The Bellamy Brothers’ success continued to roll forward in 1980, as they scored two straight number one hits, “Sugar Daddy” and “Dancin’ Cowboys.” They earned a Grammy nomination for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group and the CMA named them the Most Promising Group of the Year. Throughout 1980 and 1981, the group continued to rack up the hits, including “Do You Love as Good as You Look” and “They Could Put Me in Jail.”
For the next six years, the brothers were at their peak, both popularly and artistically, scoring a number of hit singles that showcased their continuing musical development as well as their increasing lyrical sophistication, as indicated by the Vietnam vet anthem “Old Hippie” and “Kids of the Baby Boom.”
By the turn of the decade, their audience had begun to shrink, leading the duo to switch record labels to Atlantic. After one album with Atlantic, 1991’s Rollin’ Thunder, the Bellamys left the label, founding their own record company, Bellamy Brothers Records. The Latest and the Greatest (1992) was the first album released on the label.
Although the independent record label meant that the group wasn’t charting as frequently as it used to, that was also a reflection of the shift of the country audience’s taste. The duo could still have minor hits, like the Top 25 “Cowboy Beat,” which proved that the Bellamy Brothers continued to hold on to a dedicated group of fans in their second decade of performing. Reggae Cowboys followed in 1998, and a year later the duo resurfaced with Lonely Planet.
