On This Day in 1976, Waylon Jennings Released His Second No. 1 Album, ‘Are You Ready for the Country’

On this day (August 14) in 1976, Waylon Jennings released Are You Ready for the Country. The album went to No. 1 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart. The album saw Jennings putting his stamp on classic rock songs including the title track and “Can’t You See.”

When Are You Ready for the Country hit record store shelves, Jennings was on a hot streak. This Time (1974) and The Ramblin’ Man (1974) had been top 5 hit albums. Dreaming My Dreams (1975) gave Hoss his first No. 1 album. It was also the first of four consecutive chart-topping albums.

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The hot streak would continue into the ‘80s. His next six albums after Are You Ready for the Country were top 10 hits. Three of those—Ol’ Waylon, I’ve Always Been Crazy, and Music Man—were No. 1 records.

Are You Ready for the Country also dropped at what some would consider the height of the Outlaw Country movement. Wanted: The Outlaws, the collaboration album featuring Jennings, Jessi Colter, Willie Nelson, and Tompall Glaser came out earlier in the year. It was the first country album to sell a million copies.

Waylon Jennings Notches His Second No. 1 Album

Ken Mansfield and Waylon Jennings co-produced Are You Ready for the Country at Sounds Lab in Hollywood, California. The album went to No. 1 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart. It also landed at No. 34 on the all-genre Billboard 200 albums chart.

The album produced two singles, the title track and “Can’t You See.” Both were covers. The former was originally recorded by Neil Young and the latter was hit for the Marshall Tucker Band. “Can’t You See” landed at No. 4 on the Hot Country Songs chart and No. 97 on the Hot 100 survey. The title track peaked at No. 7 on the country chart.

Jennings won his first Grammy Award in 1969 for his version of “MacArthur Park” featuring The Kimberlys. He re-recorded the song for this album with Graham Nash providing backing vocals. The new version of the song didn’t see the success of the earlier version. However, the album brought him the Grammy nomination for Best Country Album.

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