Gus Hardin (April 9, 1945 - February 17, 1996) was a country music

Country music

Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...

 singer.

Career

Hardin was born in 1945 in Tulsa

Tulsa, Oklahoma

Tulsa is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 46th-largest city in the United States. With a population of 391,906 as of the 2010 census, it is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region with 937,478 residents in the MSA and 988,454 in the CSA. Tulsa's...

, Oklahoma

Oklahoma

Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...

. Her rise to country music popularity began in 1983 with her first RCA Records

RCA Records

RCA Records is one of the flagship labels of Sony Music Entertainment. The RCA initials stand for Radio Corporation of America , which was the parent corporation from 1929 to 1985 and a partner from 1985 to 1986.RCA's Canadian unit is Sony's oldest label...

 single, the top 10 hit "After The Last Goodbye". Other hits, such as "Fallen Angel," "I Pass," "Lovin' You Hurts" and "If I Didn't Love You" soon followed, as well as "All Tangled Up in Love", a duet with Earl Thomas Conley

Earl Thomas Conley

Earl Thomas Conley is an American country music singer-songwriter. Between 1980 and 2003, he recorded ten studio albums, including seven for the RCA Records label. In the 1980s and into the 1990s, Conley also charted more than thirty singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts, of which...

.

Hardin married keyboard player Steve Hardin

Steve Hardin

Steve Hardin is an American songwriter, keyboardist, and harmonica and clavinet player. He is probably best known as the writer of top-ten country hits "I Love My Truck" and "Breakin' Down" , although his diverse career has included performing tours with Point Blank, Glen Campbell and...

 who was a member of the group Point Blank, and after their divorce she kept his last name. Garth Brooks

Garth Brooks

Troyal Garth Brooks , best known as Garth Brooks, is an American country music artist who helped make country music a worldwide phenomenon. His eponymous first album was released in 1989 and peaked at number 2 in the US country album chart while climbing to number 13 on the Billboard 200 album chart...

 sister, Betsy Smittle was one of Gus's band members and did background vocals on Gus's album "I"m Dancing As Fast As I Can".

Death

On February 17, 1996, Hardin died in a car accident on highway 20 west of Salina, Oklahoma

Salina, Oklahoma

Salina is a town in Mayes County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 1,396 at the 2010 census, a slight decline from 1,422 at the 2000 census.-History:...

 near her home in the Lake Hudson area. Memorial Services Were held in Oklahoma and Nashville, Tennessee

Nashville, Tennessee

Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...

. Hardin is survived by her daughter Toni.

Albums

Year	Album	US Country	Label
1981	Almost Live		Carmen
1983	Jukebox Saturday Night		RCA
	Solid Gold Country
	Gus Hardin (EP)	31
1984	Fallen Angel	63
1985	Wall of Tears	64
	New Breed
1993	Sounds of Tulsa		KMOD
2001	I'm Dancing as Fast as I Can		Rainy Day

Singles

Year	Single	Chart Positions		Album
		US Country Hot Country Songs Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States.This 60-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly mostly by airplay and occasionally commercial sales...	CAN Country
1983	"After the Last Goodbye"	10	—	Gus Hardin
	"If I Didn't Love You"	26	—
	"Loving You Hurts"	32	—
	"Fallen Angel (Flying High Tonight)"	41	—	Fallen Angel
1984	"I Pass"	43	—
	"How Are You Spending My Nights"	52	—
	"All Tangled Up in Love All Tangled Up in Love "All Tangled Up in Love" is a single by American country music artists Gus Hardin and Earl Thomas Conley. It was released in October 1984 as the first single from Hardin's album Wall of Tears. The song peaked at number 8 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart.-Chart performance:... " (w/ Earl Thomas Conley Earl Thomas Conley Earl Thomas Conley is an American country music singer-songwriter. Between 1980 and 2003, he recorded ten studio albums, including seven for the RCA Records label. In the 1980s and into the 1990s, Conley also charted more than thirty singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts, of which... )	8	8	Wall of Tears
1985	"My Mind Is On You"	79	—
	"Just as Long as I Have You Just as Long as I Have You "Just as Long as I Have You" is a song written by Dave Loggins. Loggins originally recorded the song with Gus Hardin in 1985. Their version peaked at number 72 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart.... " (w/ Dave Loggins Dave Loggins David Allen "Dave" Loggins is a singer, songwriter and musician. He is widely remembered for his 1974 composition "Please Come to Boston", which was a top-10 hit in the U.S. for him, and was subsequently covered by numerous other artists. He was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame... )	72	52	Single only
1986	"What We Gonna Do"	73	—	Wall of Tears

Awards

Top New Female Vocalist
-1984 Academy of Country Music

New Country Artist
-1983 Billboard
-1983 Cashbox

The Oklahoma Award
-1983 Oklahoma Awards Assoc.

Nominations

BEST PERFORMANCE BY A DUET
"All Tangled Up In Love" with Earl Thomas Conley
1985 Country Music Assoc.
1985 Academy of Country Music
1985 Music City News

FAVORITE COUNTRY MUSIC FEMALE VOCALIST VIDEO
"I Pass"
1985 American Music Awards

THE HORIZONS AWARD
1985 Music City News

External links

• Official website
• I'm Dancing As Fast As I Can