Kitty Wells
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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.
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 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 Blue 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 Blue Guitar".
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 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.
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.
Kitty Wells on an album coverWells 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.
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
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
