Country music from a fan's point of view since 2008
Male-female duets still exist today, although usually in the form of acts that always (or nearly always) perform as duets. Acts that normally perform as solo acts may combine for a song or two (“Special Events”), but rarely do they issue albums of duets
The album Classics, released in 1979, was the second (and final) album of duets released by the unlikely pairing of Kenny Rogers and Dottie West. Kenny, of course was a country & pop superstar but Dottie West was a veteran second-tier country artist, whose 1978 album with Kenny (Every Time Two Fools Collide) would trigger a brief renaissance on the United Artists/Liberty label.
I am not sure why this particular pairing came about, although I have some suspicions. United Artists was not a major player in country music and did not have a deep roster of female artists. Billie Jo Spears, arguably the leading female country singer on the label, did not have a voice that would blend well with Kenny’s voice.
The recently signed Dottie West, on the other hand, had a track record of being able to blend and harmonize with male singers. Her track record at RCA had included successful recordings with such diverse singers as Jim Reeves, Don Gibson and Jimmy Dean. Dottie’s first album and the second album, released on the heels of the first duet album, did not produce any top fifteen hits but the first duet album did produce a #1 and a #2 single.
That brings us to this album, a collection of some county songs, some borderline pop-country-easy listening songs and some pop songs. Produced by Larry Butler, the album was not quite as successful as its predecessor duet album, but still sold over two million copies.
The album opens up with “All I Ever Need Is You”, a top ten pop hit and #1 Adult Contemporary hit for Sonny & Cher and a top twenty county hit for Ray Sanders, both versions in 1971. This version would rise to #1 on the country chart. While not as country as the Sanders version (still my favorite), it is not as pop as the Sonny & Cher versions. Both steel guitar (by Pete Drake) and string arrangements are featured in the arrangement. The song works well as a duet.
Sometimes when I’m down and all alone
Just like a child without a home
The love you give me keeps me hangin’ on
Oh honey, all I ever need is youYou’re my first love, you’re my last
You’re my future, you’re my past
And loving you is all I ask, honey
All I ever need is you
The Wynette, Richey, Sherrill composition “ ‘Til I Can Make It On My Own” is up next. The song was a #1 country hit for Tammy Wynette in 1976. The song works as a duet but is in a key where Kenny seems to be struggling to hit some of the notes.
“Just The Way You Are” was a #3 Billboard / #2 Cashbox top ten pop hit for writer Billy Joel in 1977. The arrangement of this song reeks of cocktail lounge balladry. I’d rather hear Billy Joel perform this song and I am no fan of his music.
Randy Goodrum penned “You Needed Me”. Goodrum would co-produce Dottie’s 1979 album Special Delivery and write six of the songs on that album. I think that this song, as recorded by Anne Murray (#1 pop / #4 country), , was his biggest hit as a songwriter. The arrangement on this one is definitely easy listening.
“(Hey Won’t You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song” was made famous by B.J. Thomas, winning the 1976 Grammy Award for Best Country Song. The song’s writers, Larry Butler and Chips Moman definitely cleared the bases with this song as it went to #1 on the country, pop and A/C charts in the US, nearly duplicating that success in Canada. Kenny & Dottie do a nice job with the song although the arrangement can be best described as ‘countrypolitan’. Steve Glassmeyer is featured on soprano sax.
It’s lonely out tonight
And the feelin’ just got right for a brand new love song
Somebody done somebody wrong songHey, wontcha play another somebody done somebody wrong song
And make me feel at home while I miss my baby, while I miss my baby
So please play for me a sad melody
So sad that it makes everybody cry-why-why-why
A real hurtin’ song about a love that’s gone wrong
Cause I don’t want to cry all alone
There is no questioning the country credentials of the next song, “Together Again” written by the great Buck Owens. Although initially released as the B side of Buck’s 1964 single “My Heart Skips A Beat”, most disc jockeys played both sides of the record resulting in both songs reaching #1, although in different weeks.
