1963
“Ring Of Fire” by Johnny Cash made its debut at #28 on the singles charts. It went on to become his first #1 hit since the 1959 “Don’t Take Your Guns To Town.”
1969
Tammy Wynette was at #1 on the country charts with “Singing My Song” who she co-wrote with Billy Sherrill and Glenn Sutton. “Singing My Song” was Tammy Wynette’s fifth #1 on the country charts as a solo artist and spent a total of fourteen weeks on the charts.
1976
The novelty song “One Piece at a Time” by Johnny Cash was at #1 on the Country chart. The song tells of a man who works at General Motors in Detroit, Michigan, building Cadillacs and knowing that he will never be able to afford one. He and a co-worker decide to steal a Cadillac, using their assembly line jobs to obtain the parts via salami slicing. He takes the small parts home hidden in his large lunchbox; larger parts are smuggled out in his co-worker’s motor home.
2003Tammy Wynette’s “Stand By Your Man” was ranked #1 in CMT’s 100 Greatest Songs Of Country Music. Ex-husband George Jones was placed at #2, with “He Stopped Loving Her Today.” Followed by “Crazy”, Patsy Cline, “Ring of Fire”, Johnny Cash, “Your Cheatin’ Heart”, Hank Williams, “Friends in Low Places”, Garth Brooks, “I Fall to Pieces”, Patsy Cline, “Galveston”, Glen Campbell, “Behind Closed Doors”, Charlie Rich and “Mammas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys”, Waylon Jennings & Willie Nelson.
2010
George Strait was named the top country music artist of the past 25 years by Billboard magazine. Strait holds the record for most #1 albums, gold albums, platinum albums, and multi-platinum in the history of country music.
2014
Dolly Parton hand-delivered the millionth book from her UK Imagination Library reading initiative to a Liverpool child. The singer-songwriter gave a Braille copy of Beatrix Potter’s The Tale of Peter Rabbit to five-year-old Dylan Manifold while in the city to perform. It was the first book for blind and partially-sighted children the project had supplied in the UK. The Imagination Library, which runs in the US, Canada, Australia and the UK, sees sponsors pay for pre-school children to receive a book every month. It originally launched in Parton’s home county of Sevier, Tennessee in 1996.
2017
Country music singer, songwriter and producer Norro Wilson died age 79. Wilson had written numerous hits including songs for Charlie Rich, Charley Pride, George Jones and Tammy Wynette, and had also produced artists, including Joe Stampley, Margo Smith, Sara Evans, Kenny Chesney and Shania Twain.
