Post by erik on Apr 1, 2023 19:41:30 GMT -5
This week's Pop Music Hits Spotlight focuses in on a country-pop crossover hit of the early MTV (and pre-CMT) era of the 1980's.
NOBODY (Sylvia; RCA; 1982)—Although it was not the only permutation of country music that managed to penetrate the pop singles charts between the early 1960’s and the onslaught of the New Country moement of the 1990’s, the smooth style alternately known as the Nashville Sound, or “countrypolitan”, was the one that got a great deal of attention—not all of it necessarily positive. For many old-timers, the style was just a way of diluting country music’s purity (a controversy that had begun with the rock and roll explosion in the 1950’s, and would continue on well into the 21st century). Even so, such crossover hits from country to pop, though still very numerous, were no longer as prominent in the 1980’s as they had been in the 1970’s, One of the more prominent country artists to make a penetration of the pop charts during the early MTV era was Kokomo, Indiana-born Sylvia Kirby, who went by her first name Sylvia. Born in 1956, she moved to Nashville in 1976; and by 1979, she had signed a contract at RCA, recording at their Nashville home office. She enjoyed a number of sizeable country hits with what her producer Tom Collins (who had worked with Barbara Mandrell and Ronnie Milsap) sometimes referred to as “prairie disco”, in the form of songs like “Tumbleweed”, “Drifter”, and “The Matador”. Arguably her biggest hit overall was “Nobody”, an 80’s-friendly radio hit written by Nashville tunesmiths Kye Fleming and Dennis Morgan, who had written songs for Mandrell and Milsap. The song, about a women who is aware of her man’s infidelity and intends to get revenge by loving him even better than this “Nobody” (even better), was, not surprisingly, a #1 country hit, a position it reached in August 1982. But two months later in October 1982, it also reached #5 on the Adult Contemporary chart, followed a few weeks later by a #15 peak on the Hot 100 in November. It would remain Sylvia’s only penetration into the Billboard Hot 100, but she would continue to have country hits up until 1986.
NOBODY (Sylvia; RCA; 1982)—Although it was not the only permutation of country music that managed to penetrate the pop singles charts between the early 1960’s and the onslaught of the New Country moement of the 1990’s, the smooth style alternately known as the Nashville Sound, or “countrypolitan”, was the one that got a great deal of attention—not all of it necessarily positive. For many old-timers, the style was just a way of diluting country music’s purity (a controversy that had begun with the rock and roll explosion in the 1950’s, and would continue on well into the 21st century). Even so, such crossover hits from country to pop, though still very numerous, were no longer as prominent in the 1980’s as they had been in the 1970’s, One of the more prominent country artists to make a penetration of the pop charts during the early MTV era was Kokomo, Indiana-born Sylvia Kirby, who went by her first name Sylvia. Born in 1956, she moved to Nashville in 1976; and by 1979, she had signed a contract at RCA, recording at their Nashville home office. She enjoyed a number of sizeable country hits with what her producer Tom Collins (who had worked with Barbara Mandrell and Ronnie Milsap) sometimes referred to as “prairie disco”, in the form of songs like “Tumbleweed”, “Drifter”, and “The Matador”. Arguably her biggest hit overall was “Nobody”, an 80’s-friendly radio hit written by Nashville tunesmiths Kye Fleming and Dennis Morgan, who had written songs for Mandrell and Milsap. The song, about a women who is aware of her man’s infidelity and intends to get revenge by loving him even better than this “Nobody” (even better), was, not surprisingly, a #1 country hit, a position it reached in August 1982. But two months later in October 1982, it also reached #5 on the Adult Contemporary chart, followed a few weeks later by a #15 peak on the Hot 100 in November. It would remain Sylvia’s only penetration into the Billboard Hot 100, but she would continue to have country hits up until 1986.