This is a list of notable events in country music that took place in the year 1966.

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Contents 1 Events 2 Top hits of the year 2.1 Number one hits 2.1.1 United States 2.1.2 Canada 2.2 Other major hits 2.2.1 Singles released by American artists 2.2.2 Singles released by Canadian artists 3 Top new album releases 4 Births 5 Deaths 6 Country Music Hall of Fame Inductees 7 Major awards 7.1 Grammy Awards 7.2 Academy of Country Music 8 Further reading 9 Other links 10 External links

[edit] Events

• March 15 — Roger Miller wins six Grammy Awards, five of them related to his hit "King of the Road". The Statler Brothers take two awards for "Flowers on the Wall".
• April — One of the last broadcasts of The Jimmy Dean Show features the first-ever Academy of Country Music awards. Big winners include Male Vocalist of the Year Buck Owens, Female Vocalist Bonnie Owens, and New Male Vocalist Merle Haggard; Haggard also shared the Vocal Duet/Group award with Bonnie Owens. Taped for later broadcast that year, the ACM Awards would in time become among the most anticipated events of the year by country fans.
• October 15 — Billboard increases the length of its Hot Country Singles chart to 75 positions, up from 50.
• October 22 — At age 48, Eddy Arnold becomes the youngest (to that time) living inductee into the Country Music Hall of Fame.

[edit] Top hits of the year

[edit] Number one hits

[edit] United States

(as certified by Billboard)

Date	Single Name	Artist	Wks. No.1	Spec. Note
January 8	Giddyup Go	Red Sovine	6	Sovine's first Number One hit in ten years since 1955's "Why Baby Why."
February 19	Waitin' in Your Welfare Line/ In the Palm of Your Hand	Buck Owens and the Buckaroos	7
April 9	I Want to Go with You	Eddy Arnold	6
May 21	Distant Drums	Jim Reeves	4
June 18	Take Good Care of Her	Sonny James	2
July 2	Think of Me	Buck Owens and the Buckaroos	6
August 13	Almost Persuaded	David Houston	9	[1], [A] The longest-running Number One country song by a male artist until Lonestar's single, "Amazed" in 1999.
October 15	Blue Side of Lonesome	Jim Reeves	1
October 22	Open up Your Heart	Buck Owens and the Buckaroos	4
November 19	I Get the Fever	Bill Anderson	1
November 26	Somebody Like Me	Eddy Arnold	4
December 24	There Goes My Everything	Jack Greene	8	[A]

[edit] Canada

(as certified by RPM)

Date	Single Name	Artist	Wks. No.1	Spec. Note
January 3	Shadows of Your Heart	Dianne Leigh	2	[A]
January 17	Iron Town	Rhythm Pals	5	[A]
February 21	Don’t Knock on My Door	The Canadian Sweethearts	1	[C]
February 28	This They Say Is Me	Rhythm Pals	2	[B]
March 14	The Auctioneer	Irwin Prescott	1	[C]
December 5	Whistling on the River	Mercey Brothers	4	[A]

[edit] Other major hits

[edit] Singles released by American artists

• "Ain't Had No Lovin'" - Connie Smith
• "Baby" - Wilma Burgess
• "Bad Seed" - Jan Howard
• "Ballad of the Green Berets" - Staff Sgt. Barry Sadler
• "The Bottle Let Me Down" - Merle Haggard
• "The Company You Keep" - Bill Phillips
• "Crystal Chandelier" — Charley Pride
• "Dear Uncle Sam" - Loretta Lynn
• "Don't Touch Me" - Wilma Burgess
• "Don't Touch Me" - Jeannie Seely
• "England Swings" - Roger Miller
• "Evil on Your Mind" - Jan Howard
• "Flowers on the Wall" - Statler Brothers
• "Four-O-Thirty-Three" - George Jones
• "Guess My Eyes Were Bigger Than My Heart" - Conway Twitty
• "History Repeats Itself" - Buddy Starcher
• "The Hurtin's All Over" - Connie Smith
• "Husbands and Wives" - Roger Miller
• "I Love You Drops" - Bill Anderson
• "I'm a People" - George Jones
• "It Takes A Lot Of Money" - Warner Mack
• "The Last Word in Lonesome is Me" - Eddy Arnold
• "Livin' in a House Full of Love" - David Houston
• "Look Into My Teardrops" - Conway Twitty
• "The Lovin' Machine" - Johnny Paycheck
• "A Million and One" - Billy Walker
• "Misty Blue" - Wilma Burgess
• "Nobody But a Fool (Would Love You)" - Connie Smith
• "The One on the Right is on the Left" - Johnny Cash
• "Put It Off Until Tomorrow" - Bill Phillips
• "Room in Your Heart" - Sonny James
• "The Snakes Crawl at Night" - Charley Pride
• "Snowflake" - Jim Reeves
• "Stand Beside Me" - Jimmy Dean
• "Standing in the Shadows" - Hank Williams Jr.
• "The Streets of Baltimore" - Bobby Bare
• "Sweet Thang" - Nat Stuckey
• "Swinging Doors" - Merle Haggard
• "Take Me" - George Jones
• "Talkin' To The Wall" - Warner Mack
• "That's What You Get For Loving Me" - Waylon Jennings
• "Tippy Toeing" - The Harden Trio
• "Unmitigated Gall" - Faron Young
• "What We're Fighting For" - Dave Dudley
• "Would You Hold It Against Me" - Dottie West
• "You Ain't Woman Enough" - Loretta Lynn

