Some of the best country songs came out in the 1980s, songs that went on to be big hits. These three songs all came out in 1984 and were No. 1 hits, even though most people have already forgotten about them.
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“Make My Life With You” by the Oak Ridge Boys
The Oak Ridge Boys had a lot of hits, especially in the 1980s, including “Trying To Love Two Women”, “Elvira“, “An American Family”, and more, so it’s understandable that some songs would be forgotten. The Oak Ridge Boys released “Make My Life With You”, written by Gary Burr, on their Greatest Hits 2 album.
The sweet song, about falling in love, says, “Some people say it’s a dangerous game / I’ll take my chances just the same / If love is a game and you are the prize / You standing here is no surprise / And the love that comes over me / Is enough to make me stay.”
“Just Another Woman In Love” by Anne Murray
“Just Another Woman In Love” by Anne Murray came out when Murray was having a string of hits. Murray was at her prime when the song, written by Wanda Mallette and Patti Ryan, was released. It is included on Murray’s A Little Good News record.
“Just Another Woman In Love” became a No. 1 in both Murray’s native Canada and the United States. The song says, “I’m just another woman in love, a kid out of school / A fire out of control, just another fool / You touch me and I’m weak, I’m a feather in the wind / And I can’t wait to feel you touching me again / With you, I’m just another woman / Just another woman in love.”
“Long Hard Road (The Sharecropper’s Dream)” by The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
Rodney Crowell wrote “Long Hard Road (The Sharecropper’s Dream)” for The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. The song is on their Plain Dirt Fashion record. After releasing more than 30 singles, “Long Hard Road (The Sharecropper’s Dream)” became the group’s first No. 1 single.
The song is from the perspective of a sharecropper’s son. He later looks back fondly on how hard he and his family worked.
“My dad did construction work after relocating to the big city,” Crowell recalls (via Classic Country Music Stories). “But they always spoke very vividly and longingly for the days when they lived on the farm and ran bare-footed.”
“Long Hard Road (The Sharecropper’s Dream)” says, “When the world was on our radio, hard work was on our minds / We lived our day-to-day in plain dirt fashion / With ol’ overalls and cotton balls all strapped across your back / Man, it’s hard to make believe there ain’t nothing wrong / But momma kept the Bible read and daddy kept our family fed / And somewhere in between I must have grown / ‘Cause someday I was dreamin’ that a song that I was singin’ / Takes me down the road to where I want to go / Now I know, it’s a long hard road.”
Photo by Paul Natkin/Getty Images
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