Billie Jo Spears - Comeback and Peak Years

Comeback and Peak Years

In 1975, Spears signed again with United Artists Records, now the home to some of country music's pop-based acts, like Kenny Rogers. She returned to the charts in 1975 with "Blanket on the Ground". The song had been previously turned down by Nashville producers who feared controversy with the chorus line "slipping around", even though the tune was not about adultery. The expected controversy never materialized, and it became her only number-one song.

In the United Kingdom the song climbed into the top ten of the UK Singles Chart in August 1975, reaching No. 6. Her 1976 country top five record "What I've Got in Mind" proved to be a second major British pop hit for her peaking at No. 4 even though it did not cross over to the American pop charts. Spears had a third British pop hit, albeit a lesser one peaking at No. 34 with "Sing Me an Old Fashioned Song", a track that was just an album cut in the States.

Billie Jo Spears was a steady presence on the American top 20 country charts for the remainder of the 1970s with such hits as "Misty Blue" (a remake of the 1960s Wilma Burgess classic), "'57 Chevrolet," "Love Ain't Gonna Wait For Us," "If You Want Me," and others. 1981's cover version of Tammy Wynette's 1960s hit, "Your Good Girl's Gonna Go Bad," was Spears' last voyage into America's country top 20.