Crazy In Love With Conway

Conway had millions of male fans, but it's pretty obvious that he had a special magic with the ladies. He often stated that he chose songs with women in mind - ones that said things women wanted to hear but men had a hard time saying. That philosophy temporarily went out the window with the recording of Tight Fittin' Jeans , the first single off Conway's Mr. T album. "Every once in a while, you've got to do something for the guys," he said.  Sure enough, men loved the toe-tapping song, but women did too. It became a nationwide phenomenon over the summer of 1981, inspiring "tight fittin' jeans" contests across the country as it climbed the charts, landing at #1 on both Billboard and Cashbox in late September. It remained a perennial concert favorite and is consistently one of the top 10 most downloaded/streamed Conway songs on the various digital music services. Cashbox, 9/19/81 Billboard, 9/26/81 A few interesting bits of trivia... 1) Conway...

Conway performed at the Vermont State Fair in Rutland, Vermont for the first and only time on September 5, 1986. He was scheduled to return exactly 7 years later on September 5, 1993 - the concert I planned to attend - but it wasn't meant to be.  His appearance 35 years ago this week made headlines not only for another stellar, sold out performance, but also for the way he went above and beyond for a fan. Rutland resident Gladys Bride was a lifelong fan of Conway's and desperately wanted to attend her idol's show, but she was paralyzed from the waist down and her family didn't know how they could possibly make her dream come true. Her daughter Judy decided to contact Ed Congdon, a local farmer who worked for the Regional Ambulance Service as a paramedic and manned the first aid station at the fairgrounds. Judy asked if it would be possible to have her mother transported to the fair in an ambulance and then put her in a wheelchair for the concert. Ed discussed it with fa...