Kitty Wells
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Kitty Wells
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| Background information
<tr><td>Birth name</td><td colspan="2">Muriel Deason</td></tr><tr><td>Born</td><td colspan="2">August 30, 1919</td></tr><tr><td>Origin</td><td colspan="2">Nashville, Tennessee</td></tr><tr><td>Genre(s)</td><td colspan="2">country music</td></tr><tr><td>Occupation(s)</td><td colspan="2">country singer</td></tr><tr><td>Instrument(s)</td><td colspan="2">singing/guitar</td></tr><tr><td>Years active</td><td colspan="2">1952-2002</td></tr><tr><td style="padding-right: 1em;">Label(s)</td><td colspan="2">RCA Records, Decca Records, Capricorn Records</td></tr><tr><td textalign="top" style="padding-right: 1em;">Associated |
Kitty Wells (born Muriel Deason on August 30, 1919) is a country singer from Nashville, Tennessee, known as the Queen of Country Music. During the 1950's she was the only female vocalist to consistently hit the top of the country charts and her stardom was on the same level as the biggest male vocalists of the period.
Wells' success in the 1950's and 1960's was so enormous that she still ranks as the sixth most successful female vocalist in the history of the Billboard country charts according to historian Joel Whitburn's book "The Top 40 Country Hits", behind Dolly Parton, Loretta Lynn, Reba McEntire, Tammy Wynette, and Tanya Tucker. Wells was the third country music artist, behind Roy Acuff and Hank Williams, to receive the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1991 as well as being the seventh woman and first Caucasian woman to receive the honor. In 1976, she was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.
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[edit] Rise to Fame
Wells debuted on WSIX, a Nashville-area radio station. There, she met and married Johnnie Wright. With Wright and his sister, Louise Wright, Wells toured as Johnnie Wright & the Harmony Girls. With the addition of Louise's Jack Anglin, the band became known as the Tennessee Hillbillies and then became the Tennessee Mountain Boys. When Anglin was drafted in 1942, Wright and Wells continued performing together, and she took the name Kitty Wells from a folk ballad called "I'm A-Goin' to Marry Kitty Wells". When Anglin returned, he and Wright formed the duo Johnny & Jack with Wells occasionally performing back-up vocals. By 1947, the duo was appearing regularly at the Grand Ole Opry, mostly performing with Wells (who did appear with the pair for the Louisiana Hayride).
Wells began recording gospel with RCA (with Johnnie & Jack on instrumental accompaniment), then switched to Decca for her first hit, 1952's "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels", which was a response to "The Wild Side of Life" by Hank Thompson. The song was controversial for its feminist stance, then unheard of in country music, paving the way for future strong female country singers like Wynette, Lynn, Parton, Patsy Cline, Skeeter Davis, and Connie Smith.
Wells then released a series of major hits, including "Paying for That Back Street Affair" (1953, answer song to Webb Pierce's "Back Street Affair"). Wells had she had 26 hits which charted in the top ten. Between 1952 and 1965, Wells won virtually ever "Top Country Female Vocalist" award. Her career began declining in the late 1960s, though she continued recording and performing into the 1990s.
Kitty Wells' greatest hits include Making Believe (1955), Searching (1956), I Can't Stop Loving You (1958) which was later covered by Ray Charles, Amigo's Guitar (1959), Heartbreak USA (1961), Unloved, Unwanted (1962), This White Circle (1964), and You Don't Hear (1965). In all, she had 64 hits on the Billboard top 40 country chart, placing her among the 25 most-charted singers in the chart's history.
Although not as known for her songwriting as some of her successors, Wells has published over 60 songs and won two BMI awards for her hits "Whose Shoulder Will You Cry On" and "Amigo's Guitar".