Unfortunately, the song is given an easy listening arrangement with strings and keyboards and not a trace of a steel guitar in the arrangement. There is a key shift whenever Kenny takes over from Dottie in singing a verse. I liked Dottie’s vocal on the song, Kenny’s not so much. The net effect is really disappointing.
Paul Craft was a successful songwriter who penned “Midnight Flyer”. The song is probably best remembered for Eagles recording of the song, although the song entered the realm of bluegrass music
through the Osborne Brothers terrific single recording of the song in 1973. Producer Butler gives the song the (fairly) acoustic arrangement the song demands. Kenny & Dottie acquit themselves well on this song.
Oo, Midnight Flyer
Engineer, won’t you let your whistle moan?
Oo, Midnight Flyer
I paid my dues and I feel like trav’lin’ on
A runaway team of horses ain’t enough to make me stay
So throw your rope on another man
And pull him down your way
Make him into someone who can take the place of me
Make him every kind of fool you wanted me to be
Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil were a highly successful songwriting team and Phil Spector was a successful producer and occasional songwriter best known for his ‘wall of sound’ production style. “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin'” was certainly the biggest hit that the Righteous Brothers would ever have, and possibly the most successful song from the Mann-Weil songwriting team. After hearing the Righteous Brother’s version it is difficult to accept any of the cover versions, of which there have been many. Kenny & Dottie do a decent job with the song, which is given a somewhat subdued ‘wall of sound’ production, but it pales in comparison to the original.
“Let It Be Me” is a popular song originally published in French in 1955 as “Je t’appartiens”. Written by Gilbert Becaud & Pierre Delanoe, the song became a worldwide hit when Manny Curtis appended English lyrics to the song. The Everly Brothers (#7 pop – 1960) and a duet by Betty Everett and Jerry Butler (#5 pop – 1964) cemented the song’s popularity in the English speaking world. In 1969 Glen Campbell and Bobbie Gentry had a pop and country hit with the song. Kenny and Dottie sing the song quite well – I think Kenny’s best vocals on this album are to be found on this song. The song is not country, the arrangement is very orchestral, but the net effect is very nice.
Like most of Kenny’s albums, this is essentially a pop album with a nod toward country music. There would be no more duet albums by this pair and after a brief resurgence in 1979 through early 1981, Dottie’s solo career would fade away (not surprisingly as Dottie would turn 50 in 1982). The younger Rogers (b. 1938) would continue to have varying degrees through the end of the 1980s, followed by a long coda.
I like parts of this album, but there are tracks I tend to skip over – I give it a C+
The singles from Higher Ground were to prove to be Tammy’s final top 40 country hits as radio moved on to a new generation of singers. She turned to veteran Norro Wilson to produce her next album, 1989’s Next To You.
There were two singles from the album. The title track peaked just outside the top 50; it is a subdued, rather downbeat ballad about finding love again, with some rather pretty fiddle. The nostalgic midtempo ‘Thank The Cowboy For The Ride’ (about childhood playmates turning to lifelong love) did even less well, and may be a little too sweet for some despite a little humor.
‘The Note’ is a passionate ballad about heartbreak previously recorded by Gene Watson (and later covered by Daryle Singletary). It is a great song, but the production on Tammy’s version somewhat cloaks it with excessive backing vocals. ‘You Left Memories Layin’ (All Over The Place)’ is in much the same style as the wife left behind.
Even better known was ‘I’m So Afraid Of Losing You Again’, a Dallas Frazier/Doodle Owens song which was one of Charley Pride’s biggest hits. Tammy’s version is delightful, and the song itself is so perfectly constructed it cannot fail.
