1959 in country music: Wikis

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Categories: 1959 in music | Years in country music

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Updated live from Wikipedia, last check: May 29, 2012 03:25 UTC (41 seconds ago)

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This is a list of notable events in country music that took place in the year 1959.

List of years in country music (Table)
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1 Events
2 Top hits of the year
- 2.1 Number one hits
  - 2.1.1 United States
- 2.2 Other major hits
3 Top new album releases
- 3.1 Other top new releases
4 Births
5 Deaths
6 Major awards
- 6.1 Grammy Awards
7 Further reading
8 Other links

Events

The first Grammy Award for outstanding performances in the country music genre is presented. The Kingston Trio wins the only country-specific award, for Best Country and Western Performance, with "Tom Dooley." It wouldn't be until the 1965 when more country-specific Grammy categories were started. Until 1966 (when the Academy of Country Music began presenting awards), the Grammy Awards would be the only method to honor remarkable accomplishments in the genre.
"Saga" songs, or stories where conflict was the central theme, rise in popularity. Notable examples include "The Battle of New Orleans" by Johnny Horton, "The Long Black Veil" by Lefty Frizzell, "Waterloo" by Stonewall Jackson and "El Paso" by Marty Robbins.
A young sharecropper's son named Alvis Edgar "Buck" Owens scores his first significant chart hit with "Second Fiddle." That song, plus the follow-up – "Under Your Spell Again," his first Billboard Top 10 hit – provides country fans with the earliest examples of Owens' trademark "Bakersfield" sound.

Top hits of the year

Number one hits

United States

(as certified by Billboard)

Date	Single Name	Artist	Wks. No.1	Spec. Note
January 19	Billy Bayou	Jim Reeves	5
February 23	Don't Take Your Guns to Town	Johnny Cash	6
April 6	When It's Springtime in Alaska (It's Forty Below)	Johnny Horton	1	^[A]
April 13	White Lightning	George Jones	5
May 18	The Battle of New Orleans	Johnny Horton	10	^[1] Derived from an old American folk tune, "The 8th of January." Song explains about the 1815 Battle of New Orleans from the perspective of an American soldier.
July 27	Waterloo	Stonewall Jackson	5	^[A]
August 31	The Three Bells	The Browns	11	^[A] Also peaked at Number One on the Billboard Pop Chart.
November 9	Country Girl	Faron Young	4
December 7	The Same Old Me	Ray Price	2
December 21	El Paso	Marty Robbins	7	Also peaked at Number One on the Billboard Pop Chart.

Notes

1^ No. 1 song of the year, as determined by Billboard.
A^ First Billboard No. 1 hit for that artist.

Other major hits

"Am I That Easy to Forget" - Carl Belew
"Big Midnight Special" – Wilma Lee and Stoney Cooper
"Black Land Farmer" – Frankie Miller
"Cabin in the Hills" – Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs and the Foggy Mountain Boys
"Chasin' a Rainbow" – Hank Snow
"Come Walk With Me" – Wilma Lee and Stoney Cooper
"Don't Tell Me Your Troubles" – Don Gibson
"Family Man" – Frankie Miller
"Frankie's Man, Johnny" – Johnny Cash
"Heartaches By the Number" – Ray Price
"Home" – Jim Reeves
"I Ain't Never" – Webb Pierce
"I Got Stripes" – Johnny Cash
"I'm In Love Again" - George Morgan
"I've Run Out of Tomorrows" – Hank Thompson and His Brazos Valley Boys
"Jimmy Brown The Newsboy" - Mac Wiseman
"The Last Ride" – Hank Snow
"Life to Go" – Stonewall Jackson
"The Long Black Veil" – Lefty Frizzell
"Luther Played the Boogie" – Johnny Cash
"Mommy For a Day" – Kitty Wells
"My Baby's Gone" – The Louvin Brothers
"Ninety-Nine" – Bill Anderson
"Old Moon" - Betty Foley
"Partners" – Jim Reeves
"Second Fiddle" – Buck Owens
"Set Him Free" – Skeeter Davis
"Somebody's Back In Town" - The Wilburn Brothers
"Ten Thousand Drums" – Carl Smith
"Tennessee Stud" – Eddy Arnold
"That's What It's Like to be Lonesome" – Ray Price
"There's a Big Wheel" – Wilma Lee and Stoney Cooper
"('Til) I Kissed You" – Everly Brothers
"A Thousand Miles Ago" – Webb Pierce
"Under Your Spell Again" – Buck Owens
"The Wall" – Freddie Hart
"Which One Is To Blame?" - The Wilburn Brothers
"Who Cares" – Don Gibson
"Who Shot Sam" – George Jones

Births

January 7 — David Lee Murphy, singer-songwriter of the mid-1990s.
March 2 — Larry Stewart, lead singer of the 1980s country pop group Restless Heart.
May 4 — Randy Travis, key artist of the new traditionalist movement of the mid-1980s.
June 21 — Kathy Mattea, folk-styled country artist of the 1980s.
June 27 — Lorrie Morgan, country star of the 1990s; daughter of Grand Ole Opry favorite George Morgan.
July 20 — Radney Foster, songwriter and one half of the late-1980s duo Foster & Lloyd; also, a solo artist during the early 1990s.
August 7 — Michael Peterson, singer of the latter half of the 1990s.
August 22 — Collin Raye, a favorite country artist of the 1990s.
September 14 — John Berry, singer-songwriter of the mid 1990s.
October 13 — Marie Osmond, member of the Osmond family who enjoyed success in the country genre during the 1970s and 1980s.
December 8 — Marty Raybon, lead singer of Shenandoah.

Deaths

Major awards

Grammy Awards

Best Country and Western Performance — "Tom Dooley," The Kingston Trio

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