These are the hot country singles of 1976, or at least the first half of them or so. There are a total of 40 of them on the Billboard charts, a function in part of the labels’ and maybe even disc jockeys’ desire to create more and more number one hits. No song hit the top of the charts for more than three weeks.
Good Hearted Woman – Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson, 3 weeks at #1. “In 1969, while staying at the Fort Worth Motel in Fort Worth, Texas, Jennings was inspired to start writing the song when he saw advertising in a newspaper promoting Tina Turner as a ‘good-hearted woman loving a two-timing man’, a reference to Ike Turner.” Per here.
Teddy Bear – Red Sovine, 3 weeks at #1
One Piece at a Time – Johnny Cash, two weeks at #1. I own this silly song on two different CDs, a greatest hits compilation and a disc considered a comedy collection
El Paso City` – Marty Robbins. I found a Robbins greatest hits CD in my late FIL’s collection and kept it. This song refers to Robbins’ big hit El Paso.
(I’m a) Stand by My Woman Man – Ronnie Milsap, two weeks at #1
I Don’t Want to Have to Marry You – Jim Ed Brown and Helen Cornelius, two weeks at #1
You and Me – Tammy Wynette, two weeks at #1
Someone Somewhere (Don’t Know What He’s Missin’ Tonight) – Loretta Lynn, two weeks at #1. I remember this song well, though I never owned it
Good Woman Blues – Mel Tillis, two weeks at #1
Thinking of a Rendezvous – Johnny Duncan, two weeks at #1
Sweet Dreams – Emmylou Harris, two weeks at #1. I had several Harris albums in the 1970s but not this song.
One week
All of the other songs are one week at number one. In chronological order:
This Time I’ve Hurt Her More Than She Loves Me – Conway Twitty
Sometimes – Bill Anderson and Mary Lou Turner
The White Knight – Cletus Maggard. A trucking song I had NOT known.
The Roots of My Raising – Merle Haggard
Faster Horses (The Cowboy and The Poet) – Tom T. Hall
Till The Rivers All Run Dry – Don Williams
That’s enough for now. More in a few days.