1974 Top Ten: There Won’t Be Anymore (#8)

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Today’s song will make your head spin. Not that I think it’s that great, but it could easily be on the sixty-year-old list as featured here! (No, you won’t see it again next month on the 1964 countdown.) I’ll explain all of that as I celebrate today’s song from 1974. #8: There Won’t Be Anymore - Charlie Rich Many of you with a good music history knowledge know that Charlie Rich was one of the “big” names on Sun Records…just not at the time he was on Sun. The people who were making names for themselves on Sun were Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, and that guy from Mississippi…Pelvis something. Charlie Rich was also signed to Sun at that time, as were Roy Orbison and Carl Perkins. While Rich had a hit or two (“Lonely Weekends”) and was writing hits for others (he wrote Cash’s hit “The Ways of a Woman in Love”), his success was nothing compared to Presley, Cash, or Lewis. Even as Orbison became famous once he left Sun, Rich’s move to other record labels didn’t produce widespread popularity. That is, until “Behind Closed Doors.” By then, Rich was on Epic Records (a good label, because “Behind Closed Doors” was an “epic” record ). As frequently happened then, when a performer became popular their old record labels who couldn’t or wouldn’t promote them suddenly drag songs out of the vaults and try to ride the coattails of the current popularity. Motown, for instance, re-issued the 1971 Stoney & Meatloaf album once Bat Out of Hell became a runaway success in 1978. Rich was on RCA during the 60s, with most of his records released to the sound of one hand clapping. That’s not saying they weren’t good, but they weren’t successful. That includes this song. Rich recorded it in 1964 for an RCA album. Everything about it flopped like a fish. So fast forward to the success of “Behind Closed Doors,” and RCA gets into the vault and finds this gem, and releases it as a single. That time, the ten-year-old song fit perfectly in the “countrypolitan” sound that was popular at the time, and it became a #1 country and top 20 pop hit. By the way, this wasn’t overdubbed or remixed. This is exactly how Chet Atkins produced it in 1964. He obviously had the foresight to see the blends that were coming. There Won’t Be Anymore Written by Charlie Rich Recorded by Charlie Rich Released as a single, 1974 Originally from There Won’t Be Anymore, 1964 And when your heart is breaking: