History Of Pop Acts Doing Country

[davidcountry]

I am looking at the history of country music that had acts that did country, but were one off hits or bombs. This does not include acts like Dan Seals (England Dan and John Ford Coley), Glen Campbell (The Champs, The Beach Boys), Kenny Rogers, Vince Gill, Van Stevenson of Blackhawk, The Eagles, Sheryl Crow, Jewell, Darius Rucker and so forth.



Lets take a look at the first act. The Pointer Sisters took Fairytale to number 38 on country charts in 1974. They won the Grammys for best country song and for best vocal for duo or group. They won another Grammy for country group the next year for another song. Anita Pointer did returned to the Country charts as a duet partner with Earl Thomas Conley with the song "Too Many Times." Their hit "Slow Hand" found it's way onto the country charts with Conway Twitty who took the song to number 1 for two weeks in a row. The sisters got invited to perform at the Grand Ol' Opry. They were the first black vocal group to performed on stage at the Opry. Charlie Pride, Ray Charles, Tina Turner and The Pointer Sisters added some soul into country that inspired country artists including Reba McEntire who had soulful hits like "Take It Back." Sadly we lost both June and Bonnie Pointer. Two wonderful women who can sing.

[davidcountry]

Dallas Smith went from a Canadian rock singer from Default to be a country artist. Default had this one big hit, and never made it anywhere on the US charts. Now, he is churning out number 1 hits on the Canadian Country Charts.

[davidcountry]

This is Tina's debut solo album away from her abusive husband Ike. Her soulful voice on the songs on this album have brought us country hits with soul from the likes of Reba, KT Oslin, Mary Chapin-Carpenter, Crystal Gayle, and others. Tina never got anywhere in country music, but imagine country get hits like Private Dancer, We Don't Need Another Hero and What's Love Got To Do With It?

[davidcountry]

The album is called Detour. A lot of classics songs from the 40s, 50s and 60s are on this without guest artists on some.


1. "Funnel of Love"

2. "Detour" featuring Emmylou Harris

3. "Misty Blue"

4. "Walkin' After Midnight"

5. "Heartaches by the Number"

6. "The End of the World"

7. "Night Life" featuring Willie Nelson

8. "Begging to You"

9. "You're the Reason Our Kids Are Ugly" featuring Vince Gill

10. "I Fall to Pieces"

11. "I Want to Be a Cowboy's Sweetheart" featuring Jewel

12. "Hard Candy Christmas" featuring Alison Krauss


Cyndi is one of the rare gems that could sing the phone book in all the different genres out there. 

[davidcountry]

This single was also played on country radio. In 2011, GaGa did a country remixed version of her song, Born This Way.

[mamooshka]

[davidcountry]

Yes, Wonder Woman did pop albums, but did sang duet to two late great legends of country on her specials. Merle Haggard and Kenny Rogers

[gardyfan]

Just want to mention this was a really good idea for a thread.

[davidcountry]

This second single by Lil Nas X have a western sounded soundtrack like from a Spaghetti Westerns of the 60s and early 70s in this song. Another remix of this song with someone like Cody Johnson who was a rodeo cowboy would make this song even bigger. Lil Nas X grew up listening to country music which is why his songs have some traditional classic country sound to his music. 

[davidcountry]

Another one that Cyndi did a remake of a Patsy Montana's hit along with Yodeling like what Mason Ramsey could do. Imagine what those two pairing on a song together would sound like?

[davidcountry]

The saying for this guy is Do not judge the book by its cover. He also covered George Strait's You Look So Good In Love and Chris Stapleton's Tennessee Whiskey.

[davidcountry]

This hard core group added some eliments like a banjo in parts of the song to make it hard rock/country mixed. This video was played on CMT Pure when it first came out. Yes, Seether did say they wanted to infused country into their songs at the time.

[davidcountry]

Yep, heavy metal lead singer gone country.

[davidcountry]

Avicii was great. He got Dan Tyminski from Alison Krauss' backing band Union Station to sing on this song. You can tell there are some bluegrass mixed in with the EDM music to make a great song. Avicii did right to make a better country song than what Marshmellow and Diplo did wrong. Having someone with over 20 years of experience to help write a song that could fit in both pop and country.

[davidcountry]

Justin Timberlake when he was on Star Search. This is why he went back to his country roots on one of his albums, a duet with Reba and sang Friends In Low Places live with Garth Brooks. 

[gardyfan]

Aug 29, 2020 15:09:05 GMT -5 davidcountry said:

Yep, heavy metal lead singer gone country.

Aerosmith is not even close to heavy metal.

[davidcountry]

Bruce have gone country since like mid 2000s.

[davidcountry]

Rednex 's Cotton Eye Joe crossed over to the country charts, but I found that they did other songs that is also closer to country with dance beat to it. "Nowhere In Idaho" is one of the good songs.

[davidcountry]

Halsey should have went into the studios with Lady A. to do a remix of Graveyard and released it to country radio. This strip down version does sound country.

[CoJoFan]

I mean this one was the first that came to my mind for some reason and it’s probably not one thought of often.

Jaron And The Long Road To Love - Pray For You. Jaron and his identical twin brother Evan had a top 10 pop hit in 2000 with Crazy For This Girl.

youtu.be/atBg9zLI2bA

[davidcountry]

Yep, Ice Ice Baby gone country.

[The Brazilian Guy 🇧🇷]

[davidcountry]

In memory of Helen Reddy.

[davidcountry]

R.I.P. Eddie.

[davidcountry]

Sisqo going from "The Thong Song" to being on John Rich's "Gone Country" tv show on CMT.

[davidcountry]

[davidcountry]

Twisted Sisters' frontman Gone Country.

[davidcountry]

This sounds like a good idea. I never would have thought that any of Gwen and her band No Doubt's songs sound country. She should do it. Would love to hear Blake's songs sounding like No Doubt's with him singing.

[davidcountry]

Bret released a country duet with Jessica Andrews with All I Ever Needed, and then he did this song with Miley.

[davidcountry]

Nat King Cole had 1 #1 hit on the country charts and his daughter Natalie did a duet with Reba McEntire on "Since I Fall For You."