Thanks to a string of hit singles and a popular television variety series,
vocalist
Barbara Mandrell was arguably the biggest female star in country music in
the late
'70s and early '80s. Born the oldest daughter into a musical family in Houston,
TX, on Christmas Day, 1948,
Barbara Mandrell was already reading music and playing accordion by the age of five.
Just six years later, she was so adept at playing the steel guitar that her
father escorted her to a music trade convention in Chicago, where her talents
caught the attention of
Chet Atkins and
Joe Maphis. Soon after, she was a featured performer in
Maphis' Las Vegas nightclub show, followed by television performances and
tours with
Red Foley,
Johnny Cash, and
Tex Ritter.
When
Barbara Mandrell was 14, her family formed its own group, with her father Irby on
vocals and guitar, her mother Mary Ellen on bass, and
Barbara Mandrell handling pedal steel and saxophone. The band also included drummer
Ken Dudney, whom
Barbara Mandrell would eventually marry. The Mandrells toured the U.S. and Asia
before
Barbara Mandrell made her first recordings in 1963, among them the minor hit "Queen
for a Day." After a few more years of touring,
Barbara Mandrell briefly retired in order to become a housewife, but she soon grew
restless and returned to the music business. After signing with Columbia in
1969, she notched her first chart hit, a cover of the
Otis Redding classic "I've Been Loving You Too Long." In 1970,
Barbara Mandrell scored the first of many Top 40 hits with "Playin' Around With
Love." In the same year, she began performing with singer
David Houston, and their partnership also generated considerable chart
success.
In 1975,
Barbara Mandrell jumped to the ABC/Dot label, and under the guidance of producer
Tom Collins reached the Top Five for the first time with the single
"Standing Room Only." After a series of successive hits, she earned her first
number one with 1978's "Sleeping Single in a Double Bed," which was immediately
followed by another chart-topper, "(If Loving You Is Wrong) I Don't Want to Be
Right," in early 1979. Later in the year, "Years" also reached number one, as
did three more singles -- "I Was Country When Country Wasn't Cool," "'Till
You're Gone," and "One of a Kind Pair of Fools" -- between 1981 and 1983, a
period during which
Barbara Mandrell also received numerous industry awards and accolades.
In 1980, the TV program Barbara Mandrell and the Mandrell Sisters premiered
on NBC. In addition to hosts
Barbara,
Louise, and Irlene Mandrell, the show featured musical guests and comedy
sketches. Each broadcast also closed with a gospel song, and in 1982
Barbara Mandrell released her own inspirational album, He Set My Life to Music. As a
result of her busy schedule, she began suffering from vocal strain, and on
doctor's orders pulled the plug on the television program in 1982. In 1983, she
premiered The Lady Is a Champ, a Las Vegas stage show, and released two LPs, In
Black & White and Spun Gold.
A collection of duets with
Lee Greenwood, Clean Cut, followed in 1984. Tragedy struck later in the
year, however, when
Barbara Mandrell and two of her children were involved in a nightmarish head-on car
crash that left the other driver dead. Though
Barbara Mandrell and her kids survived, all three faced a long period of recovery.
When she finally returned to performing a year later, the country music
landscape had changed dramatically, with the "new traditionalist" movement
gaining dominance while the glitzier, more pop-influenced music
Barbara Mandrell favored began falling out of favor. As the 1980s became the 1990s,
she began focusing almost exclusively on live performing, where she remained a
significant draw; she also published her autobiography, Get to the Heart: My
Story. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide
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