“Slow Hand”
Conway Twitty
Written by John Bettis and Michael Clark
Billboard
#1 (2 weeks)
June 19 – June 26, 1982
Gender swaps can be a tricky thing, especially when you’re changing the perspective from female to male.
Conway Twitty’s cover of the Pointer Sisters hit “Slow Hand” takes the additional difficult step of switching from first to second person. This could have been a disaster in the hands of a lesser artist. With Twitty at the mic, it’s pretty damn spectacular.
He comes off as a guy who knows what a woman desires in the deepest part of her heart. Not only can he articulate it perfectly, he’s going to fully deliver on making every wish of hers come true.
So yes, one of the best country records of 1982 was a disco soul hit only one year earlier, and it fits just as well on country radio as it did on the pop and R&B charts. It’s a classic in both of its forms.
“Slow Hand” gets an A.
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I think Conway is one of the legends that is very underrated. You always here of Haggard and Jones when they talk about the legendary male singers. The fact the he could so easily go from traditional country to pop country so is masterful.
Conway did a great job coving this song! I didn’t know it was a cover until a few years ago. Once I heard The Pointer Sisters OG version it became my go to version. I’d give Conway a B + and The Pointers the A!
This feature has exposed my own unreliable understanding of the chronology of so many of these ’80s’ hits. As a young kid listening to radio at the time, I tended to think of hits by established older artists like Conway, Merle, and Jones as being much older than they actually are.
Thinking back, I would get a better handle on what was contemporary once I started listening to KEEY K102’s weekly countdowns. I would begin doing that around 1984 or so.
I always thought this Twitty hit was from the ’60s or ’70s. This mistaken thought simultaneously exposes my unfamiliarity with the wider world of music beyond the country channel I listened to exclusively.
Conway is a vocal master. I agree with Tom P that Twitty is underappreciated and overlooked today which is strange give how insanely popular and succesful he was throughout his career.
This song is so fun to sing along and strut to today yet; Twitty’s performance is dynamic amd theatrical.