Catalog Number(s):
AFL1-0344 (Stereo LP)

Released: October 29, 1973
Peaked: #17 Billboard country chart.

Recorded: July 30, 1973 at RCA Victor Studio, Nashville, TN
Producer: Billy Davis
Recording Engineers: Bill Vandevort & Al Pachucki
Recording Technicians: Mike Shockley & David Roys

Musicians:
Chip Young & Dale Sellers — Guitar
Weldon Myrick — Steel Guitar
Jerry Shook & Steve Wariner — Bass
David Briggs & Hargus Robbins — Piano
Buddy Spicher — Fiddle
Vocal Accompaniment: *The Nashville Edition & +Marie F. Cain

Cover Photo furnished through the courtesy of Coca-Cola;
Album cover design by Acy Lehman.

Singles Released From Album:
APBO-0072 Country Sunshine / Wish I Didn’t Love You – 21-08-73

Side One:
1. My Mind’s Gone To Memphis* (Larry Gatlin)
2. You Take Me Home, Honey+ (Sandy Mason Theoret – Bill Backer)
3. We Had It All* (Troy Seals – Donnie Fritts)
4. My Love* (Paul McCartney)
5. Desperado* (Don Henley – Glenn Frey)

Side Two:
6. Jesse* (Janie Ian)
7. The Lady* (Red Lane – Dottie West)
8. Country Sunshine* (Dottie West – Billy Davis)
9. Help Me (Larry Gatlin)
10. It’s Been A Long Time Since Atlanta* (Glen Wheetley – Marty Kristian – Billy Davis)

Reviews

Poster ADS

Liner Notes

A Package of “Country Sunshine” for Everyone

How do you talk about something you’re close to…and try to keep from showing you’re biased? I personally feel that Dottie West is the finest girl singer in the business…both in and out of country music. But the task at hand is to try to sum up, in not near enough space, how this album happened to come about, and my friend, it ain’t easy. I’ll take up at present and go back. This album comes to you the result of three years of friendship between Dottie West and Billy Davis of McCann-Erickson…a lot of hours of writing…a lot of frustration…of not coming up with the right lines…and a lot of sitting in a room at Roger Miller’s King of the Road Motor Inn in Nashville, writing and not saying much of anything to anybody…and Dottie looking up at Billy and saying, “I just gotta find something that rhymes and goes right with ‘Wadin’ in the Creek'”. All those hours and stagnant periods of creativity ended and I don’t have to tell you too much about the Coca-Cola jingle “Country Sunshine”…it’s been the talk of the country for over a year. The commercial was written by Dottie and Billy and was made into a song by them and taken to Jerry Bradley, director of Nashville operations for RCA. As is pretty obvious, he liked what he heard and it was released as a single record. Country Sunshine became one of those songs that brings the atmosphere it talks about to the hearts and minds of all those who just dream of getting there. And Dottie West, “The Country Girl,” brought it home. There are lots of reasons for recording and releasing any album, but the reason for this one has lots of beginnings and hopefully, no endings. Again, hours of searching for just the right material that would suit everyone for a “Country Sunshine” album. Every song had to have its own special sunbeams, for the listeners and for the performer. I watched Dottie through rehearsals. She listened and learned the material. And then into the studio…there were lots of musicians and Billy Davis was producing this special sunbeam. Dottie’s in a pair of denim levi’s and it’s late, late at night. Byron, her husband and drummer on the session, is there…Billy Davis, her producer…and the engineers at the board. She comes into the control booth from the studio, runs her hands through her hair and looks up and says, “Friends, I’m gonna get it the next time,” and she does. At last, the final special beam of sunshine comes through and Billy Davis looks up and says, “That’s just perfect, come listen.” And, it’s all finished. Now you’ve got songs such as Desperado, My Mind’s Gone to Memphis, It’s Been a Long Time Since Atlanta and You Take Me Home, Honey…and that’s just a few of the songs that are in this neatly wrapped package of “Country Sunshine.”

GAYLE HILL