Scooter Lee | |
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Birth name | Scooter Lee |
Born | New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S. | March 10, 1957
Genres | |
Years active | 1971–present |
Labels |
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Website | www |
Scooter Lee (born March 10, 1957) is an American singer-songwriter & line dance entertainer. Raised on St. Charles Avenue in New Orleans, Louisiana, [1] her career started at age 14 when she was signed to Allen Toussaint's record label in New Orleans, recording with Irma Thomas, Jerry Lee Lewis and Fats Domino. There, she was labeled as 'the little lady with the big voice'; recording country blues for the label. She soon settled in on recording country music with a blues overtone.
During the 1970s, Scooter Lee toured alongside major artists, including Linda Ronstadt, Kris Kristofferson, Tammy Wynette and Johnny & June Carter Cash. In the 1980s, Scooter Lee gained ground with her 5 piece band sponsored by the RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company, working 10 months a year at every major state fair and other regional festivals. Performing 2-3 shows daily, 300 dates a year, taught her the art of fully commanding a stage. Spotted in Los Angeles in 1985, Scooter Lee was invited to join the Bob Hope USO Tours and gained experience on stages in war-torn countries.
Scooter Lee grabbed the attention of the country music dance community during the early 1990s when she was signed to Sony Records to follow in the footsteps of Billy Ray Cyrus, Brooks & Dunn, Tracy Byrd and Reba McEntire just as the 'line dance' phenomenon emerged. She developed and perfected the formula of writing & recording a perfectly phrased song that was not only 'dancer friendly' but 'radio friendly' as well. [2] Some of her most successful singles include J'ai du Boogie, Dizzy, Rose Garden, High-Test Love, Ribbon Of Highway, Roll Back The Rug, Honky Tonk Twist, OeeOeeO, Rock & Roll Waltz, Rompin' Stompin', Louisiana Hot Sauce, This Little Light Of Mine, Splish Splash and Break Away.
In Nashville, TN, Scooter Lee is considered one of the hardest working artist on the road, performing more than 175 days a year worldwide. [3] She tours 27 countries, including: the USA, England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Denmark, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, Sweden, Japan, Canada, Finland, Norway, Germany, Switzerland and Belgium.
Currently, Scooter Lee resides in Atlanta, Georgia where she owns and operates her international distribution company for audio and video as well as founding a senior health 501(c)(3) charity organization that uses line dance as its chosen form of exercise. The nonprofit charity, Dancing For The Dream, Inc., promotes healthy lifestyles for seniors throughout the United States & abroad [4] and encourages "Dancing For The Health Of It". [5]
Jerry Lee Lewis is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. Nicknamed the Killer, he has been described as "rock n' roll's first great wild man and one of the most influential pianists of the 20th century." A pioneer of rock and roll and rockabilly music, Lewis made his first recordings in 1956 at Sun Records in Memphis. "Crazy Arms" sold 300,000 copies in the South, but it was his 1957 hit "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On" that shot Lewis to fame worldwide. He followed this with the major hits "Great Balls of Fire", "Breathless", and "High School Confidential". However, his rock and roll career faltered in the wake of his marriage to Myra Gale Brown, his 13-year-old cousin.
Boogie-woogie is a genre of blues music that became popular during the late 1920s, developed in African-American communities in the 1870s. It was eventually extended from piano, to piano duo and trio, guitar, big band, country and western music, and gospel. While standard blues traditionally expresses a variety of emotions, boogie-woogie is mainly associated with dancing and Boogie-woogie dance. The genre had a significant influence on rhythm and blues and rock and roll.
A honky-tonk is both a bar that provides country music for the entertainment of its patrons and the style of music played in such establishments. It can also refer to the type of piano used to play such music. Bars of this kind are common in the South and Southwest United States. Many eminent country music artists, such as Jimmie Rodgers, Loretta Lynn, Patsy Cline, Ernest Tubb, Johnny Horton, and Merle Haggard, began their careers as amateur musicians in honky-tonks.
Loretta Lynn is an American singer-songwriter. In a career which spans six decades in country music, Lynn has released multiple gold albums. She had hits such as "You Ain't Woman Enough ", "Don't Come Home A-Drinkin' ", "One's on the Way", "Fist City" and "Coal Miner's Daughter". In 1980, the film Coal Miner's Daughter was made based on her life.
Anderson Meade Lewis, known as Meade Lux Lewis, was an American pianist and composer, remembered for his playing in the boogie-woogie style. His best-known work, "Honky Tonk Train Blues", has been recorded by many artists.
Polly Adelaide Hendricks Hazelwood, known professionally as Del Wood, was an American pianist.
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.
John LaGale Horton was an American singer and musician. Initially performing country music, Horton later performed rockabilly songs. He is best known for a series of history-inspired country songs that became international hits. His 1959 single "The Battle of New Orleans" was awarded the 1960 Grammy Award for Best Country & Western Recording. The song was awarded the Grammy Hall of Fame Award and in 2001 ranked No. 333 of the Recording Industry Association of America's "Songs of the Century". His first No. 1 country song was in 1959, "When It's Springtime in Alaska ".
Brooks & Dunn are an American country music duo consisting of Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn, both of whom are vocalists and songwriters. The duo was founded in 1990 through the suggestion of Tim DuBois. Before the foundation, both members were solo recording artists. Both members charted two solo singles apiece in the 1980s, with Brooks also releasing an album for Capitol Records in 1989 and writing hit singles for other artists.
Mickey Leroy Gilley was an American country music singer and songwriter. Although he started out singing straight-up country and western material in the 1970s, he moved towards a more pop-friendly sound in the 1980s, bringing him further success on not just the country charts, but the pop charts as well.
Roselea Arbana "Rose" Maddox was an American country singer-songwriter and fiddle player, who was the lead singer with the Maddox Brothers and Rose before a successful solo career. Her musical styles blended hillbilly music, rockabilly and gospel. She was noted for her "reputation as a lusty firebrand", and her "colorful Western costumes"; she was one of the earliest clients of Hollywood tailor, Nathan Turk.
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.
Michael Webb Pierce was an American honky-tonk vocalist, songwriter and guitarist of the 1950s, one of the most popular of the genre, charting more number one hits than any other country artist during the decade.
Samuel Paul Kershaw is an American country music artist. He has released 16 studio albums, with three RIAA platinum certifications and two gold certifications among them. More than 25 singles have entered Top 40 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts, including his only number one hit "She Don't Know She's Beautiful" and 10 more Top 10 hits: "Cadillac Style", "Anywhere but Here", "Haunted Heart", "Queen of My Double-Wide Trailer", "I Can't Reach Her Anymore", "National Working Woman's Holiday", "Third Rate Romance", "Meant to Be", "Vidalia", and "Love of My Life".
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.
Thomas Grady Martin was an American session guitarist in country music and rockabilly.
Charline Arthur was an American singer of boogie-woogie, blues, and early rockabilly. In 1950, Arthur began work as a singer and a disc jockey at the Texas radio station KERB. She left three years later after the impresario Colonel Tom Parker discovered her, signing her with RCA Records. She was a regular performer on the Big D Jamboree radio program throughout the 1950s and 1960s. She also performed and toured with Elvis Presley and others, but in 1956 RCA dropped her from the label and her career declined. Described as a "flash in the pan" and a "woman before her time", Arthur was inducted into the Rockabilly Hall of Fame and has, since the 1980s, found favor with critics who praise her vocal style, her stage presence, and her influence on artists such as Elvis Presley and Patsy Cline.
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 a song written and performed by American country artist Loretta Lynn that was also released as her debut single. 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.
Rose Lee Maphis was an American country singer and musician.