“Backside Of Thirty” needed two individual attempts to attain hit status. Conlee secured his recording contract with ABC Records in 1976 through Dick Kent, a disc jockey at WLAC-FM in Nashville, where Conlee was working in the same capacity. Kent introduced John to ABC executive Jim Fogelsong, who signed him and released three singles by July of 1977, however none of them charted. “Backside Of Thirty” was one of these. Then at last, the fourth single, “Rose Colored Glasses” broke through in May of ’78 and reached #5.
The follow-up in November, “Lady Lay Down,” finally brought Conlee to #1. After the first chart-topper, in an extremely rare move, ABC Records decided to re-issue “Backside Of Thirty” (which had completely stiffed before), but this time it soared all the way to the summit of Billboard’s country singles chart on May 5, 1979, marking John’s second of seven career number one hits.
A couple of significant events were tied to “Backside Of Thirty.” MCA Records absorbed ABC Records on March 5, 1979, two days after Conlee’s single entered the chart. His was the last ABC release to hit number one. That same week the Academy of Country Music named him “Best New Male Artist.” John continued to chart in the high numbers consistently after that, although in the interim, the number one spot eluded him for over four years.
He came really close on occasion, landing at #2 four times with “Before My Time,” “Friday Night Blues,” “She Can’t Say That Anymore” and “Miss Emily’s Picture.” Each one of these stayed at #2 for two weeks, but didn’t quite have enough power to reach the summit. It wasn’t until May 21, 1983 when “Common Man” brought John Conlee back to the top.
