Byrds for their 1968 album Sweetheart of the Rodeo. Parsons only lasted one album with the group, getting fired by Roger McGuinn and Chris Hillman. That album, however, became viewed as ground zero for country rock – and it wasn’t the last time Parsons and Hillman worked together. Parsons formed the Flying Burrito Brothers and Hillman decided to jump ship from the Byrds and joined up as a rhythm guitarist. His “strong and supportive harmony vocals blend flawlessly with Parsons’ (and he also proved to be a valuable songwriting partner, collaborating on a number of great tunes with Gram).” MD Chris Ethridge, a bassist and keyboardist, also joined. He previously played with Parsons in the International Submarine Band. Rounding out the foursome was “Sneaky” Pete Kleinow, a steel guitarist whose “fuzztone steel guitar provides a perfect bridge between country and psychedelic rock.” MD He went on to work extensively as a session musician with Joan Baez, Jackson Browne, Leonard Cohen, Joe Cocker, Eagles, the Everly Brothers, George Harrison, John Lennon, Little Richard, the Steve Miller Band, Joni Mitchell, the Rolling Stones, Linda Ronstadt, and Stevie Wonder. It was with the Burrito Brothers first album, The Gilded Palace of Sin, that Parsons “revealed the full extent of his talents.” MD “It ranks among the finest and most influential albums the genre would ever produce.” MD In the documentary Beyond Nashville, Parsons is described as “passionate about country music’s simple poetry. He was equally passionate about rock music. At a time when they were poles apart, he alone thought they belonged together.” WK Rolling Stone said the album “picks up where Sweetheart of the Rodeo left off.” WK Bob Dylan called it his favorite country-rock album. WK John Firminger of Country Music Review said the album “quite clearly stands as a complete definition of the term country rock.” WK “As a songwriter, Parsons delivered some of his finest work on this set; Hot Burrito No. 1 and Hot Burrito No. 2 both blend the hurt of classic country weepers with a contemporary sense of anger, jealousy, and confusion.” MD Both songs grew out of old melodies Chris Ethridge had written. WK Sin City was written by Parsons and Hillman at a San Fernando Valley house the group called “Burrito Manor.” Hillman woke Gram up saying he had an idea for a song and they wrote it in about thirty minutes. WK It “can either be seen as a parody or a sincere meditation on a city gone mad, and it hits home in both contexts.” MD My Uncle and Hippie Boy both addressed “then-contemporary countercultureal concerns: the draft and the 1968 Democratic National Convention riots. Parsons said the latter had to “be a narrative song, and Chris Hillman has to do it…It was the toughest challenge on the album.” WK “Parsons was rarely as strong as a vocalist as he was here, and his covers of Dark End of the Street and Do Right Woman prove just how much he had been learning from R&B as well as C&W.” MD “While The Gilded Palace of Sin barely registered on the pop culture radar in 1969, literally dozens of bands (the Eagles most notable among them) would find inspiration in this music and enjoy far greater success. But no one ever brought rock and country together quite like the Flying Burrito Brothers, and this album remains their greatest accomplishment.” MD It has been credited with the New Tradtionalist movement in the 1980s, which included Clint Black, Vince Gill, Alan Jackson, and Travis Tritt. The album has also been cited for influencing the alt-country movement, which includes the Jayhawks, Uncle Tupelo, and Wilco. WK In the liner notes for the 1997 reissue of the album, Sid Griffin wrote that Gilded Palace may have sold only 50,000 copies, but “like the first album by the Velvet Underground, it would seem everyone of those 50,000 went out and formed a band inspired by what they’d heard.” WK

Resources and Related Links: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Gram Parsons DMDB encyclopedia entry for Chris Hillman MD Mark Deming, All Music Guide WK Wikipedia Other Related DMDB Pages: First posted 2/18/2010; last updated 3/21/2024.

 

Garth Brooks Double Live released

Double Live Garth Brooks

Released: November 17, 1998 Recorded: 1996-1998 Peak: 15 US, 18 CW, 57 UK, 11 CN, 43 AU Sales (in millions): 23.0 US *, 0.06 UK, 23.66 world (includes US and UK) * The album shipped 11.5 million in the United States, but was certified for 23 million because it was a double album. Genre: country

Tracks, Disc 1: Song Title (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to charts. Callin’ Baton Rouge (9/18/93, 70 CW) Two of a Kind, Workin’ on a Full House (2/9/91, 1 CW) Shameless (10/19/91, 1 CW) Papa Loved Mama (2/1/92, 3 CW) The Thunder Rolls (5/18/91, 1 CW) We Shall Be Free (9/12/92, 12 CW) Unanswered Prayers (11/3/90, 1 CW) Standing Outside the Fire (9/18/93, 3 CW, 28 UK) Longneck Bottle (with Steve Wariner, 11/22/97, 1 CW) It’s Your Song * (11/14/98, 9 CW, 47a US) Much Too Young to Feel This Damn Old (3/25/89, 8 CW) The River (5/2/92, 1 CW) Tearin’ It Up and Burnin’ It Down * (12/5/98, 63 CW) Tracks, Disc 2: Ain’t Going Down ‘Til the Sun Comes Up (8/7/93, 1 CW) Rodeo (8/17/91, 3 CW) The Beaches of Cheyenne (12/9/95, 1 CW) Two Pina Coladas (12/6/97, 1 CW) Wild As the Wind * (with Trisha Yearwood, 12/5/98, 65 CW) To Make You Feel My Love (5/16/98, 1 CW, 8 AC) That Summer (5/8/93, 1 CW) American Honky-Tonk Bar Association (9/11/93, 1 CW) If Tomorrow Never Comes (9/9/89, 1 CW) The Fever (11/25/95, 23 CW) Friends in Low Places (8/18/90, 1 CW) The Dance (5/5/90, 1 CW, 36 UK) * These songs were new to this album; otherwise all the chart information above refers to the original studio releases of these songs. Total Running Time: 100:11

