"Whatever" is a song recorded by American
country music
Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...
group
The Statler Brothers
The Statler Brothers (sometimes simply referred to as The Statlers) were an American country music, gospel, and vocal group. The quartet was formed in 1955 performing locally, and from 1964 to 1972, they sang as opening act and backup singers fo ...
. It was released in July 1982 as the first single from the album ''
The Legend Goes On''. The song reached #7 on the ''
Billboard
A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...
''
Hot Country Singles & Tracks
Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States.
This 50-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly by collecting airplay data from Nielsen BDS along with digital sal ...
chart.
The song was written by Don Reid and Harold Reid. It is considered to be one of the rarest hits in the Statlers' catalog, as the ''Legend Goes On'' album has never been issued on
CD as of 2017, and the song had never appeared on any of the group's compilation albums until 2010 when it was included on the 2-disc edition of their ICON Series release.
Music video
"Whatever" was the group's first music video. However, original tenor
Lew DeWitt
Lewis “Lew” Calvin DeWitt Jr. (March 12, 1938 – August 15, 1990) was an American country music singer, guitarist, and composer. He was a founding member of The Statler Brothers and the group's original tenor.
Biography
For most of his care ...
, who performed on the track, had fallen ill and could not appear in it. His eventual replacement,
Jimmy Fortune
Jimmy Fortune (born March 11, 1955) is an American country music singer from Nelson County, Virginia. Fortune sang tenor for The Statler Brothers for 21 years, and wrote the song "Elizabeth" for the group. After The Statler Brothers retired, he c ...
, substituted for him in the video.
Chart performance
References
1982 singles
1982 songs
The Statler Brothers songs
Songs written by Don Reid (singer)
Songs written by Harold Reid
Song recordings produced by Jerry Kennedy
Mercury Records singles
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