Throughout the '80s, he dominated the country singles charts, and his albums consistently went platinum or gold. During that time he had an astonishing 31 number one singles, beginning with 1982's "Fool Hearted Memory." The song sparked a remarkable string of Top Ten hits that ran well into the '90s. The follow-up, "Down and Out," stalled at 16, but "If You're Thinking You Want a Stranger (There's One Coming Home)" reached number three in early 1982.
"Unwound," Strait's first single, was released in the spring of 1981 and climbed into the Top Ten. His performance convinced the company to sign him in 1980. Woolsey had several MCA executives come down to Texas to hear Strait. In 1979, he became friends with Erv Woolsey, a Texas club owner who had formerly worked for MCA Records. Toward the end of the decade, Strait attempted to carve out a niche in Nashville, but he failed since he lacked any strong connections. While he was studying, he formed his own country band, Ace in the Hole.Īce in the Hole made a few records for the independent Dallas-based label D in the late '70s, but they never went anywhere. He enrolled in Southwest Texas State University at San Marcos, where he studied agriculture. Strait left the Army in 1975, returning to Texas with the intent of completing his education. They played several dates off the base under the name Santee. While there, he began playing country music, initially with an Army-sponsored country band called Rambling Country. In 1971, Strait enlisted in the Army two years later, he was stationed in Hawaii. After his high school graduation in the late '60s, he enrolled in college but soon dropped out and eloped with his high school sweetheart, Norma. Strait began playing music as a teenager, joining a rock & roll garage band. During his childhood, he would spend his weekdays in town and his weekends on the ranch. When George was a child, his mother left the family, taking her daughter but leaving her sons behind with their father. Strait was born and raised in Texas, the son of a junior high school teacher who also owned and operated a ranch that had been in the Strait family for nearly 100 years.
In the process, he became one of the most popular and influential singers of the decade, sparking a wave of neo-traditionalist singers from Randy Travis and Dwight Yoakam to Clint Black, Garth Brooks, and Alan Jackson. Drawing from both the honky tonk and Western swing traditions, Strait didn't refashion the genres instead, he revitalized them for a new decade. Out of all the new country singers to emerge in the early '80s, George Strait stayed the closest to traditional country. Drawing from both the honky tonk and Western swing traditions, Strait didn't refashion the genres
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