‘If You Let Him Drive You Crazy (He Will)’is an excellent song written by Curly Putnam, Don Cook, and Max D Barnes. The jaundiced lyric about the failings of men, as seen through the eyes of a mother giving advice to her daughter just embarking on life, tells volumes about her own married life:
The man always gets what he’s after
Then leaves you just over the hill
You oughta understand why it’s over
If you let him drive you crazy, he will
There isn’t a real resolution, just the suggestion that the daughter’s trust in her own boyfriend might be plagued by doubt. Rather more positively, ‘We Called it Everything But Quits’ is a good-humored reflection on surviving hard times and an enduring marriage.
‘I Almost Forgot’, written by Karen Staley, is a very nice song about an encounter with an ex briniging up painful memories. ‘Liar’s Roses’ is a delicate ballad written by Bill and Sharon Rice about a woman who is not fooled for an instant by her cheating husband:
The doorbell rings
It’s flowers for me
Roses again
It’s the third time this week
What kind of fool
Must he picture me to be
To be blinded by a dozen liar’s roses?Guilt-stained words on beautiful cards
But not a single one that comes from the heart
He’s seein’ her again
‘Cause that’s when he starts
Sendin’ me these lovely liar’s rosesOh, I’m sleepin’ in a bed of liar’s roses
While he dreams of somebody else
He lies to me and thinks that I don’t know it
‘When A Girl Becomes A Wife’ written by Tammy and husband George Richey is deliberately old fashioned in its lyric, but it feels odd even in the 1989 context, let alone 2016.
Tammy’s voice was showing signs of strain, but this is generally a solid album with the odd misstep.
Grade: B+
Til I Can Make It On My Own was Tammy Wynette’s fifteenth studio album since 1967, and represents a brief renaissance in album success, reaching #3 after her two previous albums failed to crack the top twenty of Billboard’s Country Albums chart. Her next album You and Me would reach #4, making it the last Tammy Wynette album to crack the top ten.
The album opens with the title track, which would prove to be her penultimate #1 country single, co-written by Tammy with George Richey and Billy Sherrill. Tammy often indicated that this was her favorite song of the many songs she recorded. The song depicts the vulnerability that Tammy excelled in conveying.
I’ll need time,
To get you off my mind.
And I may sometimes bother you;
Try to be in touch with you.
Even ask too much of you from time to time.Now and then,
Lord you know I’ll need a friend.
‘Til I get used to losing you,
Let me keep on using you.
‘Til I can make it on my own.
“Just In Case” is a slow ballad given the full country cocktail treatment. The song makes a nice album track but had no potential as a single. The song is about a breakup in which the protagonist offers herself as a fallback position:
It’s over I know you’re going away
If you can’t stay I don’t want you to
I won’t miss you, no I don’t care where you go
But let me know just in case I doI’m glad you’ve got a friend here in town
And I hope he’ll be good to you
Don’t you worry
Now I won’t worry about you
Just in case I doIt’s good you’re gonna be happy
You’re right it’s the right thing to do
And you couldn’t really be happy
If you thought I still care for you.
Charley Pride had a #1 single on “She’s Just An Old Love Turned Memory” in early 1977. The song was written by John Schweers, a songwriter who provided several hits to Charley. Originally cut by Nick Nixon, Tammy heard Nixon’s track and covered it. Reportedly she was considering releasing the song as a single. Her version is good, but it seems to work better from the male perspective.
I phoned him today, an accidental mistake
And his name slipped out to some friend
Forgotten old feelin’s brand new today’
‘Cause I’m right back where I’ve always beenHe’s just an old love turned memory
And now I seldom see him around
He’s just an old love turned memory
But he still turns my world upside down
“The World’s Most Broken Heart” is another slow ballad, again given the full country cocktail treatment. The first verse reminds one of the opening to “The Grand Tour” (a George Jones hit) but the song isn’t nearly as well crafted or interesting.
