"Heaven's Just a Sin Away," The Kendalls (1977)

Is this song pretty or creepy?

Peak: #1 on the country chart (#69 on the Hot 100)
Streams: 8.2 million

You may recall that in the late 60s, Frank and Nancy Sinatra hit #1 with the song “Somethin’ Stupid.” The tune is perfectly pleasant in its lounge lizard, sprechstimme- way, but it’s also a little creepy, since it’s a love song performed by a father and daughter. However, since it’s been streamed over 200 million times, it seems we’ve agreement not to care.

Similarly, The Kendalls were a father-daughter duo who mostly sang love songs, and it didn’t stop them from scoring 11 top-ten hits on country radio in the 70s and early 80s. Presumably, their audience understood that Royce (the dad) and Jeannie (the daughter) were telling fictional stories through their songs, not recounting their actual lives.

This interests me because there are so many examples of audiences who insist that pop stars must be singing about themselves, and of course there are countless pop stars who want their audience to believe that’s true. This creates a sense of closeness between the listener and the artist — a sense that the songs are personal messages being delivered into our ears. Yet The Kendalls built their career on the opposite notion. In order for their music to work, they needed us to assume they weren’t speaking their personal truths.