"Paradise Tonight," Charly McClain and Mickey Gilley (1983)

A sunny blast from the "Urban Cowboy" era

Peak: #1 on the country chart
Streams: 1.3 million

As I write this, we’re in the midst of a country music boom on the pop charts. Morgan Wallen is #1 on the Hot 100 with “Last Night,” and Luke Combs is at #2 with his excellent remake of “Fast Car.” And they didn’t even have to make pop records to get there, like Maren Morris did when she briefly jumped into the electronic dance music scene with “The Middle.” Wallen and Combs are dominating the pop and country charts with the same songs. Just a few years ago, that would’ve been unthinkable.

It’s a cyclical thing, of course. Shania Twain, Faith Hill, and even Lonestar were pop music heavyweights in the late 90 and early 2000s. For much of the 70s, easy listening and country were often indistinguishable. This sparked controversy (and occasional fires) when folks like Olivia Newton-John and John Denver started winning country music awards, but it didn’t stop people from listening.

However, the most obvious cultural shorthand for “country crossover” is the movie Urban Cowboy. That film made the entire honky tonk scene into a trend, and it helped cement the “countrypolitan” sound that Juice Newton, Dolly Parton, Kenny Rogers, and even Willie Nelson embraced for a while.

Because I am a human being, I love a lot of those countrypolitan hits. “Queen of Hearts”? Damn right. “Always On My Mind”? Yes, please. And if you’d like to hear me wax poetic about “Elvira,” just check out the latest season of my podcast Mark and Sarah Talk About Songs.

Thus, you can imagine my joy when I recently discovered the song “Paradise Tonight” by Charly McClain and Mickey Gilley. I had never heard it before, but in the last few weeks, I’ve listened to it at least a dozen times.