Step right this way, here’s our main attraction
Direct your eyes to the centre of the room
She walks, she talks, she cries real tears,
Now the show’s about to start
Now presenting, the world’s most broken heartSee her cry when she remembers that her love’s gone bad
Watch her body ache as she recalls all the sleepless nights she’s had
She’s the greatest wonder of the world’s and her soul’s been torn apart
Now presenting, the world’s most broken heart
“If I Could Only Win Your Love” is next up. The song is a Louvin Brothers classic written by Ira and Charlie Louvin. Emmylou Harris took the song to #4 in 1975 for her first top forty chart hit. I don’t believe that the Louvin Brothers ever issued the song as a single, but their recording remains the definitive version. Their version originally appeared on their 1958 album Country Love Ballads. Tammy’s version is very good although the lead electric and steel guitar arrangements seem more honky-tonk than I’m accustomed to hearing for this particular song.
If I could only win your love
I’d make the most of everything
I’d proudly wear your wedding ring
My heart would never stray one dream away
If I could only win your love
I’d give my all to make it live
You’ll never know how much I give
If I could only win your love
Next up is “The Heart”, another slow ballad. It is a nice song, but at this point the album is getting overrun with slow ballads.
“You Can Be Replaced” doesn’t vary the tempo or the generally downbeat feel of the album, being another breakup song. The narrator says the departing boyfriend can be replaced but not in the manner you’d think:
Somebody new is loving you
And your gonna go with her I know
But there’ll be no tears running down my face
Go on with her you can be replacedTake back your ring and everything
Let’s both forget we even met
There is no love time can’t erase
The minute you’re go, you can be replacedYou can be replaced by lonely days
By sleepless nights and all the rest
I’ll miss you so but none the less
You can be replaced by loneliness
You can be replaced by loneliness
“Love Is Something Good For Everybody” starts out as a slow ballad but after the introduction, it picks up the tempo to mid-tempo. It’s not a classic song, but represents a welcome relief from an album full of rather sad songs.
Not to worry, the next track takes the listener back to the depths of despair with another breakup song with another slow song, given the full Sherrill treatment on “Where Some Good Love Has Been”:
There’s your ring, my ring on the table
Now they won’t ever hurt our hands again
Cause when the lights go out tonight, we won’t be together
So let’s take a good look where some good love has beenYour love and my love is almost over
And it won’t be long till memories begin
Only in our minds we’ll find the times we found each other
So let’s take a good look where some good love has been
The original vinyl version of the album closes with “Easy Come Easy Go”, a rather bland ballad that sounds like something the Carpenters might have recorded.
Love just walked on down the road
I guess it had to be
Wish he wouldn’t walk so slow
Too much time to see
All that love leaving meIt’s easy come and easy go
That’s all he knows
So much sunshine in his smile
For a while he made my love the songLord he’d sing to me
Oh, he’d cling to me
And I loved him so
Easy come and easy go
Many listeners consider this to be one of Tammy’s best albums, but I disagree, since the album is basically comprised on a string of slow sad ballads with little relief. I think that if Wynette and Sherrill had interspersed another one or two up-tempo songs (not necessarily happy songs) I would like the album much more. The songs are mostly good and the performances good to very good but the album adds up to less than the sum of its parts.
Grade: C+
The second of three albums Tammy released in 1970, Tammy’s Touch had two hit singles. The first, ‘I’ll See Him Through’, written by producer Billy Sherrill and Norro Wilson, which peaked at #2, is a beautifully understated subdued ballad about a wife wondering if her marriage which may be on the rocks, but determined to honor the past support he has given her. The arrangement has dated a bit, but Tammy’s vocal is superb.
‘He Loves Me All The Way’ (written by the same pair together with Carmol Taylor) went all the way itself to #1. It is a bouncy tune about a jealous woman doubting her man’s fidelity, apparently unfairly. On the same theme, but with a more downbeat note, ‘Cold Lonely Feeling’, written by Jerry Chesnut, is a very good song about a married woman plagued by doubt.
