(written by Dallas Frazier and Larry Lee)
Gene Watson (#1, 1982)
From 1975 through 1989, Gene Watson maintained a position as one of
country music’s most consistent hitmakers, taking twenty-one singles
into Billboard’s Top Ten. Surprisingly, only one made it to the top
spot, “Fourteen Carat Mind.”
Watson first heard the song while listening to demo tapes on his tour bus after the rest of the band had gone to sleep. He could easily have overlooked it because it was on an unusual tape configuration. Gene was going through a box of cassettes. He got down to the bottom of the box and there was this one reel-to-reel tape down there. He started to discard it, but then thought, “No, I’ve got to hear what’s on this tape.” Watson hooked up the old antique reel-to-reel recorder and threaded the tape on there (a very cumbersome job in itself), and it was the voice of one of Nashville’s most renowned songwriters, Dallas Frazier, demoing one of his newest creations, “Fourteen Carat Mind.” After the first verse, Gene knew he was going to record it.
Watson was known for years for his “greaser”
hairstyle, but “Fourteen Carat Mind” coincided with a new set of dry
curls and a brand new beard. He displayed his fresh look on the cover of
his “Old Loves Never Die” album, and “Fourteen Carat Mind” was the
first single. It debuted on Billboard’s country singles chart October 3,
1981 and began Gene’s new year in grand fashion, reaching #1 on January
9, 1982.
The guys in Watson’s road band had been badgering him
to let his hair grow out and let his beard grow, and he acknowledged
that this occurred at the same time as his only chart-topping record.
Gene admitted that it was a drastic change in appearance and generated a
lot of conversation, but as far as he was concerned, the simultaneous
new look and the success of “Fourteen Carat Mind” was strictly
coincidental.
Watson is a Lone Star native, and continues to
own residences in Paris, Texas and Palestine, Texas. He made his first
record at the age of sixteen. A small label called Resco Records
released one of Gene’s songs, “Love In The Hot Afternoon” in 1975 and
Capitol picked up the master and distributed it nationally. It became
his first hit, reaching #4 on the Billboard country chart. With that
success, Watson was able to give up his Houston job as an auto-body
repairman. From there, Gene hammered out a long line of traditionally
country-sounding material, most of it landing in the Top Ten, including
“Should I Come Home (Or Should I Go Crazy),” “You’re Out Doing What I’m
Here Doing Without,” “Memories To Burn,” “Don’t Waste It On The Blues,”
“Paper Rosie,” “Pick The Wildwood Flower” and his signature song,
“Farewell Party.” Most of Watson’s fans think this song was a number one
hit, but in reality it peaked at #5.
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