On This Day in 1976, Waylon Jennings Hit No. 1 With a Non-Traditional Country Record That Included a Neil Young Cover

On this day in 1976, outlaw country superstar Waylon Jennings hit No. 1 on the country music album charts in the US with Are You Ready For The Country. The record, released in June of that year, took a while to make it to No. 1 in September. But just like his previous album, the 1975 effort Dreaming My Dreams, Are You Ready For The Country eventually hit No. 1 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart in the US. The 1976 album also made it to No. 34 on the Billboard 200. That was a leg up from the No. 49 spot that Dreaming My Dreams had peaked at the previous year.

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Are You Ready For The Country became Certified Gold, and that’s not entirely surprising. It’s a solid album. What is surprising, though, is the fact that despite its title, this record wasn’t entirely a country album. Rather, Are You Ready For The Country was a country-rock-leaning release that even featured cover songs of famous rock tunes.

Waylon Jennings’ ‘Are You Ready For The Country’ Is a Little Bit Country and a Little Bit Rock and Roll

Are You Ready For The Country was about as far from traditional country music as you could get. The record is very much a country album, but its elements leaned more toward outlaw country and country rock. One can’t deny that Waylon Jennings really looks like a rock star on the album’s cover.

While the record featured plenty of original tunes from Jennings, it also featured covers of famous rock songs. A few include a cover of the Southern rock classic “Can’t You See” by The Marshall Tucker Band and “MacArthur Park (Revisited)” by Jimmy Webb, the latter of which was famously covered by the likes of Donna Summer and later Pet Shop Boys. And, of course, we can’t forget that opening title track, which is actually a cover of a Neil Young song with a country-rock flair.

Despite being a bit of an unconventional release, Are You Ready For The Country produced four Top 10 songs and made it all the way to the top of the country albums chart, with a crossover into the Billboard 200 chart. His 1977 follow-up album, Ol’ Waylon, would do even better, hitting No. 1 on the country charts and No. 15 on the Billboard 200.

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