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It Couldn’t Have Been Any Better
Though perhaps little remembered today, the country music duo of Johnny Duncan and Janie Fricke were a staple of late 1970s and early 1980s country radio. It was then, as a kid growing up in the great West Texas city of El Paso, that I developed an appreciation for that particular musical genre which would never abate.
The ballads of Duncan and Fricke were often a bit on the seamy side, so I didn’t truly begin to understand what they were singing about until my teenage years, but when I did, I appreciated them even more.
Here they are performing “It Couldn’t Have Been Any Better” on a 1977 episode of Pop! Goes the Country:
Today, forty years later, their infectious joy still shines through their music. It can’t help but put me in a good mood while feeling down.
Regrettably, Johnny Duncan is no longer with us, having passed away in 2006 after a bout with cancer. Janie Fricke, however, is still performing at 69 years young.
Perhaps we all have idealized remembrances of our youth, when life seemed simpler, happier, and free from the day-to-day drudgery and stresses of adulthood. Are there any songs that take you back?
Published in Culture
I college, if you went to a boyfriend’s apartment and he played some Barry White, you knew his plans.
I grew up under the tower of KWKH and my dad singing along to all his favorites from the Louisiana Hayride. In his later years, my dad actually cut CDs singing his favorites: “Indian Love Call” and “Cattle Call” – Slim Whitman. (As a kid, his yodeling drove me crazy!!)
My dad died three years ago and those CDs are treasures.
-DP
Seeing the title, I thought your post would be about Mr Trump’s presser yesterday.
Lol, you knew his plans regardless of apartments and Barry White.
Janie Fricke’s pure voice was the voice many male country singers at that time wanted to accompany them. Example: Janie Fricke and Vern Gosdin – just google it.
Patsy Cline still floats my boat big time. While Leavin’ on Your Mind isn’t even close to being her most popular song, it’s my favorite. It’s a great sad break-up song.
And no one has a purer voice than the immortal Patsy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e10MTBwIVss
I love that song, and have ever since it hit the charts when I was 16 years old (1967).
And I’ve has a crush on Linda Ronstadt ever since.
Johnny Duncan had a seduction song of his own. Much better than the Johnny Rivers version, I think.
Back in my jingle-writing days in the mid-1980s, I had the privilege of recording Janie Fricke as the soloist for a radio commercial for Tuesday Morning stores. She was a pleasure to work with and very professional in the studio.
I grew up listening to Knoxville radio and TV in the late 50’s and 60’s. Dolly was THE performer. From 1963: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8CRe1LfKxI
Great song, great video, great post!
There are so many songs that take me back, I couldn’t even begin to list them. And I sure as heck can’t tell you why I remember them fondly! (got wife and one daughter one Ricochet)
However, I will remark that I’m stunned you made a post, much less the main feed, without a Texas Tech cheerleader picture . . .
“You had to face your ends when young,
‘Twas wine, or women, or some curse;
Yet never wrote a poorer song
That you might have a heavier purse.
Nor gave loud service to a cause
That you might have a troop of friends.
You kept the Muse’s sterner laws,
And unrepentant faced your ends.”
–Yeats, from”The Grey Rock”
Consider that oversight corrected!
Beautiful.