1999 in country music: Difference between revisions

This is a list of notable events in country music that took place in the year 1999.

Overview of the events of 1999 in country music

• March 6 — George Jones, in the midst of a comeback this year, is seriously injured when he crashed his Lexus into a bridge. It is later revealed that alcohol was a factor in the accident, and he pleaded guilty to drunk driving charges.
• June — Comedian Jeff Foxworthy debuts his syndicated radio countdown show, “The Foxworthy Countdown.” The radio show would end ten years later.
• September 4 — Lonestar‘s hit, “Amazed“, spends its eighth week at No. 1 on the Billboard magazine Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart, becoming the first song to do so since Jack Greene‘s 1966 hit, “There Goes My Everything.” In several other trade magazines, including Radio & Records, “Amazed” reigns for nine weeks, which made it the longest-lasting Number One single since 1966’s “Almost Persuaded” by David Houston. By year’s end, “Amazed” is gaining popularity on CHR and adult contemporary stations (in re-mixed versions, which excised the steel guitar).
• September 22 – Alan Jackson sings the chorus of George Jones‘ “Choices” in the middle of his performance of “Pop a Top” on the Country Music Association Awards broadcast, after TV producers required that Jones perform an abridged version, in which he refused and boycotted the show. The performance has become one of the best and most memorable moments in CMA history.
• September 28 – Garth Brooks releases In the Life of Chris Gaines, a compilation album of Brooks’ alter ego, fictional Australian rock star Chris Gaines. The album was intended to be the soundtrack to a film called The Lamb, however the film was never filmed, due to financial and management problems. The album received disappointing sales in comparison to Brooks’ other albums.

• February 8 – Lulu Belle (born Myrtle Eleanor Cooper), 85, one-half of the 1930s–1940s husband-and-wife duo Lulu Belle and Scotty, later a state Representative in the North Carolina Legislature.
• September 30 — Connie Eaton, 49, singer of the 1970s (cancer)
• October 2 — Danny Mayo, 49, writer of hit singles by Alabama, Confederate Railroad, Pirates of the Mississippi, and Tracy Byrd, father of songwriter Aimee Mayo (heart attack)
• December 17 — Rex Allen, 78, “The Arizona Cowboy” and traveling rodeo performer.
• December 20 — Hank Snow, 85, “The Singing Ranger,” best known for “I’m Movin’ On.”

• Best Female Country Vocal Performance — “Man! I Feel Like a Woman!“, Shania Twain
• Best Male Country Vocal Performance — “Choices”, George Jones
• Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal — “Ready to Run“, Dixie Chicks
• Best Country Collaboration with Vocals — “After the Gold Rush“, Emmylou Harris, Dolly Parton and Linda Ronstadt
• Best Country Instrumental Performance — “Bob’s Breakdowns”, Tommy Allsup, Asleep at the Wheel, Floyd Domino, Larry Franklin, Vince Gill and Steve Wariner
• Best Country Song — “Come on Over“, Shania Twain and Robert John “Mutt” Lange
• Best Country Album — Fly, Dixie Chicks
• Best Bluegrass Album — Ancient Tones, Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder

(presented in Sydney on October 12, 1999)

Stars who were honored in 1999

Patsy Cline, Freddy Fender, and Charley Pride

• Whitburn, Joel, “Top Country Songs 1944–2005 – 6th Edition.” 2005.