Over the weekend, Murray received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Canadian Juno Awards. The award was given out for the first time since the Juno’s namesake, Pierre Juneau, received it in 1989. Murray, who currently holds the title of most awarded artist in Juno’s history, was introduced by Sarah McLachlan, who said, “Her songs were the soundtrack to my childhood and I still know the words to every one.” In her speech, Murray reminisced about her career and what music has meant to her: “When I look back, it seems clear that singing never felt like a choice for me, I had to do it, it felt as natural as breathing.”
Let’s Keep It That Way marked Murray’s return to the top 10 of American country charts, a milestone she had not reached since 1974’s Highly Prized Possession. The album’s first single was a cover of the Everly Brothers’ song “Walk Right Back.”
A second single, “You Needed Me,” was one of Murray’s biggest hits. It topped the Canadian singles, country, and adult contemporary charts. In the U.S. it reached No. 1 on the pop charts, making it her sole chart-topper. “You Needed Me” won the Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. In 2022, Murray said: “When we went in to record that song, you knew it was a hit.”
1979’s New Kind of Feeling was Murray’s fifteenth album. “Shadows in the Moonlight” was another chart topper in the U.S. and Canada. Another single was a cover of The Carpenters’ “I Just Fall In Love Again,” which appeared on their 1977 album Passage. The song hit No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Country compiled genre classics including material that previously appeared on Murray’s second through fifth albums: 1969’s This Way Is My Way, 1970’s Honey, Wheat and Laughter, 1971’s Straight, Clean and Simple, and 1971’s Talk It Over in the Morning. Country reached No. 6 on the Billboard country charts and No. 32 on the Billboard pop albums.
