A crossover Country smash sung by a Tejano mechanic, with a verse entirely in Spanish, might have been unthinkable 10 years earlier, but Freddie Fender's '74 “Before the Next Teardrop Falls” not only made Fender an overnight superstar, it revealed just how wide-ranging Country had become. The music was enjoying unprecedented popularity, and along with it, a bit of an identity crisis, one perfectly expressed by the hero pulled every which way in Glen Campbell's mega-hit “Rhinestone Cowboy,” a number-one on no less than three charts (AC, Country and Pop). But then again, there's “The Grand Tour.” A pure Country pinnacle, George Jones' dramatic still life of “the lonely house that once was home sweet home” gave the Possum his first number-one in seven years, and features what may just be Classic Country's finest vocal performance, a thing of desolate beauty as low and sad as a lonesome wind whistling at the door.