Kitty Wells
| Kitty Wells | |
|---|---|
| Kitty Wells playing the guitar Kitty Wells playing the guitar
| |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Ellen Muriel Deason |
| Also known as | Kitty Wells |
| Born | August 30, 1919 |
| Origin | Nashville, Tennessee |
| Genre(s) | Country |
| Occupation(s) | Singer |
| Instrument(s) | Vocals, Guitar |
| Years active | 1952–Present |
| Label(s) | RCA Records Decca Records Capricorn Records |
| Associated acts | Red Foley, Jean Shepard, Patsy Cline |
| Website | Kitty Wells Official Website |
Kitty Wells (born Ellen Muriel Deason on August 30, 1919) is an American Country Music Singer. Her 1952 hit recording "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels" made her the most popular female country singer up to that time and led to the introduction of female stars in the male-dominated Country Music field. She inspired a number of other country singers over the next two decades such Jean Shepard, Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn, Tammy Wynette, Skeeter Davis, Dottie West and Connie Smith. Kitty 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.
Rise to Success
Kitty Wells was probably the most successful Country Music singers of the 1950s and early 60s, having a series of Top Ten hits to her credit. Many artists over the years have looked to Wells for inspiration because she established a trail for other female Country singers to come. Wells was born Ellen Muriel Deason in Nashville, Tennessee in 1919, long before Nashville earned its reputation as "Music City U.S.A.". She was also one of the few Country singers born in Nashville. In her teens, Wells debuted on WSIX, a Nashville-area radio station. There at the radio staion, Wells met singer Johnnie Wright, who would later game fame as half of the duo of the Country group Johnnie and Jack. the two eventually married while Kitty was eighteen years old. She sang with Johnnie and his sister Louise Wright and the three of them toured on the road as Johnnie Right & the Harmony Girls. Soon Johnnie Wright met Jack Anglin and the two later formed the duo they became best known for called Johnnie and Jack. With the addition of Jack Anglin, the band became known as the Tennessee Hillbillies and then became the Tennessee Mountain Boys. Soon Jack Anglin and Johnnie's sister Louise married. In 1942 Anglin was drafted to fight in World War 2 and the band was temporarily split up. While Anglin was away, they toured and Kitty took on a stage name that she would be known as the for rest of her life. Wells took the stage name from the old Folk tune "My Sweet Kitty Wells". When Jack Anglin returned from the Second World War they reformed the band. Kitty was a now a mother of two and rarely performed with the new duo group entitled Johnnie and Jack. Now Kitty was more concerned in raising her two children, as well as being a housewife. The duo Johnnie and Jack moved their way up onto performing regular appearances on the newly-made Louisiana Hayride. With the help of the duo, Wells started perfoming on the program as well and the duo Johnnie and Jack began recording music for a couple of small record labels. Although Wells did perform on Louisiana Hayride she didn't start recording on records until Johnnie and Jack were signed to RCA Records in 1949. At the duo's first session, Wells accompanied them on their recording sessions and also cut four sides of her own. Her records released at the time didn't get much notice, being that record producers said the "women don't sell records". The label kept Johnnie and Jack but dropped Kitty from RCA. Johnnie and Jack would later have their own string of successful hits during the 1950s in Country Music. Wells's husband sent a demo tape to Paul Cohen of Decca Records, who was the same producer that worked with Patsy Cline in her early recording sessions. At this point Wells was just about ready to retire from the music business and focus more on raising her family. However, Wells was given the song "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels", written by J.D. Miller. The song was shopped around but it was turned down by almost everybody. It was an answer song to Hank Thompson's #1 hit at the time, "The Wild Side of Life". Wells was not happy about recording the song but Cohen liked the it and insisted that Wells record a version for the Decca label. In May of 1952, Wells cut her version of the song.
The Success of "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels"
Nobody had ever expected the reaction the song would get in 1952. "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels" went immediately to #1 on the Country Music charts in 1952. The song spent six weeks at #1 on the charts. "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels" was one of the most controversial songs ever recorded at the time. It was almost unheard of a woman to record a song from a feminist stance. The song was soon banned from being on the Grand Ole Opry. However the song was turned into a million-seller overnight. Record producers all over the country were trying to find female singers to match the success Wells had with "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels". With record producers trying to find other female singers to match Wells' success, other female Country singers came about during this time, like Goldie Hill and Jean Shepard. Although Wells' song was banned from the Opry in 1952, she was able to join the Opry and she became member that same year. 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"). Another song recorded as a follow-up to this hit was the Red Foley and Kitty Wells duet hit "One By One", which stayed on the charts for nearly a year. "One By One" set the stage a for series of hit duets between Foley and Wells in the next decade.
