Here’s some trivia for you: Who hosted the 1973 Country Music Awards? If you guessed Johnny Cash, you’re right! Just think about that for a second—how incredible. Country’s biggest night hosted by its most famous face? Sometimes you just don’t know when history is being made right under your nose.
Here below, we wanted to take a closer look at that momentous award show and highlight three winners from the night we still love. Indeed, these are three CMA winners from 1973 that we still can’t get enough of today.
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Roy Clark
Country star Roy Clark was one of those people who touched myriad lives. Not only was he a co-host for the essential country music variety show Hee Haw, but he also released dozens of studio albums, guest-hosted for Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show, and was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. You can’t tell the story of country music without mentioning his name. And in 1973, Clark took home the coveted Entertainer of the Year award at the CMAs, beating out Merle Haggard, Tom T. Hall, Loretta Lynn, and Charley Pride. What a life!
Loretta Lynn
Speaking of Loretta Lynn, she left the 1973 CMAs holding her own trophy, taking home the award for Female Vocalist of the Year. Heck, you could name that award after her if you wanted. Indeed, from 1972 to 1974, Lynn released a whopping nine albums, including several with Conway Twitty. And in 1973, she even released an album called Entertainer of the Year, which included the single “Rated X”, about the negative stigma around divorced women. What an icon.
Statler Brothers
The 1973 CMAs also honored the Statler Brothers, giving the Staunton, Virginia-born group the coveted award for Vocal Group of the Year. They released three albums in 1972—Innerview, Country Music Then and Now, and Country Symphonies in E Major—and followed that up with another in 1973 (Carry Me Back). If you want to hear some vocal harmonies that stick to your ribs, check these fellas out!
Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
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