On This Day in 1963, Buck Owens Was at No. 1 With a Song He Would Later Record With a Former Beatle

June 29, 2026, 4:20pm

On this day (June 29) in 1963, Buck Owens was at No. 1 on the Hot Country Songs chart with “Act Naturally.” It was his first chart-topping single and the beginning of his historic streak of 14 consecutive No. 1s that stretched from 1963 to 1967. Two years later, the Beatles released their version, which narrowly missed the top 40 of the Hot 100. More than two decades later, in 1989, Owens recorded a new rendition of the classic with former Beatle Ringo Starr.

Owens began releasing singles in 1956 with “Down on the Corner of Love,” which failed to chart. His next eight releases saw the same lack of success. Then, in 1959, he found his first top 40 hit with “Second Fiddle.” Then, “Under Your Spell Again” became his first top 10 hit. As the 1960s began, Owens was consistently notching hit singles. However, it would be three more years until he topped the chart with “Act Naturally” and kicked off a years-long string of chart-topping singles.

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Starr’s love of country music led the Beatles to record “Act Naturally” in 1965 for the album Help!. However, it didn’t appear on pressings of the album shipped to the United States. Instead, they released the cover as the B-side to “Yesterday,” which became one of their most iconic songs. While the A-side topped the Hot 100, their version of “Act Naturally” went to No. 47 on the Hot 100. Later, both songs appeared on US pressings of Yesterday and Today.

Buck Owens Teams Up with a Former Beatle

In 1989, Buck Owens traveled to England to team up with Ringo Starr at Abbey Road Studios to record a new version of “Act Naturally.” It became a single from the album of the same name. Backed with Owens’ rendition of “The Key’s in the Mailbox,” the duet reached No. 27 on the country chart. It was Starr’s first time on the country chart. However, he wasn’t the first former member of the Beatles to land there. Paul McCartney and Wings appeared on the chart in the mid-1970s with “Sally G.”

“I’ve loved Buck Owens since the ’60s,” Starr said. “I had recorded that song with the Beatles because it was like, ‘Find something you want to do.’ I also did Carl Perkins–I loved Carl Perkins, too. I was listening to Buck Owens and thought ‘Act Naturally’ was a great song,” he explained. “Buck did the song. I did the song. Then, we did the song. So, that song had legs. Buck was great and a groundbreaker in his own way.