Billy Ray Cyrus will forever be known for the catchy, lightweight single &"Achy, Breaky Heart," which became a line-dancing anthem upon its 1992 release. &"Achy, Breaky Heart" made Cyrus famous, but it also proved to be his undoing. No matter how he tried, he couldn't escape the song, nor could he replicate the success. Cyrus' music was never particularly innovative -- it owed as much to the country-rock of the Eagles as it did to the new traditionalism of George Strait and the new country of Clint Black and Garth Brooks -- but his musical worth became irrelevant in the wake of the success of &"Achy, Breaky Heart" and its accompanying album, Some Gave All. The album became a crossover success after the single became a hit, spending 17 weeks on the top of the album charts. Part of Cyrus' success was due to his handsome, hunky good looks, and part of it was due to the catchiness of &"Achy, Breaky Heart." However, both his good looks and the single were soon forgotten, and just two years after Some Gave All ruled the charts, Cyrus virtually disappeared from both the pop and country charts. Cyrus spent a decade as part of the long history of one-hit wonders, only to return to chart success in the wake of his daughter Miley's popular TV show, Hannah Montana, in 2007.

Enamored of baseball, Cyrus intended to become another Johnny Bench as he grew up in Flatlands, KY. While attending Georgetown College on a baseball scholarship, he bought a guitar and decided immediately that athletics wasn't the proper direction for his life. Instead, he formed a band called Sly Dog with his brother and gave himself a ten-month deadline for finding a place to play. One week prior to that cutoff date, the group went to work as the house band for a club in Ironton, OH, where they remained for two years. When a 1984 fire destroyed the bar -- and Cyrus' equipment -- he moved to Los Angeles to pursue his career. Eventually, he decided to return to Kentucky and commuted regularly from there to Nashville in search of a record deal. Grand Ole Opry star Del Reeves got Mercury Records to take a look, and division head Harold Shedd signed him in the summer of 1990. When his first album came out in mid-1992, Cyrus -- with his good looks, sculpted body, and the infectious &"Achy, Breaky Heart" -- became an instant groundbreaking sensation. Spending five weeks at the top of the country charts, &"Achy, Breaky Heart" made his debut album, Some Gave All, a blockbuster success. By the time it fell off the charts, it had sold over nine million copies and spent 17 weeks on the top of the pop charts.