#1 This Week In 1966

This week in February 1966, Loretta Lynn scored her first of eleven #1 songs on Billboard’s country chart with Don’t Come Home A’Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ On Your Mind). Her album of the same title went on to be the first by a female country artist to be certified gold. Although Lynn hit the country Top 40 almost fifty times in her career, she never once had a cross-over pop hit. Her most successful foray onto the pop singles chart was 1975’s controversial The Pill, which only reached #70. Said to be the first record about birth control, The Pill was banned from country radio but still reached #1 on the country chart. (The lyrics are a riot.) Loretta Lynn continues to record and perform and in 2004 released the fantastic Van Lear Rose, which was produced by the White Stripes’ Jack White. Highly recommended and my favorite album from that year.

TRIVIA: Also in 1966, Loretta Lynn’s brother Jay Lee Webb released an answer record to Don’t Come Home A’Drinkin called I Come Home A’Drinkin’ (To A Worn Out Wife Like You). In 1967 Tammy Wynette included a cover of Don’t Come Home for her classic album Your Good Girl’s Gonna Go Bad.