On This Day in 1987, Randy Travis Started a Three-Week Run at No. 1 with One of Country Music’s Best Love Songs

On this day (June 13) in 1987, Randy Travis topped the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart with “Forever and Ever, Amen.” It was his third career No. 1 and his fourth consecutive top 5 single on the country survey. Decades later, the single remains a go-to love song for genre fans around the world.

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The singles from Travis’ debut album, Storms of Life, cemented his place as a successful new artist. In early 1987, he introduced his sophomore release, Always & Forever, with “Forever and Ever, Amen.” The song kicked off a run of seven consecutive No. 1 singles on the country chart and ushered in one of the most dominant periods in his career.

[RELATED: On This Day in 1986, Randy Travis Released His Debut Album After Years of Being Told “No” by Nashville]

Travis would go on to dominate the country music charts and airwaves for the rest of the decade. Then, he carried that momentum into the 1990s, becoming one of the most prominent country traditionalists of the decade. His grip on the top 20 of the country chart started to slip after the turn of the century when country radio once again moved away from traditional country music and the bro-country era began.

Randy Travis Scores a Multi-Week No. 1 with “Forever and Ever, Amen”

Written by Paul Overstreet and Don Schlitz, Randy Travis released “Forever and Ever, Amen” in March 1987. A few short months later, it topped the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart dated June 13. It retained the top spot for three consecutive weeks. At the time, it was Travis’ only single to top the chart for more than a week.

Of his 16 No. 1 singles on the Hot Country Songs chart, only four stayed at the top for more than a week. His 1990 single “Hard Rock Bottom of Your Heart” was the only song to stay atop the survey longer than “Forever and Ever, Amen.”

According to Songfacts, Travis wrote the foreword of Overstreet’s 2001 memoir titled Forever and Ever, Amen. In it, he revealed that this was his favorite of Overstreet’s songs. “I consider myself very fortunate each time I stand before an audience and sing his songs,” Travis wrote. “More often than any other time, I see the powerful effect of his words on people.”

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