The 80s were a great decade in country music. So many great country songs were released in that time period, especially in the early 80s. These three country songs from 1981 might be 44 years old, but they will always be classics.
Videos by American Songwriter
“Love In The First Degree” by Alabama
“Love In The First Degree” is on Alabama’s Feels So Right record, their second on RCA Nashville. Written by Tim DuBois and Jim Hurt, the song became the band’s fifth consecutive No. 1 single.
“Love In The First Degree” says, “Baby, you left me defenseless / But I’ve only got one plea / Lock me away inside of your love / And throw away the key / I’m guilty of love in the first degree.”
Although they didn’t plan for the song to be a crossover success, “Love In The First Degree” also hit the Top 5 on the Adult Contemporary chart.
“I Was Country When Country Wasn’t Cool” by Barbara Mandrell
“I Was Country When Country Wasn’t Cool” is, without question, one of Barbara Mandrell’s most popular hits. Written by Dennis Morgan and Kye Fleming, the song is on Mandrell’s Barbara Mandrell Live album.
The song begins with, “I remember wearin’ straight-leg Levis / Flannel shirts even when they weren’t in style / I remember singin’ with Roy Rogers / At the movies when the West was really wild / And I was listenin’ to the Opry / When all of my friends / Were diggin’ rock ‘n roll and rhythm and blues / I was country when country wasn’t cool.“
Mandrell didn’t write “I Was Country When Country Wasn’t Cool”, but the song is at least partly based on her life.
“(Kye) and Dennis wrote it after a visit we had had about my early years as a little grade schooler in California,” Mandrell says. “I was doing live television on a Saturday night and going back to school on Monday morning and being teased about … that hillbilly music. Just things of that nature, little stories.”
“Elvira” by the Oak Ridge Boys
“Elvira” is the first single from the Oak Ridge Boys’ Fancy Free album. Dallas Frazier wrote the song, first releasing it by himself in 1961. But it wasn’t until the Oak Ridge Boys’ version that the song became such a hit. It remains one of their most popular songs to this day.
“Elvira” says, “With eyes that look like heaven / Lips like cherry wine / That girl can sure enough make my little light shine / I get a funny feelin’ up and down my spine / Cause I know that my Elvira’s mine.”
By their own admission, they never imagined “Elvira” would become such a big hit.
“We wanted ‘Elvira’ to be a summer record for families of four – two kids, a mother, and a father – on vacation in an automobile, listening to the radio,” band member Duane Allen explains on their website. “Mom’s singing the verses, the kids sing the ‘giddy up’ hook, and Dad comes in with the ‘oom papa’ chorus. It’s the best planning we ever did.”
Photo by Ron Galella, Ltd/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images
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