Saturday 8 January 2021 is an important date in the life and country music career of Gene Watson; it is the 39th anniversary of 'Fourteen Carat Mind' reaching No.1 on the Billboard country music singles chart.

'Fourteen Carat Mind', which was written by Dallas Frazier and Larry Lee Favorite (Saturday 6 January 1940 - Saturday 26 May 2001), and was included on Gene Watson's 'Old Loves Never Die' (MCA Records, 1981), and was No.1 on the Billboard country music singles for one week in January 1982.



Between 1975 and 1989, Gene Watson maintained a position as one of country music's most consistent hitmakers, taking twenty-one singles into Billboard's Top Ten.  Surprisingly, only one made it to the top spot, 'Fourteen Carat Mind'.

Gene Watson first heard the song while listening to demo tapes on his tour bus after the rest of the band had gone to sleep.  Gene could easily have overlooked it because it was on an unusual tape configuration.  Gene was going through a box of cassettes.  He got down to the bottom of the box and there was this one reel-to-reel tape down there.  Gene started to discard it, but then thought, 'No, I've got to hear what's on this tape'.

Gene Watson hooked up the old antique reel-to-reel recorder and threaded the tape on there, which was a very cumbersome job in itself, and it was the voice of one of Nashville's most renowned songwriters, Dallas Frazier, demoing one of his newest creations, 'Fourteen Carat Mind'.  After the first verse, Gene Watson knew he was going to record it.

Gene Watson was known for years for his 'greaser' hairstyle, but 'Fourteen Carat Mind' coincided with a new set of dry curls and a brand new beard.

Gene Watson displayed his fresh look on the cover of his 'Old Loves Never Die' (MCA Records, 1981) album, and 'Fourteen Carat Mind' was the first single, which made its debut on Billboard's country music singles chart on Saturday 3 October 1981, and began Gene's new year in grand fashion, reaching No.1 in January 1982 (Saturday 9 January 1982 - Saturday 16 January 1982).

The guys in Gene Watson's road band had been badgering him to let his hair grow out and let his beard grow, and he acknowledged that this occurred at the same time as his only Billboard chart-topping record.  Gene Watson admitted that it was a drastic change in appearance and generated a lot of conversation, but as far as he was concerned, the simultaneous new look and the success of 'Fourteen Carat Mind' was strictly coincidental.