{"id":1309606,"date":"2019-04-29T04:00:16","date_gmt":"2019-04-29T10:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/articles.cmt.com\/?p=1776539"},"modified":"2019-04-29T04:00:16","modified_gmt":"2019-04-29T10:00:16","slug":"willie-nelson-10-essential-no-1s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/music-news\/willie-nelson-10-essential-no-1s\/","title":{"rendered":"Willie Nelson: 10 Essential No. 1s"},"content":{"rendered":"
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by Lauren Tingle<\/a><\/span> 23m ago<\/span><\/span> <\/p>\n

Willie Nelson<\/a> will go down in history as one of country music\u2019s most prolific hit-makers. In a radio interview from 1996<\/a>, he revealed he wrote and co-wrote \u201cCrazy,\u201d \u201cFunny How Time Slips Away\u201d and \u201cNight Life\u201d within one week. To date, Nelson has written more than 2,500 songs, recorded more than 250 albums and appeared in more than 25 films. But ironically enough, some of his greatest hits were covers.<\/p>\n

He is a Recording Academy Lifetime Achievement award winner, a Kennedy Center Honoree and a member of both the Country Music and Songwriters Halls of Fame. He won the CMA for entertainer of the year in 1979 and in 2012, and he was the first recipient of the organization\u2019s Willie Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award.<\/p>\n

Essentially, he is a national treasure.<\/p>\n

While he prepares to release his new studio album God\u2019s Problem Child<\/em> on April 28, here are 10 essential Nelson No. 1s:<\/p>\n

\u201cBlue Eyes Crying in the Rain\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

This 1945 Fred Rose original is one of country music\u2019s most enduring hits and has been recorded by many famous entertainers, including Hank Williams, Eddy Arnold and Elvis Presley. But Nelson\u2019s take from 1975\u2019s Red Headed Stranger<\/em> is arguably country music\u2019s most popular rendition. It was also Nelson\u2019s first two-week No. 1 as an artist, and it won him his first Grammy for best male country vocal performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cGood Hearted Woman\u201d with Waylon Jennings<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

This Jennings and Nelson original was their first No. 1 together, and it is one of the biggest hits from the first platinum-selling country album, Wanted! The Outlaws<\/em>. The song was a three-week No. 1 in Feb. 1976, and it was awarded the CMA\u2019s single of the year in Oct. later that year.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf You\u2019ve Got the Money (I\u2019ve Got the Time)\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nelson recorded this Lefty Frizzell<\/a> original for his 1976 album, The Sound in Your Mind<\/em>, and then again for his 1977 Frizzell tribute, To Lefty From Willie<\/em>. In Sept. 1976, the song became his second No. 1 as a solo artist. A mix of standards and three originals, The Sound in Your Mind<\/em> album was as a precursor of his 1978 standards compilation, Stardust<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cMammas Don\u2019t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys\u201d with Waylon Jennings<\/strong><\/p>\n

Originally written by Ed Bruce and Patsy Bruce, this Jennings-Nelson classic kicks off their 1978 album, Waylon & Willie<\/em>. \u201cMammas\u201d was a four-week No. 1 and won the Grammy for best country performance by a duo or group in 1979. The Waylon & Willie<\/em> collection spent 11 weeks at the top of the country charts and was awarded double-platinum status by the RIAA in 1985.<\/p>\n

\u201cGeorgia On My Mind\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is one of two Hoagy Carmichael classics featured on the Booker T. Jones-produced Stardust<\/em>. Nelson\u2019s version of this 1930 standard went No. 1 in June, 1978 and won Nelson the 1979 Grammy for best male country vocal performance. It also features a solo by his longtime harmonica player, Mickey Raphael. The Ray Charles version is the official state song of Georgia.<\/p>\n

\u201cBlue Skies\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Another Stardust<\/em> number, Nelson\u2019s version of this Irving Berlin original went No. 1 in Sept. 1978 and features a solo on his famous acoustic guitar, Trigger. Kicking off with groovy soul guitar, the track builds with piano, strings and more harp playing by Raphael.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Co-written by Bill Rice and Sharon Vaughn, Nelson originally sang this song as \u201cWendell\u201d in Sydney Pollack\u2019s 1979 film The Electric Horseman<\/em> \u2014 a western starring Robert Redford and Jane Fonda. The ballad\u2019s lyrics have the main character burning up childhood days while pursuing the life of high-ridin\u2019 heroes. With a line that mentions picking up hookers instead of pen, it might be Nelson\u2019s raciest No. 1.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn the Road Again\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nelson lives to make music with friends in this classic from the 1980 film Honeysuckle Rose<\/em>. He plays the lead in the movie, which tells the story of the fictional country singer Buck Bonham. The plot follows Bonham as he gets caught in a love triangle between his wife and the daughter of his longtime musical sidekick. But it primarily highlights Nelson\u2019s singing and the Texas honky-tonk scene. The soundtrack is considered an anomaly in the genre because it\u2019s a live album by Nelson and his family featuring several a-list guests including Hank Cochran<\/a>, Jeannie Seely<\/a> and Emmylou Harris<\/a>. \u201cOn the Road Again\u201d won Nelson the 1980 Grammy for best country song.<\/p>\n

\u201cAngel Flying Too Close to the Ground\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is another No. 1 from the Honeysuckle Rose<\/em> soundtrack. The ballad is heavy on Trigger finger-picking and has Nelson singing passionately about the passing of a loved one who left this world too soon.<\/p>\n

\u201cPancho and Lefty\u201d with Merle Haggard<\/strong><\/p>\n

This Townes Van Zandt<\/a> song is the title track of Haggard and Nelson\u2019s first album together and opens the 1983 collection. The song poem was originally recorded for Van Zandt\u2019s 1972 album The Late Great Townes Van Zandt<\/em> and tells the story of two outlaw bandits. Pancho is a seemingly invincible character with a horse as fast as polished steel. But when he is killed in the Mexican desert, nobody heard his dying words, and it\u2019s never explained how he meets his end. The loss leaves his friend Lefty in despair and on the day of Pancho\u2019s funeral, he flees in grief to Ohio where he lives the rest of his days alone.<\/p>\n

\n
Lauren Tingle is a Tennessean and storyteller who eats music for breakfast, lunch and dinner. When she\u2019s not writing or rocking out, she enjoys yoga and getting lost in the great outdoors.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

via:: CMT News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Lauren Tingle 23m ago Willie Nelson will go down in history as one of country music\u2019s most prolific hit-makers. In a radio interview from 1996, he revealed he wrote and co-wrote \u201cCrazy,\u201d \u201cFunny How Time Slips Away\u201d and \u201cNight Life\u201d within one week. To date, Nelson has written more than 2,500 songs, recorded more […]<\/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-1309606","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 09:34:25","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\/1309606","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=1309606"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1309606\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1309606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1309606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1309606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}