Tom T. Hall

Long, long ago, a record didn't just reach the No. 1 spot - it resided there, sometimes for months. Songs That Topped the Charts captures the biggest country hits, many of which also became significant pop singles. Check out Leroy Van Dyke's Walk On By (19 weeks at No. 1); Stonewall Jackson's Waterloo; and the Browns' The Three Bells, a country and pop chart-topper. They don't cut 'em like that anymore.

Music City News was founded in 1963, by country music singer Faron Young. In 1967, the publication began to confer annual awards; in 1978, it began televising them, with the inclusion of artist performances. These awards were not decided by a secretive, politically motivated committee or by an "association," but by fan nominations. Each installment of the Country Legends Live series highlights performances from particular annual awards shows. Country Legends Live, Vol. 1 offers a "best of" the 1978 and 1979 Music City News Awards Shows. Featured artists in this installment include Mel Tillis, Tom T. Hall, Jim Ed Brown & Helen Cornelius, Archie Campbell, The Kendalls, The Statler Brothers, The Gatlin Brothers, Barbara Mandrell, Moe Bandy & Joe Stampley, Mickey Gilley, Loretta Lynn, Eddie Rabbitt, Conway Twitty, Jerry Clower, and Dave & Sugar.

Charled Dicken's tale A Christmas Carol takes a contemporary jolt in this original musical set in modern-day Tennessee. Cyrus Flint is a mean old banker whose one and only concern is the welfare of Flint City Bank. Dennis and Laura Pritchett are two parents struggling to make enough money to pay for an operation their son needs. Flint is organizing a songwriting and singing contest with a $2000 first prize to promote his bank.

For the 1979 broadcast, Cash's annual CBS Christmas special returns to Nashville after taping the previous year's program in Los Angeles. This time he features his father, Ray Cash, and older brother Roy Cash in a visit to the small home in Dyess, Arkansas, where Johnny and his siblings were raised. Guests include Canadian pop and country star Anne Murray ("You Needed Me"), who was enjoying the most successful period of her career, and country music's Tom T. Hall, whom Cash introduces as "my very favorite songwriter" before Cash and Hall launch into a medley of Hall's hits "Old Dogs, Children And Watermelon Wine," "The Year That Clayton Delaney Died," "I Love" and "Country Is." The show's comic foil is the late Andy Kaufman, who appears as his character Latka Gravas from the hit network show Taxi.