“Above and Beyond”
Rodney Crowell
Written by Harlan Howard
Radio & Records
#1 (2 weeks)
August 25 – September 1, 1989
Billboard
#1 (1 week)
September 23, 1989
When “After All This Time” went to No. 1 earlier in 1989, Rodney Crowell became the first artist in history to sing, write, and produce four No. 1 hits from the same country album.
Unsatisfied with one historical marker, Crowell released “Above and Beyond,” a Buck Owens cover, which made Crowell the first artist in history to produce five No. 1 country hits from the same album.
It’s worth noting here that those five No. 1 singles encompass all of Crowell’s No. 1 hits as a singer, but he’d go on to write No. 1 hits for Tim McGraw and Keith Urban. The quality of his material never wavered. Indeed, “Many a Long and Lonesome Highway” and “Things I Wish I’d Said” were every bit as poignant as “After All This Time,” despite not repeating that classic hit’s success on radio and the awards circuit.
So we’re left with talking about “Above and Beyond” as our final coverage of Rodney Crowell as an artist, and that feels a bit anticlimactic. He sings it wonderfully, and the backing band’s performance is as good as Nashville session musicianship gets. It gives a classic hit a modern makeover that smooths out enough of the twangy edges to make it more palatable to late eighties audiences.
But at the end of the day, it’s just a Buck Owens cover. I implore you to listen to the rest of his catalog, including brilliant later singles like “What Kind of Love” and “Earthbound.” A few artists have been clever enough to cover some of his later material, but so much is still waiting to have a shot at country radio through being rediscovered by a current artist. How the late Toby Keith missed “It’s Hard to Kiss the Lips at Night That Chew Your Ass Out All Day Long” is a mystery to me. Chris Stapleton, it’s there for the taking!
“Above and Beyond” gets a B+.
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You are correct – Crowell continued to issue impressive material over the years. His next album KEYS TO THE HIGHWAY produced two top ten singles (“Many a Long & Lonesome Highway” and “If Looks Could Kill” that went #1 in several markets – the former went to #1 on the Canadian A/C charts) and there were some scattered top ten records over the next few years, but my impression was that after conquering the singles chart, Rodney turned his focus, very successfully, onto making quality albums. I have a bunch of his subsequent albums, including two outstanding collaborations with Emmylou Harris that I pull out frequently. Yes, I love the DIAMONDS AND DIRT album with its five #1 singles but there is so much more to Crowell that I implore listeners to check much deeper into his catalogue
I had no idea until reading this review that this song was an old Buck Owens record. Rodney sure made it his own with production consistent with the hits of the late 80s and for the rest of “Diamonds and Dirt”. This song wasn’t in the same league as the previous four hits from the album but it was a very enjoyable listen with solid production and a bouncy work, fully worthy of becoming a #1. Just as it was unthinkable in the summer of 1989 that his wife Rosanne Cash had just had her final #1 hit, it would have been equally as unbelievable at this juncture to be told that Rodney’s time at the top of the charts was over too. I was a fan for life though and continued to consume his remaining radio hits and what came after. I just listened to his “Fate’s Right Hand” CD a couple of months ago. He got a nice assist from CMT with “Earthbound” even if radio ignored it.
Grade: B+
I implore you to listen to the rest of his catalog
Yes! I have long been of the opinion that Crowell’s best work as an artist by and large came after his success as a mainstream artist came and went, starting with 2001’s The Houston Kid.
Even with that, though, ”Many A Long and Lonesome Highway” remains my favorite single he has ever released.
I will go to bat for his continued attempts at mainstream success with albums like “Life is Messy,” “Let the Picture Paint Itself,” and “Jewel of the South.” The latter two produced by Tony Brown. These albums contained “What Kind of Love,” “Lovin’ All Night,” “I Don’t Fall in Love So Easy,” and “Jewel of the South.”
As for this Buck Owens cover, I will beat the drum again for the importance of putting country music’s past in front of the faces of a new generation of listeners.
Rather than being just album fillers, the choice to record classic songs locates country music within a continuum. As Crowell would later write and sing, his past is present.
Thank you, Rodney Crowell, for this unexpected flashpoint of success and artistry at at the top of the charts in the late ’80s.
This makes me think of examples of number one country songs that were written by a singer/songwriter but were recorded by another country artist.
Hello Walls was written by Willie Nelson but Faren Young took it to the top. Eddie Rabbit wrote Ronnie Milsap’s #1 Pure Love. Johnny Cash wrote daughter Rosanne’s Tennessee Flattop Box. And of course, Crowell wrote Crystal Gayle’s Till I Gain Control Again.
Were there other examples?
Dolly Parton wrote Merle Haggard’s “Kentucky Gambler.”
