Country’s retro sounds are experiencing a resurgence, with traditional-leaning songs proliferating the charts, and enduring favorites resonating anew with today’s audiences.
Scotty McCreery has seen just how popular generations-old hits continue to be — he recently released a snippet of himself performing a version of Conway Twitty’s signature 1970 hit “Hello Darlin’” on Instagram, and the video quickly earned over 44 million views.
“That was kind of unexpected,” McCreery tells Billboard. “I guess you never really know what’s going to hit. But it’s great to see there’s a hunger and thirst for traditional country music and the throwback sound, all the way back to Conway. It makes me happy, and that’s the music I love to sing.”
In 1970, “Hello Darlin’” became Twitty’s fourth hit to top Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart, spending four weeks at the pinnacle. The title track to Twitty’s 1970 album garnered nominations for both single and song of the year at the CMA Awards that year. In 1999, “Hello Darlin” was added to the Grammy Hall of Fame.
The deep-voiced McCreery has always been known for his ability to do older country songs justice, auditioning for American Idol in 2011 with his rendition of Josh Turner’s 2005 hit, “Your Man.” He went on to win the competition and has long since become a mainstay in country music, earning six No. 1 Billboard Country Airplay hits, becoming a member of the Grand Ole Opry, and being inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame.
McCreery originally recorded a version of “Hello Darlin’” around 2014, for a project that was ultimately never released. But his new version appears on McCreery’s recently released career retrospective album, 15 — alongside a few other cover songs, and previous hits including “This Is It,” “Damn Strait” and “Five More Minutes.” The latter is seeing a surge in interest after it was included in the Apple film The Dink.
McCreery has new music on the way, too; he is writing for his next project and plans to head into the studio next month.
“We’ve been writing for a while now,” McCreery says. “15 kind of gave me a chance to reflect and have a breather from the ‘go, go’ pace of the music business right now. I appreciated my label being on board with that. But we’ve never stopped thinking ahead and getting ready for the next thing. We have a lot of songs in the vault and ready to go. In a couple of weeks, we’ll be putting them down on tape. If [fans have] liked what we’ve done before, they are going to like this project. I’m trying to stay true to who I am and tell the story of where I’m at in my life right now.”
Before he turns his attention fully to looking ahead and new music, McCreery looked back again with Billboard, picking five of his favorite classics to cover.
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Conway Twitty, “Hello Darlin’”
My mama was always playing traditional country music. She loved Conway, she loved Ronnie Milsap. So, I grew up hearing [the song] as a kid. I think that’s why it stuck when I [covered the song at] the Opry years ago. I’ve done it in my shows for a long time, so we thought, “Why don’t we do a little Conway?” I’ve always been a huge Conway fan, so it’s cool to get to put my version of it out there.
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Josh Turner, “Long Black Train”
That is a song I did in church and coffee shops and country music showcases as a kid in Garner, North Carolina. Josh was huge for me growing up and I had all his albums. I was heavily influenced by him.
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Jamey Johnson, “In Color”
Before I ever did American Idol, I did a small-town show called “Clayton Idol,” which was the town next door to ours. “In Color” was the song I sang and ended up winning that competition. I think that’s what gave me the confidence to go do the big “Idol” [competition] the next year.
My favorite verse is when he’s singing about him and his wife and the wedding scene–that line about “just look at that smile, I was so proud.” For me, it’s thinking back to my grandparents and their wedding days and the love they showed, and the example they set for me. I feel like I saw those pictures in their houses growing up, of their wedding days and their memories. So, “In Color” is a story that resonates with me.
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George Strait, “The Chair”
It’s one of my favorite all-time songs. [“The Chair” co-writer] Dean Dillon… I just love the lyrics and writing behind it and the story it tells. “Could I drink you a buy?” Every time I sing [that line], it makes me smile.
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Garth Brooks, “Ain’t Goin’ Down (‘Til The Sun Comes Up)”
We do this in our live show, and we actually speed it up from the way Garth did it. It’s just a crowd-pleaser and gets the energy going every night. We opened for Garth years ago, and I saw the reaction in his show, and I was just like, “Man, why don’t we put that in our show and see how it does?” And obviously it’s a classic, so it crushes every night.
