On the Charts 35 Years Ago, Randy Travis Was at No. 1 With the Biggest Country Hit in More Than a Decade

On this day (March 18) in 1990, Randy Travis was at the top of the Hot Country Songs chart with “Hard Rock Bottom of Your Heart.” The song spent four weeks at No. 1, a feat no other single had achieved in more than a decade. The last song to spend more than three weeks at the top of the tally was a classic release from a pair of country icons.

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Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson spent four consecutive weeks at No. 1 with “Mammas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys” in March 1978. It would be 12 years before another song spent that long at the top of the chart. However, a handful of songs came close. For instance, Ronnie Milsap spent three weeks at No. 1 with “Only One Love in My Life” in July 1978. Jennings, Dolly Parton, Barbara Mandrell, and Kenny Rogers also had three-week runs at the top before the end of the year.

Very few singles came close over the next few years. Eddie Rabbit, Dave & Sugar, Anne Murray, the Bellamy Brothers, Jennings, and Conway Twitty had three-week No. 1s in 1979. The next year, Rogers, Milsap, and Johnny Lee all achieved the feat. Lee’s “Lookin’ for Love” became the last single to spend more than two weeks at No. 1 until 1987, when Travis did it with “Forever and Ever, Amen.”

“Hard Rock Bottom of Your Heart” seemingly marked a shift in the country chart. Later that year, George Strait had a five-week run at the top with “A Love Without End, Amen.” Garth Brooks and Alabama also had multi-week chart-toppers that would have been shocking in previous years.

Randy Travis Found a Hit with a Sad Cheating Song

Country music is full of songs about infidelity from multiple perspectives. Randy Travis found his first No. 1 with “On the Other Hand,” a song about a man who almost cheats on his wife, but his wedding ring reminds him to remain faithful. The Hugh Prestwood-penned “Hard Rock Bottom of Your Heart” is a look at what could have happened if that character had acted on his impulses.

The song is from the perspective of a man whose wife caught him cheating. He believes that she should forgive him. However, she’s not ready to do so. In the chorus, he tries to lay a guilt trip on her with the lines And I feel like a stone you have picked up and thrown / To the hard rock bottom of your heart. The song ends without a resolution, and it doesn’t look good for the protagonist.

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