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Kitty Wells (born Muriel Deason on August 30, 1919)
is an American country
musician from Nashville, Tennessee, known from about
1955 as the Queen of Country
Music.
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 Tammy Wynette, Patsy Cline, Skeeter Davis, and Loretta Lynn.
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"). During the
remainder of the 50s, she had 23 hits which charted in the top ten. Between 1952
and 1965, Wells won virtuallly 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".
In 1974, Wells was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. In 1991, she received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement
Award.
In 1997, she recorded a Medley of "The
Wild Side of Life" and "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels" along with
Hank Thompson and Tanya Tucker. IN 2001, the country music legend officially
retired with a farewell performance in her hometown of Nashville.
Wells became the first woman in 1952 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. 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 which was not
a commercial success although it received considerable acclaim. In the late
1970's she and husband Wright formed their own record label, Ruboca 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". The
Wells/Wright touring show remained a very successful road show well into the
1990's.
Source: Wikipedia
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