Waylon & Willie went Platinum today, April 11th, 1978

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'Waylon & Willie' is a duet album by Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson, released  in 1978. It was the #1 album on the country album charts for ten weeks and spent a total of 126 weeks on the country charts. The Album was certified Platinum on April 11th, 1978...

It's kind of interesting how the album came to be in the first place. It would seem like a logical pairing because both Waylon and Willie were superstars. The problem was that they were on different record labels!

Waylon recorded with RCA and Willie was with CBS...so how were they going to work this out. According to RCA executive Jerry Bradley, Jennings approached CBS Records in Nashville with the idea of recording an album of new duets & in a surprising show of cooperation, CBS agreed.

Jennings and Nelson had a lot of success previously, winning the CMA award for Duo of the Year for their song "Good Hearted Woman" in 1976 and were the marquee attractions on the Wanted! The Outlaws compilation, country music's first million selling album.

"Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys" peaked at # 1 in March 1978, spending four weeks atop the country music charts. It also won the 1979 Grammy Award for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal.

So to celebrate the anniversary of 'Waylon and Willie' and their Duets album going Platinum on this date...take a moment to check out the above video to the huge single from it.... "Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys" recorded live at Farm Aid II in 1986!