Well, it barely missed No. 1 (topping out at No. 3), but Johnny Psycheck wrote the George Jones hit ”Once You’ve Had the Best” under the name Donny Young.
Speaking of Merle and songs penned by other artists, although they weren’t released as singles, he also did great renditions of Cash’s ”Folsom Prison Blues,” Mel Tillis’ ”I Could Have Gone Right,” and another Dolly Parton-penned song, ”In The Good Old Days (When Times Were Bad).”
(As an aside, and I imagine Kevin would agree, Dolly’s own versions of ”Kentucky Gambler” and ”In The Good Old Days (When Times Were Bad)” are NOT to be missed.)
Anyhow, I’ll stop now. Heh.
Dolly would’ve been the most successful Music Row songwriter of all time if she hadn’t also wanted to sing her songs. Definitely the greatest singer-songwriter in country music history. Haggard is one of the only ones who could be mentioned in the same breath, so I’m not surprised that he recorded multiple songs of hers. I also prefer the Parton originals of those two songs. Outside of Whitney’s “I Will Always Love You” and the best moments of the Just Because I’m a Woman tribute album, I usually do prefer the Parton originals.
“I Will Always Love You”
Another question — if you had to pick between the two versions Dolly recorded, in 1974 and 1982, which one would it be?
(For the record, I far prefer the 1974 recording.)
1974 in a landslide, though I heard the 1982 version first!
And I can’t believe I forgot to list Help Me Make It Through The Night written by Kris Kristofferson but taken to #1 by Sammi Smith.
“Dolly would’ve been the most successful Music Row songwriter of all time if she hadn’t also wanted to sing her songs. Definitely the greatest singer-songwriter in country music history”
Usually you are pretty on target with what you say but in this case what you said was ridiculous. Suppose I had said “Haggard would’ve been the most successful Music Row songwriter of all time if he hadn’t also wanted to sing his songs. Definitely the greatest singer-songwriter in country music history”
Ooops – the Hag did record his own songs, hundreds of them and many artists covered his songs. I couldn’t tell you how many times songs like “Silver Wings”, “Today I Started Loving You Again”, “Mama Tried”, “Rambling Fever” and “The Bottle Let Me Down” were covered. I agree that Dolly was a talented singer-songwriter but she wasn’t in a league with Hank Williams Sr. or Merle Haggard. Hank was more thoroughly grounded in the blues and Hag had a broader historical perspective than Dolly. I’m not going to knock specific songs of hers (there are some that make me cringe) – I will leave it that Dolly was a talented songwriter. Both were willing and able to select outside material but no one forced either of them into doing it. I do find it amusing that Dolly’s one tribute album was devoted to the songs of Porter Wagoner. Porter was a fine artist but not in the league of Emmett Miller, Jimmie Rodgers, Bob Wills or Lefty Frizzell, artists to whom Hag paid tribute.
Dolly Parton would’ve been the most successful Music Row songwriter of all time because of her ability to run the gamut between songs tailored for the country market and those for the larger pop market.
This isn’t a hypothetical. We have actual evidence to look at. Haggard is arguably the greatest country songwriter of all time. His songs have shown limited ability to travel beyond the country genre and have a large commercial impact.
If Dolly Parton had only written “I Will Always Love You,” “Jolene,” and “9 to 5,” she’d have gone down as one of the most successful songwriters of all time. If she was a Music Row songwriter putting all of her energy into writing songs for other artists? Her potential output flat out terrifies me.
Parton’s ambition is tied directly to her work ethic, which is tied directly to her output. Her talent makes her one of the best by default, and she makes up the rest of the ground with elbow grease and grit. She’s never been restrained by “don’t get above your raising” or “you can’t do that and be country” or most especially “that’ll make money but it’s in pretty bad taste.”
So no, not ridiculous to say Parton would be the most successful Music Row songwriter of all time if she wasn’t an artist herself. I’d say it’s closer to ridiculous to suggest it would be anyone else. Even Willie needed to do covers for most of his big pop hits.
I absolutely believe Dolly would be a contender for best singer-songwriter in the history of the genre. Once you get to the Top 5 it really goes somewhat to personal taste. Dolly has written at least 4 masterpieces that no one can argue with. But I would argue those 4 are not her best. A deep dive would give you songs like “Down From Dover”, In The Good Old Days, “The Bargain Store” and literally dozens more. For short periods of time I would agree and give the edge to Hank Sr and Kristofferson, but when you look a longer timeframes I think Dolly would best Haggard. Honestly, though, it really isn’t a competition. All those mentioned are amazing. I do find Dolly’s tribute album to Porter to be ridiculous. I love Porter but he is not in the list of greatest songwriters at all.