The Statler Brothers should not organic kin, and none of them are named Statler. However neither of these particulars stored them from turning their specific model of gospel-tinged and pop-informed nation music into an enormous, decades-long success story, one rooted within the conventional Appalachian music of their tiny hometown, Staunton, Virginia.
Don and Harold Reid (the precise brothers), Phil Balsley, and Lew DeWitt took their identify from a tissue field and by no means appeared again, first as Johnny Money’s longtime opening act and backing vocalists – a wise inoculation in opposition to “Flowers On the Wall” making them a one-hit-wonder – after which as certainly one of nation’s most dominant vocal teams within the Nineteen Seventies and 80s. The Statler Brothers have been the CMA’s Vocal Group Of The Yr from 1972 to 1980, a interval that didn’t even embody their greatest chart success within the early to mid-‘80s.
Beneath are The Statler Brothers’ 20 finest songs, from hymns to bluegrass to rock and roll. (The harmonies stay fixed, even when the stylistic influences don’t.)
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20. “Atlanta Blue” (1984)
The uncommon showcase for bass Harold Reid, “Atlanta Blue” features a twist on their normal pop-bluegrass fare with a period-appropriate reggae lite groove. The only offers run-of-the-mill longing and despair a selected geography, tying the narrator’s disappointment to Georgia pines and summertime. It reached No. 3 on Billboard’s nation chart, arriving through the three-year stretch during which no Statlers single peaked outdoors the highest ten. The group was flexing their would possibly as performers, songwriters, and producers, together with the subtlest pop touches inside acquainted nation manufacturing and telling tales that stood out with out reinventing the wheel.
19. “Left Handed Woman” (1974)
The Statlers touted their capacity to heed nation conference, exemplifying what they noticed as a long-lost reverence for the style’s custom and roots. But a bizarre streak runs by way of a lot of their work, as on this sort-of nonsense tune about girls and their idiosyncrasies penned by the one precise brothers within the Statlers, Don and Harold. It’s enjoyable and distinctive, a gendered lament that by no means devolves into unrepentant sexism and would sound nice in any up to date honky tonk.
18. “Monday Morning Secretary” (1972)
This quietly tragic character research is among the extra unlikely singles within the Statler Brothers’ catalog. It’s, merely, two minutes and 42 seconds of description of per week within the lifetime of a mean secretary. There’s spectacular precision within the lyrics, the type of sensitivity that the Statlers’ quickly ascending singer-songwriter friends on the outlaw facet of nation would put on on their sleeves. Right here, it’s offered unpretentiously, inside a reasonably normal pop-country association the place the nuance of Don Reid’s poetry could possibly be straightforward to overlook.
17. “Who Am I To Say” (1978)
The primary of ten songs written for the band by Harold Reid’s daughter Kim, “Who Am I To Say” expresses a extra reflective type of remorse than usually will get expressed in tune. “If I’d only been more open and understood her ways,” they sang – phrases that loads of girls have actually wished loads of males would say to them in dialog, and right here they have been getting them in plaintive concord. The tune solidified the band’s late 70s scorching streak, spending two weeks at No. 3 on Billboard’s nation chart.
16. “You Can’t Have Your Kate and Edith, Too” (1967)
One of many extra ubiquitous of the Statlers’ novelty tunes, this Curly Putman and Bobby Braddock tune reached No. 10 on Billboard’s nation chart by riffing on an already-established pun (one which has reached into the current day, maybe with assist from the Statlers). The tune was well-liked sufficient that the Statler Brothers included it of their transient set at Folsom Jail throughout Johnny Money’s legendary stay recording.
15. “Nobody Wants To Be Country” (1980)
Folks have been lamenting the decountrification of nation music since earlier than it was known as nation music. None of them, although, wrote a line as clear as, “They’ve traded within the saddle and so they all attempt to straddle the street that can take ‘em to the top” – except the Statler Brothers, of course, who bust out all available Appalachian trappings to prove their point on this 10th Anniversary track. Putting aside the fact that the Statlers themselves had plenty of dalliances with pop trends, it’s cuter and more practical than most comparable complaints.
