4 Country Songs Every 60s Kid Knew by Heart (But Somehow Forgot)

One of the best parts about listening to music as a kid is not getting hung up on the small stuff. Young listeners aren’t watching for beautifully worded lyrics or assessing an instrumental arrangement for its complexity. Kids are drawn to melody and rhythm on a deep, instinctual level.

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And if you were a kid in the 60s, there’s a good chance you knew all of these country songs by heart simply because of how fun they were to sing.

“Bugs” by Bobbie Gentry 

Bobbie Gentry is most often remembered for her songs “Fancy” and “Ode To Billie Joe”. But the same album that featured the latter track had another song that was just as catchy. (And honestly, way more relatable for a kid living their best life in the summertime.) “Bugs” wasn’t as serious as “Ode To Billie Joe”, but it didn’t have to be. Gentry was singing about something we can all connect with: the ridiculous amount of bugs that make their presence known in the summertime, especially in Gentry’s native southern United States.

“Do-Wacka-Do” by Roger Miller

Roger Miller had an immense talent for making songs that were as silly and whimsical as they were seriously catchy. “Do-Wacka-Do” from his second studio album, The Return Of Roger Miller, is no exception. The song achieved crossover success, peaking at No. 15 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles and No. 31 on the Hot 100. And indeed, this was likely in no small part to how entertaining it was to sing along to “do-wacka-do, wacka-do, wacka-do…” The refrain was so catchy, a kid growing up in the 60s didn’t need to understand heartbreak to enjoy this tongue-in-cheek tune.

“The Girl On The Billboard” by Del Reeves

Back in the mid-60s, a country trucker song like Del Reeves’ “The Girl On The Billboard” was some of the most risqué music a kid would hear on the radio. Reeves’ only No. 1 single of his career follows a narrator who falls in love with a “girl wearing nothing but a smile and a towel” on a billboard on the side of a highway. The song seems cute by today’s standards. But to a young kid, “The Girl On The Billboard” was just scandalous enough to make singing it on the playground feel even more exciting.

“Devil Woman” by Marty Robbins

If you were a kid in the 1960s, there’s a good chance you practiced your yodeling alongside Marty Robbins as he sang about that dastardly “Devil Woman”. This song’s feel-good, beachy vibe makes it easy to forget that the narrator is singing about cheating on his wife and eventually getting her back, despite the charms of the titular temptress. While this track isn’t quite as ubiquitous as Robbins’ Western tunes, it was a No. 1 single in 1962. “Devil Woman” was also Robbins’ most successful track in the United Kingdom.

Photo by David Redfern/Redferns