Earl Thomas Conley (October 17, 1941 – April 10, 2019) was an American country music singer-songwriter. Between 1980 and 2003, he recorded ten studio albums, including seven for RCA Records. In the 1980s and into the 1990s, Conley also charted more than thirty singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, of which eighteen reached Number One. His eighteen Billboard Number One country singles during the 1980s marked the most Number One hits by any artist in any genre during that decade, excluding Alabama and Ronnie Milsap. 　　Throughout his career, Conley's music has been referred to as "thinking man's country." This is because the narrator looks into the heart and soul of his characters in each song.