14. “How Great Thou Art” (1975)
Gospel music is the place the Statler Brothers began. In contrast to lots of their friends, although, they continued recording non secular songs even after discovering secular success. The group launched this basic hymn as a single to advertise a pair of gospel albums primarily based on the Previous and New Testomony respectively. That was their solely concession to commercialism, although. Each albums embody Biblical readings in the beginning of just about each monitor, lest anybody be tempted to hearken to the beautiful harmonies with out acceptable piety. Each the Previous and New Testomony albums have been finally licensed gold.
13. “Too Much On My Heart” (1985)
Jimmy Fortune took the lead on this, his third No. 1 composition for the Statlers. It’s a weighty ballad, with extra of the synth and string adornments usually present in pop music of the last decade. But the lyrics assist it keep away from cliche, portray a pair on the verge of fracture that solely has a imprecise sense of why. The tune could be the Statlers’ ultimate chart-topper; the album it appeared on, Pardners In Rhyme, could be their first and final No. 1 nation album.
12. “Let’s Get Started If We’re Gonna Break My Heart” (1988)
A number of the good humor that the Statlers would quickly showcase on their televised weekly selection present is on show on this minor hit, a honky tonk-ready tune that tells the story of a doomed love affair. It’s humorous, and never solely due to the inexplicable calypso piano riffs – the wordplay and heat resignation is convincing. If the Statlers have been not atop nation radio’s heap, they have been nonetheless producing the identical type of constant, grounded nation music they’d from the start.
11. “Hello Mary Lou” (1985)
The Statlers by no means did many covers, particularly within the later part of their profession. However in reprising this rockabilly hit, they turned a 25-year-old tune into successful, reaching No. 3 on Billboard’s nation chart. It has a extra straightforwardly nation sound than the unique, however maintains a stable groove (bolstered by bass Harold’s low finish harmonies).
10. “I Want To Carry Your Sweet Memories” (1972)
Greater than most of their friends, the Statler Brothers might write nation songs that seemed like they’d been carried out endlessly. “I Want To Carry Your Sweet Memories,” written by Lew DeWitt, is a type of songs, conveying a reasonably malevolent sentiment in practically Biblical language that makes its observations about eager to cease coping with an ex sound everlasting. Honeyed harmonies, plucked banjo, and fiddle additional place the monitor outdoors of its trendy place and time.
9. “Years Ago” (1981)
Don Reid’s songwriting is at its most vivid and concise on this petulant tune, during which a person stops by the marriage of a long-extinguished flame. “The groom won’t shake hands anyway, and I kissed the bride years ago,” the group sings to a knee-slapping bluegrass groove. The title monitor of one of many Statlers’ most nostalgic albums – its cowl picture was taken of their elementary faculty auditorium – “Years Ago” proves not each dip into the previous must be sugary candy.
8. “Bed Of Rose’s” (1970)
Like Bobbie Gentry’s “Fancy,” launched a yr prior, “Bed Of Rose’s” makes use of a titular play on phrases to problem standard concepts about intercourse employees. Within the Statlers’ case, written by the late Harold Reid, the narrator is a previously destitute younger man who was taken in by a lady named Rose who “managed a late evening business.” Coronary heart-of-gold tropes being what they’re, a predictable ending is made punchier by an express indictment of people that “would go to church but left me in the street.” The ensuing single was the group’s second huge break, reaching No. 9 on Billboard’s nation charts and No. 58 on the Scorching 100.
7. “(I’ll Even Love You) Better Than I Did Then” (1979)
The Statler Brothers flaunt their seductive facet with this one-off single, tacked onto a best hits compilation. If the slick countrypolitan balladry doesn’t promote it for you, the road “nothing on but the radio” in all probability ought to. It’s some of the explicitly horny songs within the gospel-singing group’s repertoire, and finds them placing one more genuinely contemporary spin on regretful post-relationship angst. The only match nicely sufficient with the interval’s boudoir nation radio singles that it reached No. 8 on Billboard’s nation chart.
