1959 in country music

"See also:"
1958 in country music,
1959 in music,
other events of 1959,
1960 in country music and the List of years in Country Music

Events

*The first Grammy Award for outstanding performances in the country music genre is presented. The Kingston Trio wins the only country-specific award, for Best Country and Western Performance, with "Tom Dooley." It wouldn't be until the 1965 when more country-specific Grammy categories were started. Until 1966 (when the Academy of Country Music began presenting awards), the Grammy Awards would be the only method to honor remarkable accomplishments in the genre.
*"Saga" songs, or stories where conflict was the central theme, rise in popularity. Notable examples include "The Battle of New Orleans" by Johnny Horton, "The Long Black Veil" by Lefty Frizzell, "Waterloo" by Stonewall Jackson and "El Paso" by Marty Robbins.
*A young sharecropper's son named Alvis Edgar "Buck" Owens scores his first significant chart hit with "Second Fiddle." That song, plus the follow-up – "Under Your Spell Again," his first Billboard magazine Top 10 hit – provides country fans with the earliest examples of Owens' trademark "Bakersfield" sound.

Top hits of the year

Number one hits

"(As certified by Billboard magazine)"
*January 19 – "Billy Bayou" – Jim Reeves
*February 23 – "Don't Take Your Guns to Town" – Johnny Cash
*April 6 – "When It's Springtime in Alaska (It's Forty Below)" – Johnny Horton
*April 13 – "White Lighting" – George Jones
*May 18 – "The Battle of New Orleans" – Johnny Horton
*July 27 – "Waterloo" – Stonewall Jackson
*August 31 – "The Three Bells" – The Browns
*November 9 – "Country Girl" – Faron Young
*December 7 – "The Same Old Me" – Ray Price
*December 21 – "El Paso" – Marty Robbins

Other major hits

*"Am I That Easy to Forget" - Carl Belew
*"Big Midnight Special" – Wilma Lee and Stoney Cooper
*"Black Land Farmer" – Frankie Miller
*"Cabin in the Hills" – Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs and the Foggy Mountain Boys
*"Chasin' a Rainbow" – Hank Snow
*"Come Walk With Me" – Wilma Lee and Stoney Cooper
*"Don't Tell Me Your Troubles" – Don Gibson
*"Family Man" – Frankie Miller
*"Frankie's Man, Johnny" – Johnny Cash
*"Heartaches By the Number" – Ray Price
*"Home" – Jim Reeves
*"I Ain't Never" – Webb Pierce
*"I Got Stripes" – Johnny Cash
*"I'm In Love Again" - George Morgan
*"I've Run Out of Tomorrows" – Hank Thompson and His Brazos Valley Boys
*"Jimmy Brown The Newsboy" - Mac Wiseman
*"The Last Ride" – Hank Snow
*"Life to Go" – Stonewall Jackson
*"The Long Black Veil" – Lefty Frizzell
*"Luther Played the Boogie" – Johnny Cash
*"Mommy For a Day" – Kitty Wells
*"My Baby's Gone" – The Louvin Brothers
*"Ninety-Nine" – Bill Anderson
*"Old Moon" - Betty Foley
*"Partners" – Jim Reeves
*"Second Fiddle" – Buck Owens
*"Set Him Free" – Skeeter Davis
*"Somebody's Back In Town" - The Wilburn Brothers
*"Ten Thousand Drums" – Carl Smith
*"Tennessee Stud" – Eddy Arnold
*"That's What It's Like to be Lonesome" – Ray Price
*"There's a Big Wheel" – Wilma Lee and Stoney Cooper
*"('Til) I Kissed You" – Everly Brothers
*"A Thousand Miles Ago" – Webb Pierce
*"Under Your Spell Again" – Buck Owens
*"The Wall" – Freddie Hart
*"Which One Is To Blame?" - The Wilburn Brothers
*"Who Cares" – Don Gibson
*"Who Shot Sam" – George Jones

Top new album releases

* "Greatest!" – Johnny Cash (Sun)
* "Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs" – Marty Robbins (Columbia)
* "Hymns by Johnny Cash" – Johnny Cash (Columbia)
* "Satan is Real" – The Louvin Brothers Capitol)
* "Songs of Our Soil" – Johnny Cash (Columbia)

Other top new releases

*"After Dark" – Kitty Wells (Decca)
*"Beside The Still Waters" – Mac Wiseman (Dot)
*"Chet Atkins in Hollywood" - Chet Atkins (RCA)
*"George Jones Sings White Lighting and Other Favorites" - George Jones (Mercury)
*"Great Folk Ballads" – Mac Wiseman (Dot)
*"Have Guitar, Will Travel" - Eddy Arnold (RCA)
*"Hum & Strum Along With Chet Atkins" - Chet Atkins (RCA)
*"Sweet Songs by The Browns" - The Browns (RCA)
*"Thereby Hangs a Tale" - Eddy Arnold (RCA)

Births

*March 2 – Larry Stewart, lead singer of the 1980s country pop group Restless Heart.
*May 4 – Randy Travis, key artist of the new traditionalist movement of the mid-1980s.
*June 21 – Kathy Mattea, folk-styled country artist of the 1980s.
*June 27 – Lorrie Morgan, country star of the 1990s; daughter of Grand Ole Opry favorite George Morgan.
*July 20 – Radney Foster, songwriter and one half of the late-1980s duo Foster & Lloyd; also, a solo artist during the early 1990s.
*August 22 – Collin Raye, a favorite country artist of the 1990s.

Deaths

Major Awards

Grammy awards

*Best Country and Western Performance – "Tom Dooley," The Kingston Trio

Further reading

*Kingsbury, Paul, "The Grand Ole Opry: History of Country Music. 70 Years of the Songs, the Stars and the Stories," Villard Books, Random House; Opryland USA, 1995
*Kingsbury, Paul, "Vinyl Hayride: Country Music Album Covers 1947-1989," Country Music Foundation, 2003 (ISBN 0-8118-3572-3)
*Millard, Bob, "Country Music: 70 Years of America's Favorite Music," HarperCollins, New York, 1993 (ISBN 0-06-273244-7)
*Whitburn, Joel, "Top Country Songs 1944-2005 - 6th Edition." 2005.

Other links

*Country Music Association