Dissecting "I Was Country When Country Wasn't Cool" by Barbara Mandrell (featuring George Jones) - 1981

1981 takes us to a time when reigning Entertainer of the Year Barbara Mandrell needed to remind us that she had stayed true to her roots. And if you don't believe her, just ask guest vocalist George Jones, as he supports Mandrell in one of her signature hits: "I Was Country When Country Wasn't Cool". We know this refrain, don't we?, in a genre that is constantly pitting itself against the "evil" forces of Top 40. But was Barbara Mandrell country? Or was country Barbara Mandrell? And what does this song's supremely laid back feel tell us about the way this overall battle was situated in 1981?