Hot Country Songs is a chart that ranks the top-performing country music songs in the United States, published by Billboard magazine. In 1988, 49 different songs topped the chart, then published under the title Hot Country Singles, in 53 issues of the magazine, based on playlists submitted by country music radio stations and sales reports submitted by stores. [1]
Only four songs spent more than a single week at number one in 1988: "Eighteen Wheels and a Dozen Roses" by Kathy Mattea, "I Told You So" by Randy Travis, "I'll Leave This World Loving You" by Ricky Van Shelton and "When You Say Nothing at All" by Keith Whitley. Travis and Shelton each scored two other number ones during the year to give them a total of four weeks in the top spot. This figure was matched by Rosanne Cash, who achieved three solo number ones and one in collaboration with her then-husband Rodney Crowell, [2] making her the only artist to take four different songs to number one in 1988. Highway 101, Restless Heart, George Strait and Tanya Tucker each topped the chart with three different songs.
Artists to achieve their first chart-topper in 1988 included Dwight Yoakam, who reached number one with "Streets of Bakersfield", [3] performed as a duet with Buck Owens, who had himself had a hit with the song fifteen years earlier. [4] The song marked the veteran singer's first appearance at number one since 1972. [5] The Desert Rose Band achieved the first of its two number ones with "He's Back and I'm Blue", [6] and Paul Overstreet made his first appearance at number one when he collaborated with Tanya Tucker and Paul Davis on "I Won't Take Less Than Your Love". [7] Overstreet achieved intermittent success as a singer but is better known as a songwriter, having written hit songs for many artists. [8] At the other end of the scale, Merle Haggard topped the chart for the 38th and final time with "Twinkle, Twinkle Lucky Star". At the time of Haggard's death in 2016, only Conway Twitty (40) and George Strait (44) had taken more songs to the top of the Hot Country chart since Billboard began compiling sales and airplay into a single listing in 1958. [9] Whitley's "When You Say Nothing at All" was the final number one of the year. Whitley was at the peak of his commercial success at the time, but would die less than six months later, on May 9, 1989. [10] [11]
This is a list of notable events in country music that took place in the year 1986.
Paul Lester Overstreet is an American country music singer and songwriter. He recorded 10 studio albums between 1982 and 2005, and charted 16 singles on the Billboard country charts, including two No. 1 hits. He has also written singles for several other country acts, including No. 1 hits for Randy Travis, Blake Shelton, and Keith Whitley, as well as hits for The Judds and Kenny Chesney.
"When You Say Nothing at All" is a country song written by Paul Overstreet and Don Schlitz. It was a hit song for three different performers: Keith Whitley, who took it to the top of the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart on December 24, 1988; Alison Krauss, whose version was her first solo top-10 country hit in 1995; and Irish pop singer Ronan Keating, whose version was his first solo single and a number-one hit in the United Kingdom, Ireland, and New Zealand in 1999.
Tomorrow's Sounds Today is the eleventh studio album by country music artist Dwight Yoakam. This album was released on October 31, 2000. It rose to No. 7 on the Billboard Country Albums chart. There were two charting singles among its tracks: "What Do You Know About Love" at No. 26 and "I Want You to Want Me" at No. 49 on the Hot Country Songs chart. Also included are two duets with Buck Owens, who was a big influence on Yoakam's musical style. It was also Yoakam's last studio album for the Reprise label. After that album's release, Yoakam left Reprise for Warner Bros. in 2001.
Dwight Sings Buck is country music artist Dwight Yoakam's 17th studio album, and a tribute album to Buck Owens. The album was released on October 23, 2007, by New West Records.
"Forever and Ever, Amen" is a song written by Paul Overstreet and Don Schlitz, and recorded by American country music artist Randy Travis. It was released in March 1987 as the first single from the album Always & Forever and became Travis's third No. 1 single on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles charts.
American country music artist Patty Loveless has released 16 studio albums, 11 compilation albums, and 52 singles. Recording a tape of her own music, Loveless signed her first recording contract with MCA Records in 1985. Her self-titled studio album was released in January 1987 and peaked at number 35 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart. She followed it with her second studio release, If My Heart Had Windows (1988). It peaked at number 33 on the country albums list and spawned her first major country hits: "If My Heart Had Windows" and "A Little Bit in Love". Her third studio album, Honky Tonk Angel (1988), would certify platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America and produced her first number one country hits, "Timber, I'm Falling in Love" and "The Lonely Side of Love". Loveless went on to release the studio albums On Down the Line (1990) and Up Against My Heart (1991). Together, both albums produced three top 10 singles including the number three hit "Hurt Me Bad ".
Diamond Rio is an American country music band founded in 1982. Their discography consists of 10 studio albums, 36 singles, six compilation albums, one live album, and 20 music videos. Founded in 1984, Diamond Rio released their self-titled debut album in 1991. "Meet in the Middle", the lead-off single, reached number one on the Billboard country singles chart, making the band the first country group in history to have their debut single reach that position.
The discography of Buck Owens, an American country music artist, consists of 39 studio albums, 16 compilation albums, 9 live albums, 97 singles, and 12 B-sides. After recording under the name Corky Jones and releasing a string of singles in the mid-1950s, Owens signed a recording contract with Capitol Records in February 1957.
"Streets of Bakersfield" is a 1973 song written by Homer Joy and popularized by Buck Owens. In 1988, Owens recorded a duet version with country singer Dwight Yoakam, which became one of Yoakam's first No. 1 Hot Country Singles hits.