Favorite BIG #1 HITS Through the Years: 1970 Country

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From one of the best-known songs in popular music I turn to country music in 1970, and again I'm going with one of the most iconic songs in country music. This is one that everyone has at least heard of, if just by name. It's on my 100 favorites list, in the Grammy Hall of Fame, and even in the Library of Congress. And here it is. 1970 (Country): Coal Miner's Daughter - Loretta Lynn A lot of people have only heard this to mock the mispronunciations in the song: "Well, I was born'd a coal miner's daughter"; "Butcher Holler" (it's technically "Butcher Hollow"); "worsh board" instead of "wash board"; and "at night we'd sleep 'cause we were tored" instead of tired. Well, let me tell you dang Yankees who say pahking the cah at Hahvahd Yahd is wicked hahd something: that's the way they talk in eastern Kentucky. And this song is REAL. About as real as you're going to hear. This song, despite the upbeat tempo, tells of the pain of growing up poor in eastern Kentucky (where much of this song would still ring true today for the residents). The dad "worked all night in the Van Lear coal mine," then came home to work the farm to raise the food for the family of ten to eat. Mom was a housewife, scrubbing the clothes on the "worshboard" until her fingers bled because that was the only way to get them clean, and reading the Bible to the children before they went to bed. We think we have it hard when the internet is down for an hour? Yeah, right. Deeply personal and autobiographical (not that many of her other songs weren't), "Coal Miner's Daughter" -- at the time -- was only a "minor" success, going to #1 for only one week. But over the years it has become indelible in the American mind, associated with Loretta Lynn. Unlike "Bridge Over Troubled Water" (the 1970 pop song), people don't dare try to cover this. This is Loretta Lynn's song, because she lived it Coal Miner's Daughter Written by Loretta Lynn Recorded by Loretta Lynn From Coal Miner's Daughter, 1970 #1 for one week Yeah, I'm proud: