Some might read the title of this Conway Twitty song and “clutch their pearls,” and let me assure you, the song is about exactly what you think it is.
“You’ve Never Been This Far Before” was released in July of 1973, and though it has got that classic Conway Twitty rhythm, it actually landed the legendary country singer in some hot water.
Many were concerned upon the song’s release that the lyrics and message of the tune were “overly sexual,” considering that it was pretty obvious what Twitty was singing about (no matter how many times he tried to distract us by singing “bum, bum, bum” during the performance).
I’d love to see what some of those people who thought the Conway song was “too vulgar” would say about some of the new music nowadays. At least this song was sexually suggestive comparative to a lot of today’s music, which is instead blatantly sexual.
However, this might fall underneath the theory of “any publicity is good publicity” since the song rocketed to the number one spot on the U.S. Hot Country Songs chart. It was actually at the top of the charts on this date, 50 years ago.
“You’ve Never Been This Far Before” acted as Twitty’s 10th number one song, and it performed pretty well on the charts for a respectable amount of time (3 weeks at #1, 16 weeks on the chart).
The song also led Conway Twitty’s to his best performance on the Billboard Hot 100. It was the only song of his that crossed over from the country chart to the Top 40, reaching as high as the 22nd spot on the rankings.
“You’ve Never Been This Far Before” was released as the second single from the album of the same name. Naming a song something that suggestive was pretty bold for the time, but Twitty doubled down and named his whole album the same thing.
Just read some of the lyrics of the song and you’ll see why plenty of parents back in the day were probably burning Conway’s eight tracks and records out of protest:
“And I can feel your body trembleAs you wonder what this moment holds in storeAnd as I put my arms around youI can tell you’ve never been this far before
I don’t know what I’m sayingAs my trembling fingers touch forbidden placesI only know that I’ve waitedFor so long for the chance that we are taking”
And by the way, I said “burning” just a second ago and wanted to clear up any confusion. I don’t mean burning like getting songs off of Limewire onto a CD (some of you probably just muttered “ahh, the good ole days”), I mean literally burning them with fire.
But how could you do that to a song that’s so melodic, and perfectly utilizes various trios of the word “bum” throughout?
Take a listen:
