Featured

Playlists, albums, articles & videos from our Rhapsody music experts.

Cheat Sheet: Urban Cowboy

by Linda Ryan

Although the 1980 movie Urban Cowboy was panned by critics, the general public was attracted to something beyond the thin plot and John Travolta's fine two-step moves which, let's face it, paled in comparison to his electrifying disco moves in Saturday Night Fever. The soundtrack, which blended classic rock (Bob Seger) with countrified rock (J.D. Souther, the Eagles, etc.) and country-pop (Anne Murray), also saw former honky-tonkers Mickey Gilley and Johnny Lee soften their sound, choosing to record slow songs with lush string arrangements. Its broad appeal helped nudge country music squarely into the mainstream a trajectory set nearly a decade before, when producers such as Billy Sherrill were actively making records in Nashville.

Inspired by an article in Esquire about Houston oil-riggers who unwound in honky-tonks such as Gilley's (where the film was made), Urban Cowboy spawned a pop-culture revolution. Country music had formerly appealed mainly to blue-collar middle America, but the growing hybridization of country and rock brought young white-collar rockers into the mix. Likewise, the increasingly over-produced, middle-of-the-road sound coming from stalwarts such as Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers helped open country up to older folks, and those pesky fans of lite rock.

Before the success of Urban Cowboy, country music had never seen consistent platinum sales like it did during the first half of the 1980s. Here are some of the albums that best encompass the urban cowboy subgenre.

Urban Cowboy

Mickey Gilley

Released in 2006, Urban Cowboy features Gilley performing his biggest hits: "Room Full of Roses" (his first song to reach No. 1), his cover of "Stand By Me," "Don't the Girls All Get Prettier At Closing Time" (where he sounds exactly like his cousin Jerry Lee Lewis) and his stellar take on the classic "You Don't Know Me," to name a few. The film Urban Cowboy not only brought Gilley a second wind career-wise, as his success crossed over into the pop realm, but was in fact filmed in his legendary (and now-defunct) "world's biggest honky-tonk," Gilley's Club.

Saturday Night Fever

Various Artists

One of the biggest-selling soundtracks of all time, Saturday Night Fever spread the disco gospel to the masses, turned the soft rock band the Bee Gees into Open-Shirted Disco Gods, and transformed TV actor John Travolta into a major movie star. Once hated by rock fans, the music here has actually held up very well, especially its string of high-hat-rich Bee Gees tunes -- "Stayin' Alive," "Jive Talkin'" etc. Ironically, this album also ended up destroying the Bee Gees, since the group was forever lumped in with the disco craze.

The Essential Earl Thomas Conley

Earl Thomas Conley

With nearly every song in this collection hitting No.1 at some point between 1981 and 1988, The Essential Earl Thomas Conley speaks to the dominance the Ohio-bred singer enjoyed over country music for nearly a decade. Conley won a Grammy for "Holding Her and Loving You," but fans of sad, sad songs with acoustic guitars, the occasional fiddle and no pedal steel will find plenty to grab onto here, presumably when they are either holding their baby or grasping a bottle of Wild Turkey because he or she left. "Your Love's on the Line" bumps and rocks like a new country version of the Band.

Mountain Music

Alabama

The third record from this country rock staple was released in 1982 and remains their biggest seller, which is quite a feat since Alabama has sold jillions of albums over the course of their career. As always, the band is more country than rock, but the Southern-fried boogie is never far below the surface. "Close Enough to Perfect" and the titular cut were hits on both the country and pop charts, but it's the dramatic showdown between ticked-off lovers "Words at Twenty Paces" that's the winner, and a clear influence on Garth's "The Thunder Rolls."

20th Century Masters: The Millennium Collection...

Barbara Mandrell

The biggest female country star of the '70s and '80s, Barbara Mandrell had a string of hits that bridged the two decades, won countless awards and typified the stylistic overlapping of '70s soft rock and urban cowboy/countrypolitan music of the time. "Sleeping Single in a Double Bed" and its smash hit follow-up "(If Loving You Is Wrong) I Don't Want to Be Right" may sound more like Captain & Tennille or Firefall than George Jones, but "I Was Country When Country Wasn't Cool," in which Jones makes an appearance, and "Years" effectively bring the honky-tonk (sort of).

All Time Greatest Hits

Eddie Rabbitt

The coolest cowboy ever to come out of Brooklyn, Eddie Rabbitt helped transform country in the late 1970s and '80s by combining soft rock elements with a real understanding of the classic Nashville sound. In a world of fake country "hombres," Rabbitt stayed true to himself with sweet vocals, a tough Charles Bronson mug, and great songs until his untimely death in 1998.

A critical return to form and mega-selling hit record for the country icon, 9 To 5 and Odd Jobs, released in 1980, was as ubiquitous, and deservedly so, as the movie of the (almost) same name. Not only was that movie funnier and a way better time than anyone expected, the attendant record here -- with an impossibly catchy title cut, a fantastic take on Bobby Bare's "Detroit City" and production values that, while decidedly slick, remain tied to the ancient moves -- is characteristic of Parton's work, meaning more legitimate than her pop success may lead folks to believe.

Greatest Hits

Mel McDaniel

It's crazy that Mel McDaniel released what was arguably his best hit, "Baby's Got Her Blue Jeans On," in 1993, because by then the whole urban cowboy movement had been swept under the rug for the big hatted new traditional movement of the early '90s. But that song is so delightfully anachronistic, you'll want to watch Debra Winger's seductive mechanical bull ride all over again (thank you, NetFlix).

Lookin' For Love

Johnny Lee

Texan country singer Johnny Lee had other hits, but it's the title cut here for which he is best known. A major part of the soundtrack to the trend-setting Travolta vehicle Urban Cowboy, "Lookin' For Love" is an almost archetypal example of the lite rock-tinged countrypolitan music that may have incensed purists but nevertheless led to a widening of country music's audience, not to mention the avalanche of cowboy boot sales it sparked in the early '80s. "Pickin' Up Strangers" was another smash for Lee, reaching No. 3 on the charts a year after "Lookin' For Love" put him on the map.