Hit Parade: Friends in Low Places, Part 1

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Music, Tv & Film, Arts

4.2 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 16 November 2020

⏱️ 80 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Hit Parade is back for non-Slate Plus listeners! Upcoming episodes will be split into two parts, released two weeks apart. For the full episode right now, sign up for Slate Plus and you'll also get The Bridge, our Trivia show and bonus deep dive into our subjects. slate.com/hitparadeplus. Today your Hit Parade marches to the week ending October 27th, 1990, when “Friends in Low Places” by Garth Brooks was in its fourth week at No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Country Singles and Tracks, the same week his album No Fences instantly went gold and platinum, affirming that he was country music’s biggest star. Soon enough, Brooks would become —more than any rock star, rapper or pop diva—the archetypal artist of the SoundScan era. On part 1, we explore country music's boom and bust 1970's and 80's before diving into the world that made Garth Brooks megastardom possible. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey there, hit parade listeners, as we recently announced we are thrilled to be bringing our full-length episodes back to non-SLATE Plus listeners.
0:08.8	Starting this fall, non-plus listeners will hear our episodes in two parts. What you're about to hear is part one of this
0:16.7	episode. Part two will arrive in your podcast feed at the end of the month. Would you
0:21.7	like to hear this episode all at once, the day it drops?
0:25.4	Sign up for Slate Plus. It's just $35 for the first year and it supports not only this show, but all of Slate's acclaimed journalism and
0:35.3	podcasts. Just go to slate.com slash hit parade plus. You'll get to hear every
0:42.1	hit parade episode in full the day it arrives.
0:45.3	Plus, hit parade, the bridge, are bonus episodes with guest interviews, deeper dives on
0:51.5	our episode topics, and pop chart trivia.
0:55.0	Once again, to join, that's Slate.com slash Hip Parade Plus.
1:00.0	Thanks.
1:01.0	And now, please enjoy part one of this hit parade episode.
1:07.0	This ain't coming from no profit.
1:11.0	Welcome to hit parade, a podcast of Pop Chart History from Slate magazine, about the hits from
1:17.9	Coast to Coast.
1:18.9	I'm Chris Malamphi, chart analyst, pop critic and Writer of Slates, Why Is This Song Number One series?
1:26.2	On today's show, a couple of weeks after a divisive 20-20 U.S. election, I thought I might play you a little something from the American
1:35.6	culture wars of a generation ago. 28 years ago this gospel-
1:44.1	gospel-flavored country song titled We Shall Be Free was in the top 20
1:50.1	on Billboard's Hot Country singles and Tracks Chart.
1:54.0	It was the lead single from the number one album in the country,
1:58.0	and this song aimed to capture the mood of the times.
	...

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