1965 in country music.html

Events

January - Leo Fender, founder of Fender Guitars, sells his company to a subsidiary of Columbia Records for $13 million.
February 17 – "The Tennessee Waltz" is declared the state song of Tennessee.
October - Country Music Association president Tex Ritter awards Leo Fender the President's Award for "outstanding contributions to the sound of country music."
October 5 - Johnny Cash is arrested in El Paso, Texas on federal drug charges. He pleads guilty and is given a 30-day suspended sentence and fined $1,000.^{citation needed}
December - George Jones, his agent and band members are held for questioning in connection with a Houston, Texas murder investigation.^{citation needed} Lie detector tests clear them all.^{citation needed}

Rock singer Conway Twitty makes his county music debut. His first few country singles and albums were met with "some" country DJs refusing to play them because he was a well known rock-n-roll singer.^{citation needed}
Johnny Cash is banned from the Grand Ole Opry after an infamous concert where - in a drug-induced haze - he used a microphone to smash the floodlights.^{citation needed} He also walked offstage in the middle of a song.^{citation needed}
The Vietnam War, which by now was making daily headlines, brings about the second wave of patriotic-themed songs. One of the first big songs was Johnnie Wright's "Hello Vietnam," a No. 1 hit in October. Late in the year, Dave Dudley records and releases "What We're Fighting For," an early response to the growing number of anti-Vietnam War protests.

The trend continues through the rest of the 1960s and early 1970s, with songs such as "Distant Drums" by Jim Reeves; "Ballad of the Green Berets" by Staff Sgt. Barry Sadler; "Dear Uncle Sam" by Loretta Lynn; and others. By the late 1960s, the tone of the songs became darker, most notably the Mel Tillis-penned "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love To Town" (first a hit for Johnny Darrell, but more famously in 1969 by Kenny Rogers and the First Edition).

(As certified by Billboard magazine)

"This is It" by Jim Reeves returns to No. 1 on May 29

June 5 - "What's He Doing In My World" - Eddy Arnold
June 19 - "Ribbon of Darkness" (Gordon Lightfoot) - Marty Robbins
June 26 - "Before You Go" - Buck Owens
August 7 - "The First Thing Ev'ry Morning (and the Last Thing Ev'ry Night)" - Jimmy Dean
August 21 - "Yes, Mr. Peters" - Roy Drusky and Priscilla Mitchell
September 4 - "The Bridge Washed Out" - Warner Mack
September 11 - "Is it Really Over" - Jim Reeves
October 2 - "Only You (Can Break My Heart)" - Buck Owens
October 9 - "Behind the Tear" - Sonny James
October 23 - "Hello Vietnam" - Johnnie Wright

"Behind the Tear" by Sonny James returns to No. 1 on November 13

November 20 - "May the Bird of Paradise Fly Up Your Nose" - Little Jimmy Dickens
December 4 - "Make the World Go Away" - Eddy Arnold
December 25 - "Buckaroo" - Buck Owens and the Buckaroos