In 1969, likely no one could have predicted that the year would produce some of country music’s biggest hits. But it’s in 1969, right before the turn of a decade, when four iconic country songs were released, songs that are still revered more than 55 years later.
Videos by American Songwriter
“Galveston” by Glen Campbell
Think of Glen Campbell songs, and almost everyone thinks of “Galveston”. The title track of his 12th studio album, “Galveston” is written by Jimmy Webb. Ironically, it’s Hawaiian artist Don Ho who first recorded the song, which is how Campbell heard it, on Campbell’s The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour TV show.
“Galveston” became both a country and pop No. 1 single for Campbell. The song says, “Galveston, oh Galveston / I still hear your sea waves crashing / While I watch the cannons flashing / I clean my gun / And dream of Galveston.”
“A Boy Named Sue” by Johnny Cash
Johnny Cash’s “A Boy Named Sue” appears on his live album, At San Quentin. Written by Shel Silverstein, the humorous song is about a boy who dislikes his name, and the hardships it caused him growing up. As an adult, he finds his long-lost father, who gave him the feminine moniker.
“A Boy Named Sue” says, “Well, I knew that snake was my own sweet dad / From a worn out picture that my mother had / Knew that scar on his cheek and his evil eye / He was big and bent and gray and old / And I looked at him and my blood ran cold / And I said, ‘My name is Sue, how do you do?’ / Well, I hit him hard right between the eyes / And he went down, but to my surprise / He come up with a knife and cut off a piece of my ear / Then I busted a chair right across his teeth / And we crashed through the walls and into the street / Kicking and a-gouging in the mud and the blood and the beer / Now you gonna die, that’s what I told him.”
“A Boy Named Sue” became a five-week No. 1 hit for Cash.
“The Ways To Love A Man” by Tammy Wynette
Tammy Wynette, Billy Sherrill, and Glenn Sutton wrote “The Ways To Love A Man”. The title track of her seventh studio album, “The Ways To Love A Man” also became a Top 20 single on the Adult Contemporary chart for Wynette as well.
“The Ways To Love A Man” begins with, “There are so many ways to love a man and so many things to understand / And if there ever comes a time you decide to change your mind / I’ll need a way to hold you and I can cause I’ll know all the ways to love a man.”
“Okie From Muskogee”
“Okie From Muskogee” is the title track of Merle Haggard’s first live album. Written by Haggard and Roy Edward Burris, “Okie From Muskogee” was inspired by Haggard’s time in prison.
The song says, “And I’m proud to be an Okie from Muskogee / A place where even squares can have a ball / We still wave Old Glory down at the courthouse / And white lightning’s still the biggest thrill of all.”
“When I was in prison, I knew what it was like to have freedom taken away,” Haggard tells The Boot. “Freedom is everything. During Vietnam, there were all kinds of protests. Here were these [servicemen] going over there and dying for a cause—we don’t even know what it was really all about—and here are these young kids, that were free, b***hing about it. There’s something wrong with that. … These soldiers were giving up their freedom and lives to make sure others could stay free. I wrote the song to support those soldiers.”
Photo by CBS via Getty Images
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