An American Songwriter feature highlights three country hits from 1979 that remain widely recognised by people who grew up in the 1970s. The piece looks back at the songwriters and stories behind each track, underlining how strong the genre's output was by the end of that decade.

The songs featured are Conway Twitty's "Happy Birthday Darlin'", a three-week No. 1 written by Chuck Howard that nods to his earlier hit "Hello Darlin'"; The Bellamy Brothers' "If I Said You Had A Beautiful Body Would You Hold It Against Me?", written by David Bellamy and inspired by a Groucho Marx line, which was the duo's first country chart-topper; and Larry Gatlin's "All The Gold in California", written solely by Gatlin after being inspired while stuck in Los Angeles traffic.