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Well yet again, what can I say. I love Earl Thomas Conley, or should I say "ETC" as the radio industry referred to this
legend. Why is ETC one of my favorites? Earl Thomas Conley's music picked up the label "thinking man's country." An accurate
description -- Conley looks into the heart and soul of his characters, finding the motivations for their actions and beliefs.
In the process, his listeners could find fragments of himself/herself in nearly any Conley creation, and this
is absolutely true. Conley had a very rough childhood, leaving home at the age of 14. He enlisted to the Army when he was
18 and found himself falling in love with country music. After meeting Nelson Larkin, a producer who helped the fledgling
singer sign to the independent label GRT in 1974. Over the next two years, he released four singles on the label -- which
were all credited to just "Earl Conley" -- and each one scraped the lower regions of the country charts.By the late
70s ETC laid low on performing and concentrated on his talents of a song writer which turned out well considering he
wrote four #1s performed by other artists. In 1977, Conley signed with Warner Bros., and in early 1979 he had his first Top
40 hit, "Dreamin's All I Do". By the end of the year, he had begun performing and releasing records under his full name, Earl
Thomas Conley. None of his Warner singles became big hits, and he left the label at the end of 1979. After spending six months
reassessing his career and musical direction, he signed to Sunbird Records. Conley's first single for Sunbird, "Silent Treatment,"
was an immediate Top Ten hit late in 1980, and it was quickly followed by the number one "Fire and Smoke" early in 1981. Following
his breakthrough success, RCA signed Conley to a long-term deal. "Tell Me Why," his first single for the label, reached number
ten in late 1981, followed shortly afterward by the number 16 "After the Love Slips Away." In the summer of 1982, "Heavenly
Bodies" kicked off a string of 21 straight Top Ten hits that ran for seven years. During that time, he had a remarkable 17
number one hits, including a record-setting four number one singles from 1984's " Don't Make It Easy for Me" -- it was
the first time any artist in any genre had four number one hits from the same album. Some of his other hits were "Holding
Her and Loving You', "What She is", "Angel in Disguise", "Don't Make it Easy for me", "When Your Love is on the Line" and
"Chance of Loving You". My God its hard to believe that someone with such success bounced from label to label just not getting
it exactly right then *snap* - MAGIC. ETC has a voice and style that is all to his own, when you hear an ETC song ; you absolutely
know it is him. I cant say which song is my favorite or what song is even signature because I love so many of them.
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