6. “Elizabeth” (1983)
The second Statler Brothers No. 1 nation tune was additionally Jimmy Fortune’s first contribution to the band as a author. Fortune took over the tenor spot from Lew DeWitt shortly earlier than As we speak was recorded, and struck gold with the straightforward love tune when he was simply 26 years outdated. (As we speak finally bought 500,000 copies.) Fortune later mentioned he was impressed by Elizabeth Taylor’s efficiency in Large. The group finally carried out the tune for the star on her 52nd birthday.
5. “New York City” (1970)
An uncommon story tune, “New York City” shrouds a torrid story of being pregnant and infidelity in lilting, comparatively unadorned nation manufacturing and mellow harmonies. Don Reid wrote and sang lead on this tune, which describes a person whose associate has left him to stay in New York Metropolis – or because the tune describes it, hell. Left unsaid is what precisely the person did to immediate such a drastic transfer. Whereas not an infinite industrial success, the one showcases the Statlers on the top of their tandem fame with Johnny Money, performing meaty materials in radio-ready fashion.
4. “Do You Know ‘You Are My Sunshine’” (1978)
Singing about singing grew to become a theme for the Statler Brothers, and it by no means labored higher than this tune, during which a thriller lady walks as much as the band and requests “You Are My Sunshine.” The normal single (which solely included a style of countrypolitan strings) was the band’s first No. 1 on the Billboard nation charts, and stayed atop the chart for 2 weeks – it was additionally the one time authentic Statler Brothers tenor Lew DeWitt would hit No. 1.
3. “The Class of ‘57” (1972)
Contemporary off the success of their first nostalgic record tune, “Do You Remember These?” – a near-exact equal to up to date memes about issues “solely ‘90s kids know” – which spent four weeks at No. 2 on Billboard’s nation charts, the Statler Brothers put a extra evocative spin on the idea with “Class of ‘57.” The matter-of-fact tune describes the excessive and low fortunes of many members of a highschool class. The tune reached No. 6 on the Billboard nation charts, and earned them their third Grammy, for Finest Nation Vocal Efficiency by a Duo or Group.
2. “I’ll Go To My Grave Loving You” (1975)
The nostalgic aptitude of the Statler Brothers was usually tempered by their sensitivity to the pop music zeitgeist. On “Grave,” although, Don Reid channeled compositions made a century earlier than, giving this deeply conventional, bluegrass-tinged love tune the aura of a classic hymn. It bore little resemblance to its friends on the charts, however it was amongst their most profitable singles of the interval – even reaching No. 93 on Billboard’s Scorching 100. The tune was the one new single from the best-selling album of their profession, the triple-platinum compilation The Better of the Statler Bros.
1. “Flowers On The Wall” (1965)
The Statler Brothers’ best-known tune feels like all the pieces and nothing you’ve ever heard. An virtually surreal concoction of bluegrass banjo, barbershop quartet-ready harmonies and vivid, eccentric poetry written by Statler tenor Lew DeWitt, the group’s first charting single is a slice of 1960’s Americana – in that time period’s authentic sense. It reached No. 4 on Billboard’s Scorching 100 in 1965 and earned the group 4 Grammy nominations in each pop and nation classes on the 1966 awards. They walked away with the trophies for one of the best “contemporary” – rock – efficiency by a bunch and finest new nation and western artist. Extra spectacular, although, is their hit’s longevity: It’s been coated by everybody from the Muppets to Nancy Sinatra, and referenced in Kurt Vonnegut’s Palm Sunday and Pulp Fiction. Not unhealthy for ruminating on wallpaper, smoking cigarettes, and watching Captain Kangaroo; if solely the tune’s instigating heartbreaker might see the narrator now.
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