On This Day in 1981, Ronnie Milsap Was at No. 1 with a Crossover Hit That Almost Went to a Legendary Country Band

On this day (September 4) in 1981, Ronnie Milsap was at the top of the country chart with “(There’s) No Gettin’ Over Me.” It spent two weeks at the top of the country chart and peaked at No. 5 on the Hot 100, giving Milsap his biggest crossover hit. It was the sixth in a string of 10 consecutive chart-topping singles that spanned three years and six albums.

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After a little more than a decade as a recording artist, Milsap began his domination of the country charts in 1974. That year, he scored his first No. 1 single with “Pure Love.” He released 16 more singles before the end of the decade, and all of them reached the top 10. He went into the 1980s with a dozen No. 1 singles under his belt and the momentum to continue his rule over the chart.

[RELATED: Behind the Meaning of Ronnie Milsap’s “Daydreams About Night Things,” Penned by John Schweers]

Ronnie Milsap Almost Didn’t Get to Record “(There’s) No Gettin’ Over Me”

Ronnie Milsap made “(There’s) No Gettin’ Over Me” a major hit. However, the song almost went to one of the biggest country bands of all time.

Walt Aldridge co-wrote the crossover hit with Tom Brasfield. He spoke to Billboard about how Ronnie Milsap ended up recording the song ahead of his induction into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2017.

“I owe a big debt of gratitude on that one to my co-writer and mentor, Tom Basfield. He was a guy who had already been writing some in town and took notice of what I was trying to do,” he recalled. “He came to me and said, ‘You know, I think you have some great ideas. You just need some help from somebody who has some experience.’ And if I ever did anything right in my career, I listened to him,” he added.

Brasfield and Aldridge wrote together when they weren’t working. “I was kind of like the puppy dog. ‘Is this one good enough?’ and Tommy would say, ‘No, we’re not quite there,’” Aldridge recalled. Then, they wrote “(There’s) No Gettin’ Over Me,” and Brasfield knew they had something. He shopped it around Nashville. Before long, calls came in.

“Within a week, we had three people call. Alabama called. Milsap called, and I think one other called. I forgot who it was, but it just so happened that Ronnie called first,” Aldridge explained.

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