S.O.D. "Young Love" by Sonny James

3/5/2016     Yes that's right it's another tribute.  This wonderful country/pop music singer songwriter/guitarist and vocalist passed on to Music Heaven on February 22.  One of his most amazing accomplishments and the only artist to do so, was achieving a five year streak of 16 consecutive Billboard #1 singles.  All together he charted a staggering 26 #1 hits with this song from 1957, arguably his most well known.  

     For 1957 it was the #8 song of the year as ranked by Billboard and held the #1 spot for nine weeks on the Country Music chart.  The song landed on 4 other U.S. charts all in the Top 10.  The hit single, written by Rick Cartey and Carole Joyner became the first country crossover single, topping the U.S. pop and country charts.  

     As you can imagine James received many awards and accolades with one of the most impressive coming in 1971 when the crew of Apollo 14 took his music into space in the form of a special recording that James made just for the occasion. The astronauts later awarded him with one of the American flags they carried to the Moon.