This is a list of notable events in country music that took place in the year 1997.
Events
- April 22 - George Strait releases his 17th studio album, Carrying Your Love with Me. The album went on to be nominated for Best Male Country Vocal Performance at the 1998 Grammy Awards.
- June 27- Pee Wee King celebrates his 60th Grand Ole Opry Anniversary
- July 12 â The song, "It's Your Love," by Tim McGraw and Faith Hill becomes the first song in 20 years to spend six weeks atop Billboard magazine Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart. The last song to do so was 1977's "Luckenbach, Texas (Back to the Basics of Love)" by Waylon Jennings. In that span, more than 750 songs had reached No. 1 on the country chart, a majority of them for just one week. The song sparked a renewed wave of songs that spend at least five weeks at No. 1, thanks in part to newer chart tracking methods and programming changes at country radio stations.
- August 7 - Garth Brooks plays a free concert at New York's Central Park, drawing over 1 million fans, with many dubbing it "Garthstock"; the special is broadcast on HBO, with its audience drawing 14.6 million. Billy Joel and Don McLean make special guest appearances.
- November 4 - Shania Twain releases her third studio album, Come On Over. The album becomes the best-selling country album of all time, best-selling studio album by a female act, best-selling album by a Canadian and ninth best-selling album in the United States and worldwide.
- December 10 â Faith Hill and LeAnn Rimes at the Christmas Time with Eddy Arnold.
No dates
- Jimmie Rodgers is elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (as an early influence).
- Trisha Yearwood and LeAnn Rimes both record the song "How Do I Live" for the movie Con Air. Producers from the film ask Rimes to record it first but feel her version is not what they have in mind due to the performance itself and her young age. Yearwood then records the song and releases at the same time Rimes releases her song. Although Rimes' version peaked at No. 43 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart, her version is shunned from the country charts yet reaches No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100. Yearwood's version, meanwhile, peaks at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart and also makes the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100, as well as reaching No. 1 in Canada and No. 1 on the US Radio & Records chart.
Top hits of the year
Singles released by American artists
Singles released by Canadian artists
Top new album releases
Other top albums
Births
Deaths
- January 8 â Smiley Bates, 59, Canadian singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist (Cancer).
- January 21 â Colonel Tom Parker, 87, manager of prolific country singers Eddy Arnold and Hank Snow, comedian Minnie Pearl
- June 19 â Bobby Helms, 62, singer who enjoyed his peak popularity in 1957; best known for "Jingle Bell Rock."
- August 16 â Donn Reynolds, 76, singer-songwriter and country yodeler; established 2 yodeling world records.
- October 12 â John Denver, 53, country crossover artist of the 1970s; also a singer and songwriter (plane crash)
- December 21 â Amie Comeaux, 21, country singer from Louisiana (car accident)
- December 31 â Floyd Cramer, 64, prolific session pianist (lung cancer)
Hall of Fame inductees
Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame inductees
Country Music Hall of Fame inductees
Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame inductees
Major awards
Grammy Awards
Juno Awards
Academy of Country Music
ARIA Awards
(presented in Sydney on September 22, 1997)
Canadian Country Music Association
Country Music Association
RPM Big Country Awards
Further reading
- Whitburn, Joel, "Top Country Songs 1944âÂÂ2005 â 6th Edition." 2005.
Other links
External links