The 1970s became quite the decade in country music. In the 1970s, numerous artists emerged, artists who enjoyed several years of success before fading away. But some country artists from the 1970s were so good, their music is still lauded as some of the best, even after all these years. These three country artist from the 1970s are so good, their legacy will live on forever.
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Charlie Daniels
Charlie Daniels’ self-titled debut album came out in 1971. The record, written entirely by Daniels, became an early hint at the success Daniels would have in country music. Still, in spite of the beauty of the record, not to mention Daniels’ jaw-dropping guitar and fiddle skills, Charlie Daniels didn’t have any big hits.
Fortunately, Daniels didn’t have to wait long. By the mid-1970s, Daniels’ success at radio began. He had hit singles with songs like “Uneasy Rider” and “The South’s Gonna Do It”. In 1979, Daniels had his first No. 1 hit, with “The Devil Went Down To Georgia“, a song that is still covered by country artists today.
Daniels passed away in 2020. He remains one of the most influential country music artists of all time.
Reba McEntire
Reba McEntire’s eponymous freshman record was released in 1977. The project is the beginning of McEntire’s historic career, although it likely didn’t seem like it at the time. Reba McEntire failed to produce any hit singles. Her sophomore Out Of A Dream album, released two years later, gave McEntire her first Top 20 single, with “Sweet Dreams”.
It wasn’t until McEntire’s fifth record, Unlimited, that she had her first No. 1 single, with “Can’t Even Get The Blues“. Her slow climb might not have been a surprise to many, but it was to McEntire, who quickly learned the hard truth about the music business.
“I thought once you had a record on the radio, you’re rich,” McEntire says on the Today Show. “You have a tour bus, big mansion. No. I was living in a $10 a month rent house in Oklahoma, had to haul our own water.”
Fortunately, once McEntire had a chart-topping hit, they just kept coming, making her one of the most successful artists of any genre of music.
Tanya Tucker
Tanya Tucker was just a child when her debut Delta Dawn album was released. Out in 1972, shortly before Tucker’s 14th birthday, the album kick-started a career that is still going, more than 50 years later. The title track became Tucker’s first single, and her first major hit on the radio.
Tucker was just 13 years old, but her producers didn’t want anyone to know she wasn’t already an adult.
“I remember distinctly Billy talking to someone on—Billy Sherrill—I’m talking about, my first producer,” Tucker recalls Apple Music Country’s Trailblazers Radio. “He was talking to somebody on the phone. He said, ‘Now, listen. Because I don’t want anybody to know she’s 13, I want to keep that a secret. … I want this record to make it on its own merit, not because we got a damn circus act here.’”
Although Tucker was young, she knew how to work hard, which is likely what attributed to her success in country music, which she still enjoys today.
Photo by Scott Legato/Getty Images
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