1972 in Country Music - Events

Events

  • March — For the first time since 1967, Sonny James fails to hit the No. 1 spot on Billboard's Hot Country Singles Chart with a single release. His hit, "Only Love (Can Break a Heart)" stops at No. 2. James' record streak would hold for more than 14 years, until Alabama scored its 17th-straight with "40 Hour Week (For a Livin')" in August 1985. "The Southern Gentleman" will return to the No. 1 spot twice more during 1972 — "That's Why I Love You Like I Do" (a retitled remake of his 1957 hit, "You're the Reason I'm in Love," the lesser-known flip side of "Young Love;" and also his last major hit with Capitol Records); and "When the Snow is on the Roses."
During 1972, James inks a recording deal with Columbia Records; "When the Snow..." is his first hit with his new label.
  • March — Merle Haggard is pardoned by California Gov. Ronald Reagan for his 1957 robbery; which had landed him a prison term that lasted two-and-a-half years.
  • April — The first Fan Fair is held in Nashville, Tennessee.
  • June 3 — The Opryland USA country music theme park opens in Nashville.
  • June 13 — The Country Music Foundation Library and Media Center is dedicated.
  • September — The premiere issue of Country Music magazine hits the newsstand. The magazine, which will be issued monthly (later bi-monthly), is an immediate hit with critics and readers.
  • September 17 — Faron Young -- who has international success with "It's Four in the Morning" - is charged with assault for spanking a girl in the audience at a concert in Clarksburg, West Virginia after claiming she spat on him. Young appeared before a Wood County, West Virginia justice of the peace and was fined $24, plus $11 in court costs. It is the first in a string of incidents involving Young, whose increasingly bizarre behavior would begin overshadowing his success.
  • October — The Country Music Association moves from NBC to CBS, where it remained until 2006 when the awards show moved to ABC. Loretta Lynn becomes the first woman to win the CMA's Entertainer of the Year award.

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