Before cowboy hats were trendy and country was pop, Barbara Mandrell was getting teased at school for loving “hillbilly music.” So when she heard “I Was Country When Country Wasn’t Cool,” she didn’t just cut it—she claimed it. What started as a songwriter’s fleeting thought became a chart-topping anthem about authenticity and a defining moment in Mandrell’s iconic career.
The success of Urban Cowboy and a vulnerable conversation with Mandrell sparked writers Kye Fleming and Dennis Morgan to pen “I Was Country When Country Wasn’t Cool.”
“(Kye) and Dennis wrote it after a visit we had had about my early years as a little grade schooler in California,” Mandrell told CMT. “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.”
Mandrell included the song on her Barbara Mandrell Live album. It was such an impactful No. 1 that it likely contributed to her Entertainer of the Year win at the 1981 CMA Awards.
Videos by American Songwriter
“Literally the Story of My Life”
Mandrell called “I Was Country When Country Wasn’t Cool” “literally the story of my life.”
Lyrics include: I took a lot of kiddin’/’Cause I never did fit in/ Now look at everybody/Tryin’ to be what I was then/ I was country when country wasn’t cool
She sang about wearing straight-leg Levis and flannel shirts, listening to George Jones and putting peanuts in her Coke.
Fleming and Morgan also wrote “Sleeping Single in a Double Bed” for Mandrell and brought a strong understanding of her preference for melody and phrasing to the song. “Sleeping Single in a Double Bed” became the songwriting duo’s first No. 1 hit. It was surprising to them because, as Fleming pointed out, their writing style didn’t fit the music Mandrell was known for making up to that point.
“The music really shifted when we started writing for her,” Fleming told NSAI’s Bart Herbison. “She’s been so awesome to always give credit to us. And obviously she made our career, too.”
Kye Fleming and Barbara Mandrell Had “a Thing”
Fleming said, and Mandrell had a “thing.” Fleming sang the demos, and then Mandrell would ask her to sing them again to learn how she did it.
“It was just a good combination,” Fleming said. “Maybe melodically, it went places she wouldn’t have normally gone or whatever. But it became her.”
The “Country When Country Wasn’t Cool” idea struck Fleming one day like a lightning bolt.
“I’m looking around like, ‘Anybody hear that?’” Fleming said. “I did at that moment think, ‘Wow, this could be really corny. It could be really good. So let’s take our time with it.’”
Fleming and Morgan wrote together five days a week for years. However, she didn’t share the idea with him immediately. She wanted to “stew on it” for a couple of weeks. Fleming said they took their time writing every song, and that’s the beauty of not bouncing around from co-writer to co-writer. She knew that if she came up with an idea that she was going to write it with Morgan.
Kye Fleming and Dennis Morgan Wrote Together Daily
“It works nowadays for these guys,” she said. “It doesn’t work for me. I really love relationship writing. I like going in and having this idea that we’re kind of messing with. You’ve got three or four songs started and going, and it’s like whatever day the emotion is right for that song, then jump on that.”
Fleming said another key to their success with Mandrell is that the content they wrote for her was wholesome, and the values correlated with her television show.
“It’s family entertainment,” she said.
(Photo by Michael Buckner/Getty Images)
Leave a Reply
Only members can comment. Become a member. Already a member? Log in.