The Height of Her Career In the 50s & 60s
People who don't know Kitty Wells at all, except for her signature tune "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels" may think that she was a One-hit wonder. However, Wells continued to have great success on the Country Music charts for the rest of the 1950s and even into the 1960s, becoming one of the most successful Country singers of the era. In 1953, Wells maintained a successful follow-up with the Top Ten hit "Paying For That Back Street Affair". With that, Kitty Wells became one of the most successful Country singers of the 1950s maintaining a string of Top ten hits. In 1955, she had another hit, this time a duet hit with Red Foley called "As Long As I Live", which was a #7 Country hit that year. The pari recorded a series of hit duets the rest of the 50s, like "No One But You" and "You and Me". They also had a successful tour together as well. This same duet success later became successful for other Country Music paris, like Loretta Lynn and Conway Twitty and also Kenny Rogers and Dottie West as well. In addition to having a series of duets that became hits, she also had other hits a solo singer. "Makin' Believe", "There's Poision In Your Heart" and "I've Kissed You My Last Time" were some of her early Country hits. "Makin' Believe", one of her biggest hits just missed topping the Billboard charts in 1955. Other songs continued to be quite successful for Wells too. "Lonley Side of Twon" "Rpenting" and "Searching (For Someone Like You)" were her biggest hits from the mid 50s. One of her songs from this time entitled "Jealousy" was Wells' only entry on the Pop charts. Her songs continued to maintain the success Wells always dreamed of having and also maintained that controversial and risky material. Wells continued to put much of this in much of her songs throughout her career, inspiring other female Country singers to to record risky material as well. Loretta Lynn was one of her followers in this sense, when she recorded "Don't Come a Drinkin' (With Lovin' On Your Mind)" in 1967. Although Kitty Wells was never known much for her songwriting ability, she did write some of her material throughout her career. She won two BMI awards for her songwriting, when she wrote two hits for herself in the late 50s; "Who's Shoulder Will You Cry On" and "Amigo's Guitar". Overall in her career, she has published over 60s songs written by her.
In 1960, Wells recorded a Top 40 duet hit with Roy Drusky called "I Can't Tell My Heart That". At this time, Drusky was only starting out in Country Music and he would soon bceome very successful. Wells' success did not end in the 50s however. She continued to mange quite a few hit in the early to mid 60s. In 1961, Wells obtained her second #1 hit called "Heartbreak U.S.A.". The song was one of Wells' most successful songs, alongside her 1952 signature hit. Although, Wells was one of the most successful female Country singers to date, she only acheived 2 #1 hits during her thirty years in Country Music. Her success as a successful continued into the mid 60s with another string of Top Tens, like "We Missed You", "Will Your Lawyer Talk to God", "I'll Repossess My Heart" and "Password". She had a duet hit with Webb Pierce in 1964 called "Finally". By this time, a series of female Country singers entered the Country Music business and became very successful thanks to Wells' efforts, like Patsy Cline (who died in 1963), Loretta Lynn and Connie Smith. 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. Wells' success opened the door for other female vocalists in the 1950s, notably Jean Shepard, Goldie Hill, and Rose Maddox, but no other woman came near her success; it was not until the early 1960s 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, 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. By 1967, Kitty Wells' success as a Country singer was evaporting. She had her last major hit the previous year called "A Woman Half My Age". 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.
Later Life & Today
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 1970s 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.
