Country music tends to top the sales charts and concert income these days but it wasn't always that way. We think Randy Travis was one of the first country singers to start receiving gold records on a regular basis and then Garth and Shania took it to another level that the superstars of today keep growing. None of that would have happened without the early troubadours who kicked that door open.

On this date back in 1961 a country song became the first in it's genre to receive a gold record for sales of at least half a million copies. He topped the charts and then later in life created the greatest sausage known to man...Jimmy Dean and his big hit "BIg Bad John". Thanks for the memories and the sausage Jimmy.

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