Country has a long and fun history of songs that bring listeners together from many formats that are just fun to listen to. They are "guilty pleasures" for many. Songs that maybe you love privately, but may not really want to admit in front of a bunch of people with varying musical tastes at a bonfire. I say go for it, it's a huge part of our history. Over a few articles in the coming weeks, I'm going to feature some per installment, Guilty Pleasure Songs from the last 43 years I've been in Country Radio.
All of these songs were big hits during their time and run, so let's look back at a few this week, and get ready for the weeks ahead. These will be fun revisit and hear again.
No order -
Red Solo Cup - Toby Keith - 2011 This was a top ten hit for Toby and being honest, it's hard not to love this song for every reason. RSC's are part of our lives, and this fun video was the absolute catalyst for a ton of eventual radio play with a bunch of cameos from Nashville, Sports, and Pop Culture stars. Still today, when I play or hear this song, it makes me smile and makes me happy. This is just flat out fun. When this song was popular here at WQMX, we could have played it every hour and no one would have minded. Well done!
Queen Of My Double Wide Trailer - Sammy Kershaw - 1993 - This song is just so Sammy Kershaw. He may have been the only artist to be able to pull this off and he did, taking it top ten. This is more than honest, and 100% relatable to a huge section of the audience. Song's that were a bit off the beaten path were really his signature in the 1990's and I'm glad we had him. He was amazingly popular and sold millions of albums in a very tough decade when the competition was very formidable recording songs exactly like this gem. Kershaw was a solid hit maker for a long time, and fans LOVED him. I was doing mornings at WPCV in Lakeland, Florida when this song was out, and fans loved it!
She Got The Gold Mine (I Got The Shaft) - Jerry Reed -1982 - This song went number one that year and was insanely popular with about everyone in and out of country. This was a big country hit, but EVERYONE knew this song in one way or another. Jerry Reed had a successful history of recording tongue-in-cheek parody songs for well over a decade before this, but he was the perfect artist for this huge hit. His guitar work in this song is terrific too, and of course his guitar playing ability should never be forgotten, as he was as good as anyone we've ever had to pick up a guitar. I was new in country then at WOBL in Oberlin, Ohio at this time, and our listeners loved this song.