Also excellent is Curly Putnam’s ‘The Divorce Sale’, using a separating couple’s selloff of unwanted joint possessions to highlight the sadness of the split. It could have been a big hit if released as a single for Tammy. The subdued ‘Our Last Night Together’ is from the point of view of the ‘other woman’ as her affair with a married man comes to an end.
Sherrill’s ‘Too Far Gone’ (best known from Emmylou Harris’s version a few years later) is a beautiful song, and Tammy’s version is lovely. Sherrill wrote ‘A Lighter Shade Of Blue’ (another good song) with Glenn Sutton. A troubled wife-cum-doormat in an on-off relationship is beginning to feel the pain less by repetition, and to love him a little less each time. Sutton and Tammy’s future husband George Richey wrote ‘Love Me, Love Me’, quite a nice romantic ballad. Jerry Crutchfield’s ‘You Make My Skies Turn Blue’ is another pretty love song.
The sultry ‘He Thinks I Love Him’, written by Carmol Taylor, has a potentially intriguing lyric about a controlling husband which is defused by revealing that she does indeed love the man. ‘Run, Woman, Run’ offers advice to a flighty young newlywed thinking of leaving. The heavily orchestrated ‘Daddy Doll’ will be far too saccharine for most modern listeners, but in its own way points out the sadness of divorce for the children involved.
‘It’s Just A Matter Of Time’ is a cover of a 1959 R&B hit for Brook Benton, but Tammy probably recorded it as it was a contemporary country hit for Sonny James; it may be most familiar to country fans from Randy Travis’s 1989 version. Tammy’s take is not particularly distinctive. Finally, ‘Lonely Days (And Nights More Lonely)’ is a pretty good song about separation from a loved one.
This is a very strong album, albeit firmly one of its time. It should appeal to all Tammy Wynette fans.
Grade: A-
Tammy Wynette, once again, teamed with Billy Sherill for her third album, D-I-V-O-R-C-E, released in 1968. It would be Wynette’s first chart-topping album, fueled by the success of the now-classic title track.
The Bobby Braddock and Curly Putman penned ballad was Wynette’s fastest rising single to date and quickly topped the charts. She had gained a reputation for selecting material highlighting the woman’s perspective, a fascist sorely lacking in mainstream country music at the time. I first became familiar with the song through Rosanne Cash, who recorded a more contemporary take for Tammy Wynette Remembered following her death in 1998.
As was customary at the time, the album features a bevy of covers. Wynette turns in a rather strong rendition of “Gentle On My Mind” and a fantastic cover of “Honey,” which I’d never heard from a woman’s perspective before. I wasn’t as crazy about “Yesterday,” which with a country arrangement just doesn’t work. “The Legend of Bonnie and Clyde,” however, is one of the record’s strongest cuts. “Sweet Dreams,” on the other hand, is much too maudlin for my tastes.
George Richey, Wynette’s widower co-wrote “Come On Home,” an excellent ballad about an ‘old faithful’ wife perfectly content with her husband’s cheating. Sherrill co-wrote “Kiss Away,” a fabulous steel-soaked showcase for Wynette’s impressive vocal range. The jaunty “When There’s A Fire In Your Heart,” also wonderful, was co-written by Merle Kilgore. The final cut, “Lonely Street,” another very good ballad, was co-written by country singer Carl Belew.
D-I-V-O-R-C-E is the rare 1960s country album that hits all the right notes. The covers worked well with Wynette’s voice and I really liked the arrangements. If you haven’t heard this one before, I highly recommend seeking it out.
Grade: A
One day in 1966, a receptionist was absent from her desk and the course of country music was forever altered. It sounds like an unlikely scenario, but an unattended receptionists’ desk is what prompted Wynette Byrd, an aspiring singer and divorced mother of three, to knock on the office door of producer Billy Sherrill. Sherrill tried to brush her off, telling her to leave a tape that he would listen to later. She didn’t have one, so she offered him a live audition, right then and there. He listened to her and then politely dismissed her, but shortly thereafter had a change of heart. He had been trying to obtain the rights to an independent label recording of “Apartment No. 9”, a tune written by Bobby Austin and Johnny Paycheck. When his efforts failed, he decided to have one of his own artists record the song instead. He offered it to Wynette, who, having been turned down by every major label in Nashville, was about to return home to Birmingham, Alabama and abandon her dream of becoming a singer.
