Download Free The Oak Ridge Boys Songs

The Oak Ridge Boys music biography continued...

in Knoxville, Tennessee, began performing country and gospel music in nearby Oak Ridge where the atomic bomb was being developed. They called themselves the Oak Ridge Quartet, and they began regular Grand Ole Opry appearances in the fall of 1945. By the mid-'60s, they were featured in Time magazine as one of the top gospel groups in the nation. In the late '60s, with more than 30 members having come and gone, they had their classic lineup of Duane Allen, William Lee Golden, Noel Fox and Willie Wynn. They won their first Grammy in 1970 for "Talk About the Good Times." Fox and Wynn were replaced by Richard Sterban and Philadelphia native Joe Bonsall in 1972 and 1973, respectively, and this lineup would remain intact for the next decade and a half. The group's big breakthrough would come in 1977 with "Y'all Come Back Saloon," the title song from their Columbia label debut, which peaked at #5. The follow-up, "You're the One," reached number two, and their next album, 1978's Room Service, gave them their first number one hit in "I'll Be True to You." Established as country hitmakers, the Oak Ridge Boys embarked on a run of chart success that would last through the '80s, most notably with "Elvira," a Grammy-winning crossover smash that hit number one on the country charts and the Top Five on the pop charts, as well as such other crossover hits as "American Made," "Everyday" and "I Guess It Never Hurts to Hurt Sometimes."



The Oak Ridge Boys' sales began wither in the latter half of the '80s, but they still produced big hits with regularity. They hit number one in 1987 ("It Takes a Little Rain," "This Crazy Love"), 1988 ("Gonna Take a Lot of River"), and 1990 ("No Matter How High"), giving them a total of 16 country chart-toppers and 29 Top Ten hits. By this time, however, the group's classic lineup had split up and their label, MCA, abandoned them due to weak sales. After two decades of personal strife, the group, with its classic 1970s lineup of Sterban, Bonsall, Golden, and Allen, released a new studio album, The Boys Are Back, in 2009. To long-time fans it felt like they had never left.