Rating: 3.600 out of 5.00 (average of 16 ratings) Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album: With 18 #1 country songs in the 1990s, Garth Brooks established himself not only as the biggest country artist of the decade, but the biggest artist of the decade period. He already had the record for the biggest selling male solo artist. All that was left was “toppling the Beatles’ status as the best-selling artist of all time. A difficult task, to be sure, but one that was conceivably within Garth Brooks’ reach.” AMG As the decade drew closer to its end, it became obvious that Brooks would shamelessly do whatever it took to reach that milestone. He released a box set called The Limited Series which repackaged his first six studio albums. He added one bonus track to each original album, forcing his fans to plunk down for a box set of albums they most likely owned already just to get six new songs. Back in 1994, he served a similar milk-the-fans-for-every-last-dollar album with The Hits, a collection which sold 10 million despite offering nothing new. It’s hard not to see Double Live as another cash grab, especially since like The Limited Series, it is more than one disc which inflates sales figures. The album has been certified 23 times platinum, twice the 11.5 million shipped since it is a double album. Sales wise, however, it had sold only six million copies as of 2012. WK “The generic titles of both sets suggest that both albums shouldn’t be viewed as anything more than product, since Garth couldn’t be bothered to think of an actual title; he just called it what it is.” AMG “The title alone isn’t what suggests that Double Live is product.” AMG There was also “the elaborate marketing plan – where the disc retails for the low price of $13.99 during the ‘holiday’ season, where the album has a different cover, photos and Brooks-penned liner notes every million copies pressed.” AMG On top of that, “the cassette has completely different artwork than the CD [which] ensures that he’ll move as many units as possible in as short a time as possible…Initial reports suggested that Brooks, his label EMI, and his favorite retailer, Wal-Mart, planned to move a million copies in one week.” AMG It worked. Double Live sold 1,085,000 copies in its first week, passing the first-week sales record previously held by Pearl Jam’s Vs. WK To be fair, “Double Live is a professionally entertaining album with a few nice bonuses – including extra verses for Friends in Low Places and The Thunder Rolls…but much of this record is either identical to the studio counterparts or offers nothing new whatsoever.” AMG There are three new songs – “the dedicated-to-mama It’s Your Song,” AMG the Trisha Yearwood duet Wild as the Wind which was intended for a duets album with Yearwood, and “the rocker Tearin’ It Up (And Burnin’ It Down)” AMG which was originally planned for Brooks’ 1997 album Sevens. WK Brooks also employs the all-too common trick of cleaning up “live” recordings in the studio. “It’s clear that the intros to Two Pina Coladas, The River and We Shall Be Free are pasted on in the studio – and even when the crowd intrudes on The Fever, it feels forced, not like the genuine kinetic energy that can be captured on a live recording.” AMG It doesn’t help that the 25 songs are recorded on 25 different dates. “An album culled from such a wide variety of sources can’t help but feel patchwork…Despite the handful of new twists on familiar material, which will surely satisfy the diehards, Double Live simply isn’t that interesting for the average Garth fan. It’s the kind of record that’s hyped as an event upon its original release, but will be seen as little more than a curio a few years after its release.” AMG

Resources and Related Links: AMG All Music Guide review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine WK Wikipedia Other Related DMDB Pages: First posted 11/18/2008; last updated 11/15/2023.

Willie Nelson Red-Headed Stranger charted

Red-Headed Stranger Willie Nelson

Released: May 1975 Charted: July 26, 1975 Peak: 28 US, 12 CW, -- UK, 90 CN, 88 AU Sales (in millions): 2.0 US, -- UK, 3.0 world (includes US and UK) Genre: country

Tracks: Song Title (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to charts. Time of the Preacher I Couldn’t Believe It Was True Time of the Preacher (Theme) Medley: Blue Rock Montana/ Red Headed Stranger Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain (7/19/75, 21 BB, 1 CW, 12 AC) Red Headed Stranger Time of the Preacher (Theme) Just As I Am Denver O’er the Waves Down Yonder Can I Sleep in Your Arms? Remember Me (When the Candlelights Are Gleaming) (1/3/76, 67 BB, 2 CW) Hands on the Wheel Bandera