“Apartment No. 9”, produced by Sherill, was a modest hit for Tammy Wynette, as she was now known, reaching #44 on the Billboard country singles chart. It performed well enough to secure her a contract with Epic Records. Her second single, “Your Good Girl’s Gonna Go Bad”, reached #3, was followed by a string of #1s, and a star was born. Tammy Wynette was eventually credited by her label as the first female country artist to have a million-selling album and became known as The First Lady of Country Music.
She was born Virginia Wynette Pugh on May 5, 1942 in Tremont, Mississippi. Her father died from a brain tumor when Wynette was nine months old. She was raised by her grandparents when her mother obtained work in a Memphis defense plant. After World War II ended, her mother remarried and returned to Mississippi. Like many mother s and daughters, they did not always get along. The desire to get out from under her mother’s control played a large part in Wynette’s ill-advised decision to marry Euple Byrd a month before she was to graduate from high school. Unsurprisingly, the union was not a happy one and Wynette left him prior to the birth of their third daughter. Shortly after obtaining work as a hairdresser in Birmingham, Alabama, she began to pursue her dream of becoming a country singer.
After securing her deal with Epic, success came quickly for Tammy. “I Don’t Wanna Play House” became her first #1 hit in 1967. That same year, “Take Me To Your World” also chopped the charts, as did “D-I-V-O-R-C-E” in early 1968. Then, one day in the recording studio she helped Sherrill finish a song that he had been writing. She had some reservations about the final product, but he convinced her to record “Stand By Your Man”, which became her signature hit and one of the most recognized songs in country music. In 2003, CMT ranked it at #1 on its list of top 100 country songs of all time.
Although very successful professionally, Wynette’s personal life continued to be tumultuous. She married her childhood idol George Jones in 1969, shortly after her brief second marriage to songwriter Don Chapel was annulled. She and Jones had a daughter together, Tamala Georgette Jones, who was born in 1970, and they also recorded a number of successful duet records. They divorced in 1975, primarily because of Jones’ alcoholism. Another brief marriage to Michael Tomlin ended after only 44 days. In 1978 Tammy married producer and songwriter George Richey, to whom she remained wed for the rest of her life.
Beginning in the 1970s Tammy was frequently plagued with ill health, which began with complications from a hysterectomy that she underwent shortly after Georgette’s birth. She was frequently hospitalized for bile duct infections and underwent dozens of surgeries, which led to a dependency on prescription painkillers. She entered the Betty Ford Center in 1986 to overcome her addiction.
Tammy’s hits began to taper off in the early 1980s, although she remained a concert draw. She continued to work a grueling schedule despite her continuing health problems. She landed a role on the CBS daytime soap Capitol in 1986.
The entire nation mourned when Tammy Wynette passed away peacefully in her sleep on April 6, 1998, at age 55. The initial cause of death was said to be a blood clot in her lung, but like her life, her death was shrouded in drama. Her daughters alleged that Wynette’s husband George Richey had overmedicated her and filed a wrongful death lawsuit against him. Wynette’s body was disinterred and an autopsy cited cardiac arrythmia as the cause of death. The lawsuit against Richey was subsequently dropped.
In 1998 the Country Music Hall of Fame voted to induct her into its hallowed halls. Wanting to keep the decision a surprise, her family kept the news from her. Sadly, she passed away shortly before her induction, unaware of the honor that had been bestowed on her.
