Hit written in midair
This week in 1970: on Wall Street, stocks fell 20 points to a seven-year low; a five-day march against racism ended in Atlanta, Ga., and a singer from Elkhart, Ind. had her 19th hit record.
Several hit songs were written on a irp lanes and according to Bill Anderson— Connie Smith’s 1970 hit “I Never Once Stopped Loving You” was one of those tunes.
Bill commented, “We were flying home from Asheville, N.C. A fraternity brother of mine from college had a private plane and this was back in the days when Conway Twitty still lived in Oklahoma City and was traveling in a private plane. We ended the tour in Asheville, N.C., and we were coming back to Nashville and Conway was flying home to Oklahoma City. I had this lyric idea and I took my guitar out of the case and started strumming it. And Jan Howard started coming up with the melody. And we looked out the window and we were flying really close to Conway’s plane. So I called him on the radio and told him we were writing a song over here and to listen to it and see if he thought it was any good. So Jan Howard sang Conway that song on the radio from our airplane to his airplane. And when we got through, Conway said he was going to record that. And he did record it—but before he did, Connie Smith cut it and had a big hit on it. But the first time that song was sung, it was about 20,000 feet over the Smoky Mountains.”
Connie Smith’s RCA Victor single “I Never Once Stopped Loving You” entered the country music charts May 16th, 1970 and peaked at No. 5.
It was her 19th charted song and was on the charts for 16 weeks.
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