{"id":1308294,"date":"2019-04-10T12:48:52","date_gmt":"2019-04-10T18:48:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cmt.com\/news\/?p=1805248"},"modified":"2019-04-10T12:48:52","modified_gmt":"2019-04-10T18:48:52","slug":"singer-and-songwriter-earl-thomas-conley-dead-at-77","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/music-news\/singer-and-songwriter-earl-thomas-conley-dead-at-77\/","title":{"rendered":"Singer and Songwriter Earl Thomas Conley Dead at 77"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"byline\">by <span class=\"author\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cmt.com\/news\/author\/morrise\/\" title=\"Posts by Edward Morris\" rel=\"author\">Edward Morris<\/a><\/span> <span class=\"date\">21m ago<\/span><\/span> <\/p>\n<p>Singer and songwriter Earl Thomas Conley, one of country music\u2019s top hitmakers during the early and mid-1980s, died Wednesday (April 10) at the age of 77. Among his 18 No. 1 singles were \u201cHolding Her (And Loving You),\u201d \u201cFire and Smoke\u201d and \u201cI Can\u2019t Win for Losin\u2019 You.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"deferred_content\">Embedded from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/F5brltWEffg?feature=oembed\">www.youtube.com<\/a>. <noscript class=\"deferred_content\" data-deferred-info=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;iframe&quot;}\"><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/F5brltWEffg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\">[embedded content]<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><\/noscript><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cmt.com\/artists\/blake-shelton\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Blake Shelton<\/a>, who idolized Conley, reported his death, saying, \u201cMy heart is absolutely destroyed today. Earl was my all time favorite singer, hero and my friend. Prayers to his family. We will all miss you deeply my brother. Now go rest.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\" xml:lang=\"en\">My heart is absolutely destroyed today\u2026 I\u2019m sad to report that Earl Thomas Conley passed away very early this morning. Earl was my all time favorite singer, hero and my friend. Prayers to his family. We will all miss you deeply my brother. Now go rest\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/W75ZVV6fbe\">pic.twitter.com\/W75ZVV6fbe<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Blake Shelton (@blakeshelton) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/blakeshelton\/status\/1116019095403728896?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 10, 2019<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Conley was born Oct. 17. 1941 into a working-class family in West Portsmouth, Ohio, where he grew up. After a stint in the Army during the late 1960s, Conley held various railroad and steel mill jobs before moving to Birmingham, Ala. There he met recording studio owner Nelson Larkin, who subsequently signed him to his label, Sunbird Record, and produced his early hits.<\/p>\n<p>Conley moved to Nashville in 1973 and had his first successes as a songwriter. He co-wrote \u201cSmokey Mountain Memories,\u201d a Top 20 single for Mel Street in 1975. But he really scored big the following year when Conway Twitty took his \u201cThis Time I\u2019ve Hurt Her More Than She Loves Me\u201d to No. 1.<\/p>\n<p>Also in 1975, Conley charted his own first single, \u201cI Have Loved You Girl (But Not Like This Before)\u201d on GRT Records, where Larkin was head of A&amp;R. The single peaked at No. 87 but would reach No. 2 in 1983 when it was reissued on RCA.<\/p>\n<p>From GRT, Conley moved to Warner Brothers and then on to Sunbird. Here he had his first No. 1, \u201cFire and Smoke.\u201d He signed to RCA in 1981. Over the next 11 years at the label, he continued to co-write many of his own No. 1\u2019s, among them \u201cYour Love\u2019s on the Line,\u201d \u201cDon\u2019t Make It Easy For Me,\u201d \u201cAngel in Disguise,\u201d \u201cLove Don\u2019t Care (Whose Heart It Breaks)\u201d and \u201cChance of Lovin\u2019 You.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In 1986, he teamed with Anita Pointer of the Pointer Sisters for \u201cToo Many Times,\u201d which rose to No. 2 and earned him an appearance with Pointer on the CMA Awards show. In 1988 he had a No. 1 with Emmylou Harris via \u201cWe Believe in Happy Endings.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"photo\" id=\"ce4f6987\">\n<div class=\"deferred_content\"><noscript class=\"deferred_content\" data-deferred-info=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;img&quot;}\"><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/cmt.mtvnimages.com\/uri\/mgid:file:http:shared:cmt.com\/news\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/04\/GettyImages-865820116-1554922070.jpg?quality=0.85&amp;format=jpg&amp;width=480\" srcset=\"http:\/\/cmt.mtvnimages.com\/uri\/mgid:file:http:shared:cmt.com\/news\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/04\/GettyImages-865820116-1554922070.jpg?quality=0.8&amp;format=jpg&amp;width=481 481w, http:\/\/cmt.mtvnimages.com\/uri\/mgid:file:http:shared:cmt.com\/news\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/04\/GettyImages-865820116-1554922070.jpg?quality=0.8&amp;format=jpg&amp;width=660 660w, http:\/\/cmt.mtvnimages.com\/uri\/mgid:file:http:shared:cmt.com\/news\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/04\/GettyImages-865820116-1554922070.jpg?quality=0.8&amp;format=jpg&amp;width=768 768w, http:\/\/cmt.mtvnimages.com\/uri\/mgid:file:http:shared:cmt.com\/news\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/04\/GettyImages-865820116-1554922070.jpg?quality=0.8&amp;format=jpg&amp;width=980 980w, http:\/\/cmt.mtvnimages.com\/uri\/mgid:file:http:shared:cmt.com\/news\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/04\/GettyImages-865820116-1554922070.jpg?quality=0.8&amp;format=jpg&amp;width=1200 1200w, http:\/\/cmt.mtvnimages.com\/uri\/mgid:file:http:shared:cmt.com\/news\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/04\/GettyImages-865820116-1554922070.jpg?quality=0.8&amp;format=jpg&amp;width=1500 1500w, http:\/\/cmt.mtvnimages.com\/uri\/mgid:file:http:shared:cmt.com\/news\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/04\/GettyImages-865820116-1554922070.jpg?quality=0.8&amp;format=jpg&amp;width=1800 1800w\" title=\"2017 Nashville Songwriters Hall Of Fame Awards\" class=\"js-srcset-img shortcode-image\" alt><\/p>\n<p><\/noscript><\/div>\n<div class=\"photocredit\">Rick Diamond\/Getty Images<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Conley was plagued by ill health the last years of his life but made an appearance at the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame banquet in 2017 to sing his 1983 hit, \u201cHolding Her and Loving You\u201d in honor of its writer, Walt Aldridge, who was being inducted into the Hall that year.<\/p>\n<p>Conley is survived by four children. There will be no funeral, a source close to his family said, but there will probably be a celebration of his life this summer.<\/p>\n<div class=\"author\">\n<div class=\"description\">Edward Morris is a veteran of country music journalism. He lives in Nashville, Tennessee, and is a frequent contributor to CMT.com.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cmt.com\/news\/1805248\/singer-and-songwriter-earl-thomas-conley-dead-at-77\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: CMT News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Edward Morris 21m ago Singer and songwriter Earl Thomas Conley, one of country music\u2019s top hitmakers during the early and mid-1980s, died Wednesday (April 10) at the age of 77. Among his 18 No. 1 singles were \u201cHolding Her (And Loving You),\u201d \u201cFire and Smoke\u201d and \u201cI Can\u2019t Win for Losin\u2019 You.\u201d Embedded from [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[159],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1308294","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-music-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-12 05:42:46","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1308294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1308294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1308294\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1308294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1308294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1308294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}