Dwight David Yoakam is an American singer-songwriter, actor, and film director. He first achieved mainstream attention in 1986 with the release of his debut album Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc.. Yoakam had considerable success throughout the late 1980s onward, with a total of ten studio albums for Reprise Records. Later projects have been released on Audium, New West, Warner, and Sugar Hill Records.
Gary Ronnie Stewart was an American musician and songwriter, known for his distinctive vibrato voice and his outlaw country sound influenced by southern rock. At the height of his popularity in the mid-1970s, Time magazine described him as the "king of honkytonk." He had a series of country chart hits from the mid- to late 1970s, the biggest of which was "She's Actin' Single ", which topped the U.S. country singles chart in 1975.
Ellen Muriel Deason, known professionally as Kitty Wells, was an American pioneering female country music singer. She broke down a barrier to women in country music with her 1952 hit recording "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels", which also made her the first female country singer to top the U.S. country charts and turned her into the first female country superstar. “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels” would also be her first of several pop crossover hits. Wells is the only artist to be awarded top female vocalist awards for 14 consecutive years. Her chart-topping hits continued until the mid 1960s, paving the way for and inspiring a long list of female country singers who came to prominence in the 1960s.
"It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels" is a 1952 country song written by J. D. "Jay" Miller, and originally recorded by Kitty Wells. It was an answer song to the Hank Thompson hit "The Wild Side of Life."
Ollie Imogene "Jean" Shepard was an American honky-tonk singer-songwriter. Shepard released a total of 73 singles to the Hot Country Songs chart, one of which reached the number-one spot. She recorded a total of 24 studio albums between 1956 and 1981, and became a member of the Grand Ole Opry in 1955.
Honky Tonk Angels is a collaborative studio album by Dolly Parton, Loretta Lynn and Tammy Wynette. It was released on November 2, 1993, by Columbia Records. The album was certified Gold by the RIAA on January 5, 1994, for sales of 500,000 copies.
Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc. is country music artist Dwight Yoakam's debut album. It was also the first of three consecutive No. 1 Billboard Country Albums for him. The album was the first of more than a dozen Yoakam albums featuring his collaboration with record producer-guitarist Pete Anderson.
Mark Nelson Chesnutt is an American country music singer and songwriter. Between 1990 and 1999, he had his greatest chart success recording for Universal Music Group Nashville's MCA and Decca branches, with a total of eight albums between those two labels. During this timespan, Chesnutt also charted twenty top-ten hits on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts, of which eight reached number one: "Brother Jukebox", "I'll Think of Something", "It Sure Is Monday", "Almost Goodbye", "I Just Wanted You to Know", "Gonna Get a Life", "It's a Little Too Late", and a cover of Aerosmith's "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing". His first three albums for MCA along with a 1996 Greatest Hits package issued on Decca are all certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA); 1994's What a Way to Live, also issued on Decca, is certified gold. After a self-titled album in 2002 on Columbia Records, Chesnutt has continued to record predominantly on independent labels.
"The Wild Side of Life" is a song made famous by country music singer Hank Thompson. Originally released in 1952, the song became one of the most popular recordings in the genre's history, spending 15 weeks at number one on the Billboard country chart, solidified Thompson's status as a country music superstar and inspired the answer song, "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels" by Kitty Wells.
The albums discography of Kitty Wells, an American country artist, consists of thirty-six studio albums, eleven compilation albums, and one box set. Wells' first album release was 1956's Country Hit Parade on Decca Records, which compiled her hits during her first four years of recording for the label. Prior to its release, many labels were reluctant to release albums by female country artists until Wells became the first female vocalist to sell records. Following its release, Wells and her label issued three studio albums during the 1950s: Winner of Your Heart (1957), Lonely Street (1958), and Dust on the Bible (1959). After the success of Wells' number one single "Heartbreak U.S.A." in 1961, an album of the same name was released the same year.
Willie "Jay" Lee Webb was an American country music singer. He is known for his 1967 song, "I Come Home A-Drinkin' ", which was written as an "answer song" to his older sister Loretta Lynn's #1 1967 hit "Don't Come Home A Drinkin'".
The discography of American country music singer-songwriter Loretta Lynn includes 50 studio albums, 36 compilation albums, two live albums, nine video albums, two box sets and 27 additional album appearances. Briefly recording with the Zero label, she signed an official recording contract with Decca Records in 1961, remaining there for over twenty years The first under the label was her debut studio album Loretta Lynn Sings (1963). It peaked at number two on the Billboard Top Country Albums survey. Lynn would issue several albums a year with her growing success, including a duet album with Ernest Tubb (1965), a gospel album (1965), and a holiday album (1966). Her seventh studio album You Ain't Woman Enough (1966) was her first release to top the country albums chart and to chart within the Billboard 200. Other albums to reach number one during this period were Don't Come Home a Drinkin' (1967) and Fist City. Don't Come A'Drinkin would also become Lynn's first album to certify gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
"I'm a Honky Tonk Girl" is the debut single by American country music artist Loretta Lynn, released in March 1960. The song was among the first to not only be recorded by Lynn, but also to be penned by her. She composed the song while living in the state of Washington, maintaining her role as a housewife and occasional member of a local country music band. The composition was later recorded in California after Lynn was given money by a local businessman, who was impressed by her singing. "I'm a Honky Tonk Girl" was then issued as a single under the newly founded and independent Zero Records label in March 1960.
Lynn Anderson's Greatest Hits, Vol. 1 is a compilation album by American country artist Lynn Anderson. It was released in January 1971 via Chart Records and was produced by Slim Williamson. The package was Anderson's third compilation released in her music career and contained previous hits recordings she had for the Chart label in the 1960s. Ten tracks were included in the album's release.
After Dark is an album recorded by Kitty Wells and released in 1959 on the Decca label. On its release, Billboard praised the "haunting nasal quality" of her voice and called the album another "great collection of ballads having to do with the seamy and sinful sides of life, sung as only Kitty Wells can sing them."
Kitty Wells' Country Hit Parade is an album by Kitty Wells that was released in 1956 on the Decca label. Joe Viglione of Allmusic.com gave it four stars and called it "groundbreaking", "a classic of the genre", and "entertaining beyond its historical importance."
The Kitty Wells Story is a double album consisting of re-recordings of the greatest hits of Kitty Wells. It was released in 1963 on the Decca label.
The Kitty Wells Show is a live album recorded at a concert by Kitty Wells, her son Bobby Wright, her husband Johnny Wright, singer Bill Phillips, and musicians Tommy Jackson, Paul Yandell and Odell Martin. The album was released in 1966 on the Decca label in the United States and on the Brunswick label in the United Kingdom.
Love Makes the World Go Around is an album recorded by Kitty Wells and released in 1967 on the Decca label in the United States and on the Brunswick label in the United Kingdom.
Guilty Street is an album by country singer Kitty Wells, released in 1969 on the Decca label. The album included two songs that charted on the Billboard country singles chart: "Happiness Hill" and "Guilty Street".
