1929
Born on this day in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma was country singer Bonnie Owens who was married to Buck Owens and later Merle Haggard. In 1965 Haggard and Owens recorded the song “Just Between the Two of Us”, a duet and probably Owens’s best known hit. She died on April 24, 2006.
1956
George Jones released his debut album “Grand Ole Opry’s New Star”. Jones wrote or co-wrote all fourteen songs on the album, which included three of his early top-10 country hits: “Why Baby Why”, “What Am I Worth”, and “You Gotta Be My Baby”.
1964
Bitter Tears: Ballads of the American Indian by Johnny Cash was released in the US. His twentienth album release was a concept album, with the tracks on the album focusing exclusively on the history of and problems facing Native Americans in the US. Cash had been convinced that his ancestry included members of the Cherokee tribe, and this partly served as inspiration for recording Bitter Tears, but later on as he began researching his ancestry, he actually had no Cherokee ancestry, but Scottish, English, and Scots-Irish ancestry.
1974
Olivia Newton-John was at #1 on the country album chart with If You Love Me, Let Me Know. The title track ranks as Newton-John’s highest charting single on the country charts, reaching #2, although she would have many more top 10 hits to come. The album spent eight weeks at the top of the charts.
1985Ronnie Milsap was at #1 on the US Country charts with, “Lost in The Fifties Tonight (In The Still of the Night)”, also known simply as “Lost in The Fiftes Tonight”.