Rating: 4.301 out of 5.00 (average of 15 ratings) Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album: “In the early Seventies, Willie Nelson was a songwriter legend, with such classics as ‘Crazy’ and ‘Hello Walls’ behind him, but wasn't a major-league artist on his own. When his Nashville home burned down, he hightailed it back to Texas and began remaking himself as a country music outlaw, as he and such kindred, independent spirits as Waylon Jennings became known. With Red Headed Stranger, a self-produced (heresy to the Nashville establishment) concept album” TL that “perhaps is the strangest blockbuster country produced,” AMG “Nelson introduced a new sense of ambition and possibility to the genre.” TL “Red Headed Stranger tells the story of a renegade “preacher on the run after murdering his departed wife and her new lover.” AMG The story is “told entirely with brief song-poems and utterly minimal backing. It’s defiantly anticommercial and it demands intense concentration – all reasons why nobody thought it would be a hit, a story related in Chet Flippo’s liner notes to the 2000 reissue.” AMG “It was a phenomenal blockbuster, though;” AMG “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain was a Number One [country] single.” TL The success of the album helped in “establishing Nelson as a superstar recording artist in its own right.” AMG “For all its success, it still remains a prickly, difficult album, though, making the interspersed concept of Phases and Stages sound shiny in comparison. It’s difficult because it's old-fashioned, sounding like a tale told around a cowboy campfire. Now, this all reads well on paper, and there’s much to admire in Nelson's intimate gamble, but it's really elusive, as the themes get a little muddled and the tunes themselves are a bit bare. It's undoubtedly distinctive – and it sounds more distinctive with each passing year – but it's strictly an intellectual triumph and, after a pair of albums that were musically and intellectually sound, it's a bit of a letdown, no matter how successful it was.” AMG Regardless, the album could well be attributed to launching the outlaw country movement – “when Stranger was followed up with the breakthrough collection Wanted! The Outlaws (with Jennings, Jessi Colter, and Tompall Glaser), country music had entered a new era – and Willie Nelson was an international superstar.” TL Notes: The 2000 CD reissue added “Bach Minuet in G,” “Can’t Help It if I’m Still in Love with You,” “A Maiden’s Prayer,” and “Bonaparte’s Retreat.”

Resources and Related Links: AMG All Music Guide album review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine TL Time Magazine (11/13/2006). “All-TIME 100 Albums” by Josh Tyrangiel and Alan Light WK Wikipedia Other Related DMDB Pages: First posted 5/3/2008; last updated 3/21/2024.

Patsy Cline 12 Greatest Hits released

12 Greatest Hits Patsy Cline

Released: February 14, 1973 Recorded: 1957 to 1963 Peak: -- US, 17 CW Sales (in millions): 10.0 US, -- UK, 10.9 world (includes US and UK) Genre: country

Tracks: Song Title (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to charts. Walkin’ after Midnight (2/23/57, 12 US, 2 CW, airplay: 1 million) Sweet Dreams of You (4/20/63, 44 US, 5 CW, 15 AC, airplay: 2 million) Crazy (10/23/61, 9 US, 14 UK, 2 CW, 2 AC, airplay: 2 million) I Fall to Pieces (4/3/61, 12 US, 1 CW, 6 AC, airplay: 2 million) So Wrong (8/25/62, 85 US, 14 CW) Strange (1/27/62, 97 US) Back in Baby’s Arms She’s Got You (1/27/62, 14 US, 43 UK, 1 CW, 3 AC, airplay: 1 million) Faded Love (8/31/63, 96 US, 7 CW) Why Can’t He Be You You’re Stronger Than Me Leavin’ on Your Mind (1/26/63, 83 US, 8 CW)

Rating: 4.608 out of 5.00 (average of 21 ratings) Quotable: “The perfect introduction to one of the greatest singers in country music history” – Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album: Patsy Cline was born Virginia Patterson Hensley in 1932 in Virginia. After she got married in 1957 and gave birth the next year, she moved to Nashville. She became a member of the Grand Ole Opry and signed with Decca Records in 1960. With producer Owen Bradley, she found major success on the country charts with hits like I Fall to Pieces, Crazy, and She’s Got You. In March 1963, she was on a flight from Kansas City, Kansas, back to Nashville. It crashed and she was killed. She was only 30 years old. Despite her short career, she has been celebrated as one of country music’s most important performers. Ten years after her death, she became the first female performer inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. In 1967, Decca released a greatest hits collection with twelve songs. In addition to the nine featured chart hits, there are “lesser-known gems like Why Can’t He Be You, which are as good as the big hits.” AMG Overall, the set “may be brief, but it contains abosolutely no filler and leaves no gaps, making it the perfect introduction to one of the greatest singers in country music history.” AMG It reached #17 on the country charts. MCA Records reissued the album after Cline was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. It was reissued again in the CD era in 1988 and became the first album by a female country artist to go double platinum. By 2005, the album was certified for diamond, or ten-times platinum. Despite the massive sales, the album has never charted on the Billboard album chart.

Resources and Related Links: AMG All Music Guide review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine WK Wikipedia Other Related DMDB Pages: First posted 5/30/2008; last updated 3/20/2024.