Top Country Albums is a chart that ranks the top-performing country music albums in the United States, published by "Billboard". In 1980, ten different albums topped the chart, based on sales reports submitted by a representative sample of stores nationwide. The chart was published under the title Top Country LP's (with an apostrophe) through the issue of "Billboard" dated May 24, and Top Country LPs (without an apostrophe) thereafter.
In the issue of "Billboard" dated January 5, Kenny Rogers was at number one with his album "Kenny", its ninth week in the top spot. The album remained atop the chart through the issue dated April 26 for a final total of 25 consecutive weeks at number one, the longest uninterrupted run atop the chart in its history. Two weeks after the album was displaced from the top spot, Rogers was back at number one with "Gideon", a concept album featuring songs co-written by Kim Carnes which spent seven weeks atop the listing. Later in the year he returned once more to number one with "Greatest Hits", which spent six weeks in the top spot before the year's end, meaning that he spent 30 weeks at number one during 1980. Rogers was at the peak of his career at the time, with the smooth production of his records appealing to both country and pop audiences. Between 1978 and 1980 he reached number one on the Hot Country Singles chart with five consecutive releases, including the title track from the album "The Gambler".
The album that ended the record-breaking run at number one by "Kenny" was Charley Pride's "There's a Little Bit of Hank in Me". The first African-American performer to achieve stardom in country music, Pride had been one of the genre's most successful singers of the 1970s and early 1980s, but his tribute to the songs of Hank Williams would be his last release to top the albums chart. Later in the year, both Eddie Rabbitt and Ronnie Milsap achieved their first chart-topping albums. Milsap had reached the top five with eight previous albums, three of which had been honoured with the Album of the Year award from the Country Music Association, but it was not until he released a compilation of his most successful songs that he reached number one for the first time. Two film soundtrack albums topped the chart in 1980, the first such releases to reach number one. In August, the soundtrack album of the film "Urban Cowboy" reached the top spot, where it would spend eight non-consecutive weeks. The film and its soundtrack are credited with dramatically increasing the mainstream popularity of country music, and the pop-influenced style which it featured would go on to dominate the country charts for most of the 1980s. It was followed into the top spot by "Honeysuckle Rose", the soundtrack to the film of the same name, which consisted primarily of songs by Willie Nelson, the film's star.
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