Along with Loretta Lynn and Dolly Parton, Tammy Wynette was a trailblazer for women in country music during the 1960s and 1970s. While we cannot do her rich legacy justice in a single month, we are attempting to cover at least some of the highlights as we spotlight her career during the month of November. Keep the Kleenex at hand.
George had become disillusioned with Pappy Daily’s business practices. His marriage to Tammy Wynette in 1969 encouraged him to make the momentous decision to move to her label Epic, and to co-opt her producer Billy Sherrill. George was forced to buy himself out of his Musicor contract, but it was money well spent, even though his chart record remained somewhat inconsistent. George’s move to Epic saw him at the peak of his vocal prowess, married to Billy Sherrill’s smooth, Nashville Sound production.
This superb compilation contains six of George’s last tracks for Musicor, and over 20 of the finest tracks he recorded in his first eight years on Epic. These were the years of his troubled marriage to and divorce from Tammy Wynette, and the years his intensifying battles with drugs and alcohol earned him the inglorious nickname ‘No Show Jones’ and saw his health break down, but in the studio George Jones was creating magic and leading up to what many will call his finest moment on record. Step Right Up mixes classic hits with some well-chosen lesser known album cuts. The material is almost uniformly great here, concentrating on the sad songs at which George Jones has always excelled. Vocally George does not put a foot wrong, although some aspects of the production, mainly the backing vocals, now sound a little dated. The only reason to debate whether this album is worth buying is whether you might not try to get hold of the constituent albums, at least some of which are available on CD reissues.
George’s first single of the 70s, as he approached the end of his time with Musicor, was ‘Where Grass Won’t Grow’, a bleak, echoey tale of rural poverty in Tennessee,
Trying to grow corn and cotton on ground so poor that grass won’t grow
culminating in the death of the protagonist’s wife, buried in that same soil. The song, written by George’s old friend and drinking partner Earl Montgomery, was perhaps too downbeat to chart higher than the lower reaches of the top 30, but its quality led it to become regarded as a classic Jones record.
The exquisite expression of emotional devastation in ‘A Good Year For The Roses’ (written by Jerry Chestnut) is one of George’s most masterly vocal performances, reaching #2 on Billboard.
A handful of less well-known late Musicor cuts are also included. The tender steel-laced ballad of love for the protagonist’s motherless child, ‘She’s Mine’, co-written by George with Jack Ripley, was a top 10 hit. Slightly less successful, peaking at #13, was a great Dallas Frazier/Sanger D Shafer composition ‘Tell Me My Lying Eyes Are Wrong’, in which George manfully tries to pretend everything’s alright and his wife isn’t cheating on him, unusually featuring the Jones Boys’ backing. Another Dallas Frazier song (this time with A L Owens), ‘She’s As Close As I Can Get To Loving You’, has another great lead vocal, but is marred by excessive Nashville Sound backing vocals. Wayne Kemp’s ballad ‘Image Of Me’ has the protagonist confessing his shame that he has “dragged down” a simple old-fashioned country girl and made her into a honky-tonk angel, with another very fine vocal performance. Earl Montgomery’s ‘Right Won’t Touch A Hand’, a passionate confession of regret for jealousy which destroyed a relationship, was yet another top 10 hit in 1971.
Reba McEntire’s rise to the top of the country music world was long and slow. Her first single for Mercury Records, 1976’s “I Don’t Want To Be A One Night Stand” peaked at #88 on the Billboard country singles chart, and the next few singles stalled in the 80s as well. She didn’t reach the Top 20 until 1979 and didn’t reach the Top 10 until the following year. She finally scored her first #1 in 1982 with “Can’t Even Get The Blues”, a song that had been intended for Jacky Ward, but which she fought hard to be allowed to record.