[edit] Singles released by Canadian artists

CAN	Single	Artist
3	Chew Tobacco Road	Irwin Prescott
3	Come Home Newfoundlander	Tom Jim Garth
2	Goodbye My Friend	Bob King
10	I Don't Never	Odie Workman
7	Ice on the Road	Graham Townsend
2	Lost Love	Artie MacLaren
4	Loving You Again	Johnny Burke
6	Muddy Water	Bert Cuff
8	Play Me One More Country Song	Ron McMunn
4	Rambling Shoes	Bob King
8	Take This Heart of Mine	Odie Workman
3	Three Plays for a Quarter	Ralph Carlson
2	The Weatherman	Gary Buck
5	Why Can't He Be You	Dianne Leigh
2	Working on the Country Road	Bob King
7	Your Special Day	Myrna Lorrie

[edit] Top new album releases

• The Best of Bobby Bare - Bobby Bare (RCA)
• Born to Sing - Connie Smith (RCA)
• Confessions of a Broken Man – Porter Wagoner (RCA)
• Distant Drums - Jim Reeves (RCA)
• Don't Touch Me - Wilma Burgess (Decca)
• Evil on Your Mind - Jan Howard (Decca)
• Folk Country - Waylon Jennings (RCA)
• I Want to Go With You - Eddy Arnold (RCA)
• Jimmy Dean's Greatest Hits - Jimmy Dean (Columbia)
• The Seely Style - Jeannie Seely (Monument)
• Somebody Like Me - Eddy Arnold (RCA)
• The Streets of Baltimore - Bobby Bare (RCA)
• Suffer Time - Dottie West (RCA)
• Conway Twitty Sings - Conway Twitty (Decca)
• Look Into My Teardrops - Conway Twitty (Decca)

[edit] Births

• January 4 — Deana Carter, singer-songwriter who enjoyed a string of hits in the mid-to-late 1990s.
• May 13 — Darius Rucker, African-American singer and Hootie & the Blowfish lead vocalist who became a rising country star in the late 2000s.
• July 29 — Martina McBride, crossover-styled female vocalist who rose to fame in the 1990s.
• August 19 — Lee Ann Womack, new traditionalist-styled singer of the 1990s and 2000s most famous for her crossover hit "I Hope You Dance."
• December 17 — Tracy Byrd, male honky tonk-styled vocalist since the 1990s.

[edit] Deaths

[edit] Country Music Hall of Fame Inductees

• Eddy Arnold (born 1918)
• James R. Denny (1911-1963)
• George D. Hay (1895-1968)
• Uncle Dave Macon (1870-1952)

[edit] Major awards

[edit] Grammy Awards

• Best Country and Western Vocal Performance, Female — "Don't Touch Me," Jeannie Seely
• Best Country and Western Vocal Performance, Male — "Almost Persuaded," David Houston
• Best Country and Western Recording — "Almost Persuaded," David Houston
• Best Country and Western Song — "Almost Persuaded," Billy Sherrill and Glenn Sutton (Performer: David Houston)

[edit] Academy of Country Music

• Top Male Vocalist — Merle Haggard
• Top Female Vocalist — Bonnie Guitar
• Top New Male Vocalist — Billy Mize
• Top New Female Vocalist — Cathie Taylor

[edit] 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.

[edit] Other links

• Country Music Association
• Inductees of the Country Music Hall of Fame

[edit] External links

• Country Music Hall of Fame