Video
CMT did a documentary 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
Discography
Singles
| Year | Single | U.S. Country Singles | U.S. Pop Singles | Album | |
| 1952 | "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels" | #1 | - | Country Music Hall of Fame Series | |
| 1953 | "Paying For That Back Street Affair" | #6 | - | Country Music Hall of Fame Series | |
| 1955 | "As Long As I Live" (with Red Foley) | #3 | - | Kitty Wells' & Red Foley's Golden Hits | |
| 1955 | "I've Kissed You My Last Time" | #7 | - | Country Hit Parade | |
| 1955 | "Make Believe ('Til We Can Make It Come True)" | #6 | - | Queen of Country Music | |
| 1955 | "Makin' Believe" | #2 | - | Country Hit Parade | |
| 1955 | "There's Poison In Your Heart" | #9 | - | Country Hit Parade | |
| 1955 | "Who's Shoulder Will You Cry On" | #7 | - | Country Hit Parade | |
| 1956 | "How Far Is Heaven" | #11 | - | Singing on Sunday | |
| 1956 | "I'd Rather Stay Home" | #13 | - | Country Music Hall of Fame Series | |
| 1956 | "Lonely Side of Town" | #7 | - | After dark | |
| 1956 | "No One But You" (with Red Foley) | #3 | - | Kitty Wells & Red Foley's Golden Hits | |
| 1956 | "Searching (For Someone Like You) | #3 | - | Country Music Hall of Fame Series | |
| 1956 | "You and Me" (with Red Foley) | #3 | - | Kitty Wells' & Red Foley's Golden Hits | |
| 1957 | "I'll Always Be Your Fraulein" | #10 | - | Kitty Wells' Golden Favorites | |
| 1957 | "I'm Counting on You" (with Red Foley) | #6 | - | Kitty Wells and Red Foley's Golden Hits | |
| 1957 | "Repenting" | #6 | - | Kitty Wells' Golden Favorites | |
| 1957 | "Three Ways (To Love You)" | #7 | - | Kitty Wells' Golden Favorites | |
| 1958 | "Jealousy" | #7 | #78 | Kitty Wells' Golden Favorites | |
| 1958 | "One Week Later" | #12 | - | Queen of Country Music | |
| 1958 | "She's No Angel" | #3 | - | Winner of Your Heart | |
| 1958 | "Touch and Go Heart" | #15 | - | The Kitty Wells Story | |
| 1959 | "All the Time" | #18 | - | The Kitty Wells Story | |
| 1959 | "Mommy For a Day" | #5 | - | The Kitty Wells Story | |
| 1959 | "Your Wild Life's Gonna Get You Down" | #12 | - | After Dark | |
| 1960 | "Amigo's Guitar" | #5 | - | Seasons of My Heart | |
| 1960 | "Left to Right" | #5 | - | Kitty Wells' Golden Favorites | |
| 1960 | "I Can't Tell My Heart That" (with Roy Drusky) | #26 | - | More Great Country Duets | |
| 1961 | "Heartbreak U.S.A." | #1 | - | Heartbreak U.S.A. | |
| 1961 | "The Other Cheek" | #19 | - | Seasons of My Heart | |
| 1961 | "There Must Be Another Way to Live" | #20 | - | Kitty Wells | |
| 1961 | "Ficke Fun" | #29 | - | Seasons of My Heart | |
| 1962 | "We Missed You" | #7 | - | Especially for You | |
| 1962 | "Will Your Lawyer Talk to God" | #8 | - | Especially For You | |
| 1963 | "I Gave My Wedding Dress Away" | #22 | - | The Kitty Wells Story | |
| 1963 | "A Heartache For a Keepsake" | #29 | - | Kitty Wells | |
| 1964 | "Finally" (with Webb Pierce) | #9 | - | Kitty Wells Duets | |
| 1964 | "Password" | #4 | - | The Queen of Country Music | |
| 1964 | "This White Circle on My Finger" | #7 | - | Kitty Wells Greatest Hits | |
| 1965 | "I'll Repossess My Heart" | #8 | - | Burning Memories | |
| 1965 | "Meanwhile, Down At Joe's" | #9 | - | Country All the Way | |
| 1965 | "You Don't Hear" | #4 | - | Burning Memories | |
| 1965 | "Six Lonely Hours" | #27 | - | Burning Memories | |
| 1966 | "It's All Over (But the Crying)" | #14 | - | The Kitty Wells Show | |
| 1966 | "A Woman Half My Age" | #15 | - | Country All the Way | |
| 1966 | "Only Me and My Hairdresser Know" | #49 | - | Love Makes the World Go Around | |
| 1966 | "A Woman Never Forgets" | #52 | - | Country All the Way | |
| 1967 | "Queen of the Honky Tonk Street" | #28 | - | Queen of the Honky Tonk Street | |
| 1967 | "Love Makes the World Go Around" | #34 | - | Love Makes the World Go Around | |
| 1967 | "Happiness Means You" (with Red Foley) | #43 | - | Together Again | |
| 1967 | "Hello Number One" (with Red Foley) | #60 | - | Together Again | |
| 1968 | "We'll Stick Together" (with Red Foley) | #54 | - | Kitty Wells Duets | |
| 1968 | "Living As Strangers" (with Red Foley) | #63 | - | Together Again | |
| 1969 | "Have I Told You Lately That I Love You" (with Red Foley) | #74 | - | Together Again | |
| 1979 | "The Wild Side of Life" | #60 | - | Real Thing | |
| 1979 | "Thank You For the Roses" | #75 | - | Greatest Hits Vol. 1 | |
| 1987 | "Honky Tonk Angels Medley" (with k.d. Lang, Brenda Lee and Loretta Lynn | - | Absolute Torch and Twang |
External link
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