[edit] Trailblazing Female Vocalist
In 1952, Wells became the first woman to have a number one country record with "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels". The record release launched Wells into being one of the most popular singers in the country music field and for the next thirteen years virtually all of Wells' recordings were top ten hits. Wells' success opened the door for other female vocalists in the 1950's, notably Jean Shepard, Goldie Hill, and Rose Maddox, but no other woman came near her success; it was not until the early 1960's when Patsy Cline and Skeeter Davis emerged on the scene that other female vocalists began to hit the top ten charts with frequency. By the time Wells scored her final major hit, 1968's "My Big Truck Driving Man", there were more than a dozen women who could be considered top-level country stars, Shepard, Davis, Loretta Lynn, Connie Smith, Dottie West, Norma Jean (singer), Jan Howard, Jeannie Seely, and the fast-climbing newcomers Tammy Wynette, Dolly Parton, Lynn Anderson, and Jeannie C. Riley, all of whom owed a debt to Wells' for her groundbreaking career.
Wells became the first female country star to have her own syndicated television show with 1968's "The Kitty Wells Show", but the program could not compete against others starring more contemporary male artists like Porter Wagoner and Bill Anderson and only ran one year.
[edit] Queen of Country Music
Wells continued recording at least two albums a year for Decca through 1973. In 1974 she signed with Capricorn Records a southern rock label of the era and recorded a blues-flavored album Forever Young, on which she was backed by members of the Allman Brothers Band; the album was not a huge commercial success, though it received considerable acclaim. In 1976 Wells was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame, becoming one of the first women to do so (Patsy Cline was the first to be elected). In the late 1970's she and husband Wright formed their own record label, Ruboca (the name was a composite of their three children's names: Ruby, Bobby and Carol) and released several albums. In 1979 at age 60 she was back on the Billboard magazine charts with a modest hit, "I Thank You for the Roses". In 1987, she joined fellow Opry legends Brenda Lee and Loretta Lynn on k.d. Lang's "Honky Tonk Angels Medley. The Wells/Wright touring show remained a very successful road show well into the 1990's. In 2001, the country music legend officially retired with a farewell performance in her hometown of Nashville.
[edit] Video
CMT did a documentry on women of Country music and the songs behind them. One of them was Kitty Wells and you can watch this video clip by clicking at Watch Kitty Wells Video
[edit] Discography
[edit] Hit Singles
| Year | Single | U.S. Country | Album | |
| 1952 | "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels" | #1 | It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels | |
| 1955 | "As Long As I Live" | 3 | Country Music Hity Parade | |
| 1955 | "I've Kissed You My Last Time" | 7 | Country Music Hit Parade | |
| 1955 | "Makin' Believe" | 2 | Country Music Hit Parade | |
| 1956 | "How Far Is Heaven?" | 11 | Country Music Hit Parade | |
| 1956 | "Lonely Side of Town" | 7 | Country Music Hit Parade | |
| 1956 | "No One But You" | 3 | Country Music Hit Parade | |
| 1956 | "You and Me" | 3 | Country Music Hit Parade | |
| 1957 | "I'm Counting On You" | 6 | Winner of You Heart | |
| 1957 | "Repenenting" | 6 | Winner of You Heart | |
| 1957 | "Three Ways to Love You" | 7 | Winner of You Heart | |
| 1958 | "Jealousy" | 7 | After Dark | |
| 1959 | "Mommy For a Day" | 5 | After Dark | |
| 1960 | "Amigo's Guitar" | 5 | Seasons of My Heart | |
| 1961 | "Heartbreak U.S.A." | #1 | Heartbreak U.S.A. | |
| 1962 | "We Missed You" | 7 | Queen of Country Music | |
| 1962 | "Will Your Lawyer Talk to God" | 8 | Queen of Country Music | |
| 1964 | "Finally" | 9 | Especially For You | |
| 1964 | "Password" | 7 | Especially For You | |
| 1965 | "I'll Repossesses My Heart" | 8 | Burnin' Memories | |
| 1965 | "You Don't Hear" | 4 | Burnin' Memories | |
| 1966 | "It's All Over (But the Crying)" | 14 | Country All the Way | |
| 1966 | "A Woman Half My Age" | 15 | Country All the Way |
