“It’s Just a Matter of Time”
Sonny James
(The Southern Gentleman)
Written by Brook Benton, Belford Hendricks, and Clyde Otis
Billboard
#1 (4 weeks)
February 4 – March 7, 1970
Sonny James is still best remembered for his early rock and roll era classic “Young Love.” But it’s the Country Music Hall of Fame that he calls home, and he paved his path into those hallowed halls with 26 No. 1 hits, including a record-setting streak of sixteen in a row that started in 1967.
We’re picking up with his tenth consecutive No. 1 hit as we enter the seventies, and it’s a familiar tune to anyone who followed our eighties feature. Whereas Randy Travis really leaned into the R&B roots of the record, Sonny James gives a more conventional, middle of the road country-pop performance of the tune. It works well for his particular style, and he delivers it with an understatement worthy of an artist who was already an elder statesman by this point in his career.
“It’s Just a Matter of Time” gets a B+.
Every No. 1 Single of the Seventies
Previous: Tom T. Hall, “A Week in a Country Jail” |
Sonny James had an interesting career in that his hits ran about 50-50 between original material and covers. His peak period hit-wise began with his second tenure with Capitol Records from 1963-1972. Sonny had a distinctive style and rarely featured steel guitar (and never fiddles)in his recordings, instead using a guitar that sounded like an electric organ (in live performances he would pull out the steel guitar for a few songs).
Sonny’s version was the first one I ever heard of this song – I would discover the Brook Benton original shortly thereafter (later in the year when Sonny covered another Benton song “Endlessly”. I like both versions equally well.
During the mid-1960s Capitol’s Ken Nelson had three acts that could be counted on to top the charts in Buck Owens, Merle Haggard and Sonny James. James had greater appeal to pop and easy listening audiences but never was held by country audiences in the same high regard, possibly because his albums were never that interesting – one or two hit singles plus filler. During Sonny’s hit streak I usually would wait for the “Best of” albums to appear unless I could find the regular albums dirt cheap.
This all changed after Sonny left Capital for Columbia Records in 1972. While he still had some hit records (for a few years he was competing against continued Capitol releases from the vaults) his focus turned to producing good albums. I have most of his Columbia albums and they are a big step up from his Capitol albums.
I agree with Kevin’s B+ rating for this song.
Sonny James really has been forgotten about as a country music legend. I have to wonder if retiring from music in the mid-80s played a part in that. I really like this song, as well as Randy Travis’ version we recently covered. I do think I have to give the nod to the Country Gentleman for the country versions of this classic. Hopefully this series will serve as a point of discovery for some about Sonny James.
Competent consistency seems to be the millstone around James’ legacy and career.
I have a soft spot for James who I tend to lump together with artists like Jim Reeves and Roy Drusky who hang out in that cozy corner of country music where being cool just doesn’t really matter at all.