Dissatisfied with the material Mercury was providing for her, Reba left the label when her contract expired in 1983, and signed with MCA Records. Unfortunately, her tenure at MCA got off to a rocky start when she found herself in another situation where she had little say in the material she recorded. Her 1984 debut album for the label turned out to be another slick, overproduced, pop-oriented record, that was almost indistinguishable from the albums she’d released for Mercury. A frustrated McEntire made an appointment to see Jimmy Bowen, who had just taken over the helm as president of MCA’s Nashville division, unaware that he had already decided to drop her from the label. Bowen quickly rethought his decision after meeting Reba in person. He not only allowed her to make another album, he let her choose another producer and gave her complete control over song selection. The result was 1984’s My Kind of Country, a pivotal album for Reba McEntire and for country music. Produced by Harold Shedd, it helped kick off the New Traditionalist movement and began a new phase of Reba’s career. Gone were the lush string arrangements and electric guitar solos, and back in front and center were the fiddle and pedal steel.
Two singles were released from the album — “How Blue” and the Harlan Howard and Chick Raines-penned “Somebody Should Leave” — both, of which became #1 hits. Five of the remaining songs were covers of older songs, since it was difficult to find new traditional-sounding songs in early 1980s Nashville. Reba spent hours going through the back catalogs of the publishing companies, to find the kind of songs she wanted. She ended up choosing songs that had been made famous by the likes of Faron Young (“He’s Only Everything), Carl Smith (“Before I Met You”), Ray Price (“I Want To Hear It From You”) , Nat Stuckey (“Don’t You Believe Him”), and Connie Smith (“You’ve Got Me Right Where You Want Me”). She sings each of them with an enthusiasm and zeal that had been lacking on most of her previous releases. It was obvious that she was finally singing the kind of music she really loved, and having the time of her life in the process.
A few days ago, I had the great honor and privilege of sitting down for a conversation with the legendary Connie Smith:
RX: Your entry into the country music world seems to be something that just sort of happened, instead of something that you spent a lot of time pursuing. Prior to meeting Bill Anderson, had you given any serious thought to going to Nashville to pursue a career in country music?
CS: No. It was always a dream I had to sing on the Grand Ole Opry. I remember when I was about 5 saying that, but I never thought I really would. If I hadn’t met Bill I probably wouldn’t have pursued it because I already had a young son. The way I met him was I went up to that park because I’d heard that George Jones would be there. But they’d given my husband and me the wrong date, so when we got there Bill was there. I hadn’t gone to sing, I just wanted to hear George because he was my favorite male singer. When we got there we found out that they had a talent contest every week, and my husband and friends talked me into entering. The biggest holdback was that you had to do your own accompaniment, and I can only play the guitar in the key of C, so I had to pick a song that I could do in C. And I think the reason I won was because the winner for the prior seven weeks was a seven-year-old banjo player and I guess they just wanted something different. I’d like to think it was my talent that won but I’m really not so sure. I know it wasn’t my guitar playing (laughs).
RX: But it was definitely your talent that caught the attention of Bill Anderson. You went to Nashville at his invitation, and “Once a Day”, your debut record, was a megahit – the kind that every new artist dreams of having right out of the box. Was it difficult to adjust to that kind of overnight success?
CS: I was just very lucky to have come along at the right time and to have gotten such a great, great song. But it was difficult being thrust into the spotlight so quickly. I just wanted to hear my record on the radio but I was never really career-driven.
RX: Most artists from that era, particularly women, seem to have been almost completely controlled by their labels and producers. Did you have any say in what you got to record or how your records sounded?
CS (emphatically): Absolutely. I never recorded anything I didn’t want to. I was very fortunate to get to work with Bob Ferguson as my producer for the first 9 years. Any attempts to force me to record something I didn’t want to wouldn’t have gone down well with me. If he really, really wanted me to do something, I did it but I was never forced. RCA did say to me, “You can do things besides just country,” and I said, “I’m not sure that I want to.” That wasn’t Bob or Chet forcing me – that was coming more from New York. They really wanted me to do some middle-of-the-road stuff. So we did the whole Downtown Country album. But those really weren’t the best songs for me.
My Kind of Country 