Kitty Wells

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Kitty Wells
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 genre.

Wells single-handedly changed the face of country music and controversially began the tradition of female country singers expressing frank lyrics from an feminine point of view. She inspired a number of other country singers over the next two decades such as Jean Shepard, Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn, Tammy Wynette, Skeeter Davis, Dottie West, and Connie Smith.

Kitty Wells' success in the 1950s and 1960s was so large that, as of 2006, she still ranked as the sixth most successful female vocalist in the history of the Billboard country charts.[1] In 1976, Wells was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, and in 1991, she was the third country music artist, behind only Roy Acuff, and Hank Williams, to receive the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. She was also the seventh woman and first Caucasian woman to receive the honor.

Early years

Wells was born Ellen Muriel Deason in Nashville, Tennessee in 1919, long before Nashville earned its reputation as the "Music City U.S.A." In her teens, she debuted on WSIX, a Nashville-area radio station. There, she met singer Johnnie Wright, whom she eventually married when she was 18 years old.

Wells sang with husband Johnnie and his sister Louise Wright, and the three of them toured on the road as Johnnie Right & the Harmony Girls. Soon Johnnie met Jack Anglin and the two formed the well-known duo later known as Johnnie and Jack. The band now became known as the Tennessee Hillbillies and then became the Tennessee Mountain Boys. Jack Anglin and Johnnie's sister, Louise, then married. In 1942, Anglin was drafted to fight in World War II and the band was temporarily split up. While Anglin was away, the group continued touring and Wells took on the stage name that she would be known as the for rest of her life, taking the name from the Folk tune "My Sweet Kitty Wells."

When Jack Anglin returned from the World War II the band reformed as Johnnie and Jack. Kitty, who was now a mother of two, rarely performed with the group until it started making regular appearances on a show titled the Louisiana Hayride. Soon after, Johnnie and Jack began recording music for various small record labels, but Wells did not start recording 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.

At the time, her newly released records did not get much attention because producers were skeptical about a female artists being able to sell records, and RCA dropped Wells from the label. At this point, Wells was ready to retire from the music business and focus more on raising her family.

"Honky Tonk Angels"

As a last resort Wells recorded the song "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels," written by J.D. Miller. Ironically, the song had been turned down by almost every musician Miller had attempted to recruit for it. It was an "answer song" to Hank Thompson's number-one hit at the time, "The Wild Side of Life," in which Thompson regrets his fiancee leaving him, stating "I didn't know God made honky tonk angels; I might have known you'd never make a wife." Sung to the same melody as Thompson's hit, the answer song counters that the woman's leaving was due to her man's infidelity: "Too many times, married men think they're still single; that has caused many a good girl to go wrong." Wells herself was reportedly not happy about recording the song, but producers at Decca records were enthusiastic about it, and in May 1952, Wells cut her version.

No one expected the reaction the song received when in 1952 "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels" became an instant hit. The song spent six weeks at number one on the country charts and became one of the most controversial songs ever recorded. It was almost unheard of for a woman to record a song from a feminist stance, and the song was soon banned from the the Grand Ole Opry. Nevertheless, Wells herself was invited to join the Opry that same year, and record producers all over the country rushed to find female singers to match the success Wells had with the song.

Wells then released several additional major hits, including "Paying for That Back Street Affair" (1953), an answer song to Webb Pierce's "Back Street Affair"). Her duet with Red Foley, "One By One," stayed on the charts for nearly a year, and set the stage for a series of hit duets with Foley and Wells in the next decade.

Height of her career

Wells continued to succeed on the country music charts for the rest of the 1950s and into the 1960s, becoming one of the most successful country singers of the era. In 1955, her duet with Red Foley called "As Long As I Live" ranked seventh among the country hits that year. The pair recorded a series of hit duets such as "No One But You" and "You and Me" during the rest of the 1950s. They also successfully toured together across the country, setting a trend for several later duet acts.

Wells also had major hits as a solo singer. "Makin' Believe," "There's Poison In Your Heart," and "I've Kissed You My Last Time" were some of her early country hits. Later hits from the mid 50s included "Lonely Side of Town," "Repenting," and "Searching (For Someone Like You)." One of her songs from this time, "Jealousy," was Wells' only entry on the pop charts.

Although Wells was never known much for her songwriting ability, she did write some of her own material throughout her career. She won two BMI awards for her songwriting of "Whose Shoulder Will You Cry On" and "Amigo's Guitar." 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 close to achieving 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.

Wells continued to manage quite a few hits in the early to mid 1960s. In 1961, she obtained her second number one hit, entitled "Heartbreak U.S.A." Her success continued with another string of top tens, such as "We Missed You," "Will Your Lawyer Talk to God," "I'll Repossess My Heart," and "Password." She also had a duet hit with Webb Pierce in 1964 called "Finally." Wells continued to put risky material in much of her songs throughout her career, inspiring other female country singers to do the same. Loretta Lynn, for example, followed suit when she recorded "Don't Come a Drinkin' (With Lovin' On Your Mind)" in 1967.

Wells also became the first female country star to have her own syndicated television show in 1968. Called "The Kitty Wells Show," the program was fairly popular but could not compete against others starring more contemporary male artists such as Porter Wagoner and Bill Anderson, and only ran for one year.

By the time Wells scored her final major hit in 1968, "My Big Truck Driving Man," there were more than a dozen women who could be considered top-level country stars, such as 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.

Overall, Kitty Wells had 64 hits on the Billboard Top 40 country chart, placing her among the 25 most-charted singers.

Later life and today

Wells continued recording at least two albums a year for Decca until 1973. In 1974, she signed with Capricorn Records 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, she was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame, becoming one of the first women to receive the honor (Patsy Cline was the first to be elected). In the late 1970s, she and her husband 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, Wells 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 show remained a very successful road show well into the 1990s. In 2001, Wells officially retired with a farewell performance in her hometown of Nashville.

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

Notes

  1. Whitburn, 2006.

References
ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

  • Dawidoff, Nicholas. In the Country of Country: People and Places in American Music. New York: Pantheon Books, 1997. ISBN 978-0679415671
  • Dunkleberger, A.C. Queen of Country Music: The Life Story of Kitty Wells. Nashville, Tenn.: Ambrose Printing, 1977. OCLC 49909573
  • Pinson, Rob; Weize, Richard; and Wolfe, Charles. The Golden Years, Kitty Wells. Legacy Books, 1987. ASIN B0006EY75O
  • Whitburn, Joel, The Billboard Book of Top 40 Country Hits, 2006. ISBN 0823082911

External link

Retrieved September 19, 2008.

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