This week in 1983: A U.S. government report stated that infant mortality rates in cities had declined to a record low; eight newsmen were mistaken for rebels and killed in an ambush in Peru; President Ronald Reagan presented a budget that called for a 10% military increase; and a singer from Orlando, Florida, had his 16th hit record.
According to songwriters, a lot of songs come together in just a few minutes while others take much longer to complete. According to John Anderson, his 1983 No. 1, "Swingin' " took quite awhile to complete.
Anderson said, "Lionel Delmore had the idea for that song he only had a couple of lines but that's where the song started. And we worked on the song for a long time we even re-wrote part of the song in the studio during the recording session and still kept wondering if we had it right. But then we decided that you have to stop re-writing at some point so we stopped writing and re-writing and I recorded it."
The first time that John Anderson played the song for record producer Frank Jones, Jones was not that impressed with the tune. But John was determined to record the song.
He recorded "Swingin' " for his "Wild And Blue" album then disc jockeys began playing the song off the album. The song caught on it was released as a single and the rest is country music history.
John Anderson's Warner Bros single "Swingin' " entered the country music charts Jan. 15,1983 and was at the top of the charts on March 26th. It was his 16th charted song and his second No. 1. The single was on the charts for 22 weeks and was also the CMA Single Of The Year.
John Anderson was born in 1954 in Orlando, Florida, and began playing music as a teenager. He moved to Nashville in 1971 and worked in construction in the building of the Grand Ole Opry House before landing a record deal.
He placed 58 songs on the country music charts between 1977 and 2006, including five No. 1s.
He received the CMA Horizon Award and the ACM Career Achievement Award in 1983.
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