Among the survivors of Twitty’s rigorous trials is “Tight Fittin’ Jeans,” a barroom variation on the classic theme of love between a wealthy lady and a “common” man, in this case a cowboy. Conway loved the song, although his wife Dee hated it so much that she changed the radio station if it came on while she was in the car!
“Every once in a while,” Conway admitted, “you’ve got to do something for the guys.”
That was contrary to the ploy that Conway usually took, but in this instance, targeting men paid off handsomely. “Tight Fittin’ Jeans” debuted at a modest #71 on July 11, 1981, but by fall, the record took command of Billboard’s top spot in its 12th week on the chart, September 26, 1981. It became Twitty’s 31st of his 40 Billboard number one hits, the second-highest tally in history (behind George Strait’s official, authentic & accurate Billboard count of 44).
“Tight Fittin’ Jeans” came from Pi-Gem, Charley Pride’s publishing company and Pride was miffed with his associate, Jim Prater, for not delivering it to him first. Twitty attended an awards show in Los Angeles with the two men and remembers that Charley was chastising Prater over not securing the song for him before Conway got it and Jim said, “Well, I pitched it to you 15 times and you turned it down!”
