Shenandoah Weren’t Big Fans of the First of Their Songs They Ever Heard on the Radio

Shenandoah may not have been thrilled about the first single they put out, but they were still excited to hear themselves on the radio for the first time -- so much so, in fact, that bandmate Marty Raybon immediately called the DJ and requested that he play the song for a second time. Read on to learn more about the first time the band ever heard themselves on country radio, as told by the iconic artists themselves.

Marty Raybon: We were living in an apartment complex, and Mark Allen -- that was the guy at WLAY, the disc jockey that was playing the music -- and it was our very, very first single.

Mike McGuire: Which we didn't like! It was a shooby doo-wop song.

Raybon: No, we hated it. It was called, "They Don't Make Love Like We Used To." [Iconic Muscle Shoals record producer] Rick Hall wanted to cut it.

McGuire: It wasn't that the song was terrible. It just wasn't for a bunch of guys that grew up in the '70s.

Raybon: The song didn't do much for us, either, which kind of gave credence to why we didn't like it. But I asked [the DJ], I said, "Mark, look, I'm fixin' to pull into where I live. I said, 'Man, would you mind playing that again?" And he said, "Yeah, I can, if you'll just give me a few minutes."

So I run into Mike's apartment, and I got him to come out there to the car. Mark Allen said, "I already got my first request for this one, and it was one of the guys from Shenandoah. They wanna hear this one again." I'd heard it first, and then the next time I heard it was after I ran in to grab Mike.

McGuire: [When we hear ourselves] now, it's just as big a thrill. Maybe even more so, because we don't hear ourselves on the radio as much as we did back in our heyday. [Back then], we'd change it to any country station, and within 15 minutes, they're playing a Shenandoah song.