Monday, June 30, 2025: Daily Dirt
Many other crossover country musicians may have benefited from Billy Ray Cyrus’s prominence. Welcome to The Daily Dirt’s Vol. 1,328, which consists of three thoughts for today.
1. Today we enter round two of our four-day pilgrimage.
We are examining the musicians who had the most successful debut singles throughout a four-decade span, which includes the 1960s through the 1990s.
Today, we’re examining the 1990s, and the most evident finding is how the contemporary country genre influenced pop music during that decade, especially in the first ten years.
The only country song I don’t have at the top is in the group category. The Spice Girls’ brief moment of fame through Wannabe gave them that distinction.(I’ll tell you what I want, what I really, truly want.) The rise of Billy Ray Cyrus in the 1990s, beginning with his 1992 hit song Achy Breaky Heart, was my favorite aspect of the decade.
Too many people, in my opinion, downplayed his influence in the early and mid-1990s. Look at the list of his hits, many of them were played on popular radio stations.
Do you recall:
- Achy Breaky Heart (1992)
- Could ve Been Me (1992)
- She s Not Cryin Anymore (1993)
- In The Heart of a Woman (1993)
- Somebody New (1993)
- Words by Heart (1994)
That Achy Breaky Heart breakthrough hit had the man in a major mood. Singers like Trisha Yearwood, Toby Keith, Brooks & Dunn, Lonestar, and the (Dixie) Chicks all had successful crossover debuts.Britney Spears was the only real pop star to come out in the early part of the decade. At this time, the rapidly growing rap genre seemed poised to overtake the pop side of the music industry. However, that is a tale for another time.
These are our top 1990s debut singles:
1990s
Men
-
Gold medal:
Achy Breaky Heart, Billy Ray Cyrus (1992). In the early 90s, modern country and pop became intertwined, as shown by these three medal-worthy efforts. -
Silver medal:
Should ve Been A Cowboy, Toby Keith (1993). -
Bronze medal:
Brand New Man, Brooks and Dunn (1991).
Women
-
Gold medal:
She s In Love With The Boy, Trisha Yearwood (1991). Female country singers also impacted the pop sound in the early 1990s. -
Silver medal:
Baby One More Time, Britney Spears (1998). -
Bronze medal:
Vision Of Love, Mariah Carey (1990)
Teams
-
Gold medal:
Wannabe, Spice Girls (1996). -
Silver medal:
Tequila Talkin , Lonestar (1995). -
Bronze medal:
I Can Love You Better, Chicks (1997).
Next: Let’s take a look back at the greatest debuts of the 1970s.
2. Did you know (Part 411)
- That more than $700 million worth of aluminum cans are thrown out by Americans each year.
- That the first rap song to win an Academy Award for Best Original Song was Eminem s Lose Yourself.
- That the Titanic wreckage was discovered during a top-secret mission to search for a sunken nuclear submarine.
- That the Apollo missions have left 96 bags of human excrement on the moon.
- That in Singapore, when you turn 21 you are automatically registered as an organ donor.
3. Chew on this, baseball fans:
Jackie Robinson makes his historic Brooklyn Dodgers debut on April 15, 1947.
Hank Aaron made his Major League Baseball debut on April 15, 1954, while playing for the Milwaukee Braves. Aaron consistently stressed before and long after his debut that Robinson would not have been able to play in the top leagues if it weren’t for his experiences.
Today, MLB observes April 15 as Jackie Robinson Day every year. Robinson’s old number 42, which is now permanently retired, is worn by every player on every squad. Since 2004, things have been that way.
Steve’s Daily ThoughtAside from that, Hank Aaron would still have more than 3,000 base hits if you deducted all 755 of his career home runs.
Every day, Steve Eighinger contributes to Muddy River News. The mullet that Billy Ray wore made him envious.
