When Alabama edged a spot to No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart dated Nov. 15, 1986, the band demonstrated it was still in touch with country fans’ tastes, delivering the group’s seventh straight non-holiday leader.
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The album’s title, The Touch, was apropos. The first single from the package was a cover of The Carpenters’ “Touch Me When We’re Dancing,” which ranked No. 4 on the concurrent Hot Country Songs. That single would rise to No. 1 two weeks later, and the follow-up, “‘You’ve Got’ The Touch,” would reach the summit on April 11, 1987, bringing their run of No. 1 country songs to 21, with an exception for holiday singles and collaborations. That consecutive streak remains a record four decades later.
Bred in Fort Payne, Alabama, the quartet featured frontman Randy Owen, guitarist Jeff Cook, bassist Teddy Gentry and drummer Mark Herndon, selling out arenas while combining country and harmony-based rock influences. True to form, The Touch mixed ballads, uptempo country, old-time rock ‘n’ roll and one track with a touch of New Wave sonics, keeping them at the genre’s forefront even as the New Traditionalist movement was taking over.
The Touch ultimately spent 10 weeks in the pole position on Top Country Albums. Alabama brought its next three releases to No. 1, rolling up 10 consecutive Albums chart-toppers. The band added one more leader with the 2006 gospel collection, Songs of Inspiration. The foursome spent 125 total weeks in the lead on Top Country Albums, the most among groups and a metric that contributed to Alabama’s 2005 induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame.
