If it was a hit once, it can be a hit again.

This seems to be the current thinking in country

music, as one artist after another records new

versions of former chart-toppers and long-time

critical favorites.

Of course, this back-to-the-future angle isn't new.

Several songs first made famous by Jimmie

Rodgers, the "Father of Country Music" who died in

1933, were decades later turned into hits by other

artists. These included Webb Pierce's 1955 take of

"In the Jailhouse Now," Dolly Parton's 1970 revisit

to "Mule Skinner Blues (Blue Yodel No. 8)" and

Tanya Tucker's 1989 cover of "Daddy and Home."

Willie Nelson charted records for 13 years -- from 1962 until 1975 -- before he

finally scored his first No. 1 with a cover of "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain." The

song, which came out in the mid-1940s, had been recorded by Roy Acuff and

Gene Autry, among others, before Nelson dusted it off.

Ricky Skaggs' triumphant move from bluegrass sideman to country star in the

early 1980s was due in part to his stylish reworking of such previously charted

songs as "Crying My Heart Out Over You" (a hit for Flatt & Scruggs in 1960) and

"I Don't Care" (Webb Pierce, 1955).

Of late, the recycling of hits seems to have intensified.

Last year, Eric Heatherly made his debut -- and went to No. 5 -- with "Flowers on

the Wall," the same song that gave the Statler Brothers their breakthrough in

1965. More recently, Lee Ann Womack also hit the Top 5 with "Ashes by Now,"

which its writer, Rodney Crowell, first charted in 1980.

Mark Chesnutt turned to covers last year in what would prove to be his final

album for MCA Records. Among his singles were "Fallin' Never Felt So Good,"

originally charted by Shawn Camp in 1993, and "Lost in the Feeling," a hit for

Conway Twitty in 1983. (The album also contained a cover of "Love in the Hot

Afternoon," the Gene Watson classic from 1975.)

Currently scaling the country chart are Sawyer Brown's remake of the 1980

Johnny Lee hit, "Lookin' for Love," and South Sixty-Five's cover of Charlie Rich's

1973 blockbuster, "The Most Beautiful Girl."

Sherrie Austin has just released her interpretation of "Jolene," the original of

which Parton took to the top of the charts in 1973. (Parton successfully covered

one of her own hits -- not just once but twice. Her "I Will Always Love You" first

went No. 1 in 1974. She recorded it again in 1982 for the soundtrack of The Best

Little Whorehouse in Texas, and again it went No. 1. Then, in 1995, she and

Vince Gill cut a duet version of the song, which went to No. 15.)

Trent Summar and the New Row Mob are making their bid for musical

immortality these days with an update of Albert Hammond's 1972 pop hit, "It

Never Rains in Southern California."

Anyone for another shot at "The Dance"?