Loretta Lynn Biography

Loretta Lynn Biography

 Loretta Lynn (born Loretta Webb on April 14, 1934) is an American country music singer-songwriter and was one of the leading country vocalists and songwriters during the 1960s and 1970s, and overall is revered as a country icon. Lynn ruled the charts during the '60s and '70s, racking up over 70 hits as a solo artist and a duet partner. With an impoverished upbringing, a devoted, yet troubled marriage, chronic illness and exhaustion due to her hectic pace, and several tragedies through the years, Lynn's own life often provided the grist for her popular tunes. Her best-selling 1976 autobiography, Coal Miner's Daughter, was made into a hit Oscar-winning film starring Sissy Spacek and Tommy Lee Jones. Although she was out of the loop for a few years while taking care of her husband, who died in 1996, Lynn returned to touring in 1998. In 2000, she released her first album since 1988 to contain original solo material. Loretta Lynn has acquired sixteen Number 1 country hits over the course of her career, as both a solo and duet artist. Lynn began singing in local clubs and later with a band, The Trailblazers, which included her brother Jay Lee Webb. Lynn appeared in a televised Tacoma, Washington talent contest, hosted by Buck Owens, which was seen by Norm Burley, one of the founders of Zero Records. Zero Records president Don Grashey arranged a recording session in Hollywood, where four of Lynn's own compositions were recorded: "I'm A Honky Tonk Girl," "Whispering Sea," "Heartache Meet Mister Blues," and "New Rainbow." Her first release featured "Whispering Sea" and "I'm A Honky Tonk Girl." With their initial support, Lynn went on to become one of country music’s greats. Lynn signed her first contract on February 1, 1960, with Zero Records. She recorded her first release in March of that year, with bandleader Speedy West on steel guitar, Harold Hensely on fiddle, Roy Lanham on guitar, Al Williams on bass, and Muddy Berry on drums. The material was recorded at Western Recorders, engineered by Don Blake and produced by Grashey.

 Although Kitty Wells had become the first major female country vocalist during the 1950s, by the time Lynn recorded her first record, only three other women - Patsy Cline, Skeeter Davis, and Jean Shepard - had become top stars. By the end of 1962, it was clear that Lynn was on her way to becoming the fourth. Lynn credits Cline as her mentor and best friend during those early years, and as fate would have it, Lynn would follow her as the most popular country vocalist of the early '60s and, eventually, the 1970s. Lynn released her first Decca single, "Success," in 1962, and it went straight to Number 6, beginning a string of Top 10 singles that would run through the rest of the decade and throughout the next. She was a hard honky-tonk singer for the first half of the '60s and rarely strayed from the genre. Between this time, Lynn soon began to regularly hit the Top 10 after 1964 with "Before I'm Over You", which peaked at #4, followed by "Wine, Women, and Song", which peaked at #3. In late 1964, Lynn also recorded a duet album with Lynn's idol and Country performer, Ernest Tubb. Their lead single, "Mr. and Mrs. Used to Be" peaked within the Top 15. Together, the pair recorded two more albums, We Put Our Heads Together (1968) and Story (1973). In 1965, Lynn's solo career continued with three major hits that year, "Happy Birthday", "Blue Kentucky Girl" (later recorded and made a Top 10 hit in the 70s by Emmylou Harris), and "The Home You're Tearing Down". Lynn's label issued two albums that year, Songs from My Heart and Blue Kentucky Girl. While most of these songs were Top 10 Country hits, none of them reached #1.

 As a solo artist, Lynn's career continued to be very successful into 1971, achieving her fifth #1 solo hit, "One's on the Way", written by poet and songwriter, Shel Silverstein. The songs that didn't reach the top spot peaked within the Top 10 during this time, "I Wanna Be Free", "You're Lookin' At Country" and 1972's "Here I Am Again", all released on separate albums. The next year, she became the first country star on the cover of Newsweek. In 1973, "Rated X" peaked at #1 on the Billboard Country Chart, and was considered one of Lynn's most controversial hits. The next year Lynn's next single, "Love Is the Foundation" also became a #1 Country hit from her album of the same name. The second and last single from that album, "Hey Loretta" became a Top 5 hit. Lynn continued to reach the Top 10 until the end of the decade, including with 1975's "The Pill", considered to be the first song to discuss birth control.  In 1977, Lynn recorded a tribute album to friend and Country-pop singer, Patsy Cline, who died in a plane crash in 1963. The album covered some of Cline's biggest hits. The two singles Lynn released from the album, "She's Got You" and "Why Can't He Be You" became major hits. "She's Got You", which formerly went to #1 by Cline in 1962, went to #1 again that year by Lynn. "Why Can't He Be You" peaked at #7 shortly afterward. In 1976, Lynn released Coal Miner's Daughter, an autobiography whose title came from her #1 record of 1970. It became a New York Times bestseller and was made into a film in 1980, starring Sissy Spacek as Lynn and Tommy Lee Jones as her husband, Doolittle. Spacek won the Academy Award for Best Actress for the part. Due mostly to the critical and commercial success of the film, Lynn gained more "mainstream" attention in the early 1980s, starring in two primetime specials on NBC.

The '80s featured more hits ("Pregnant Again," "Naked In The Rain," "Somebody Led Me Away"). Her 1980 and 1981 albums, Loretta and Lookin' Good spawned these hits. Lynn was the first woman in country music to have 50 Top 10 hits. Her last Top 10 record as a soloist was "I Lie" in 1982, but her releases continued to chart until the end of the decade. Lynn continued to have Top 20 hits sporadically during the '80's. By this time, however, it was evident that Lynn's chart success was fading. One of her last solo releases was 1985's "Heart Don't Do This to Me," which reached #19; her last Top 20 hit. In 1993, Lynn stopped releasing singles and focused more on touring than promoting. As a concert artist, she remained a top draw throughout her career, but by the early 1990s she drastically cut down the number of personal appearances due to the fragile health of her husband, who died in 1996. Lynn returned to the public eye in 1993 with the trio album Honky Tonk Angels, recorded with Dolly Parton and Tammy Wynette, and the following year released a three-CD boxed set chronicling her career. In 1995, she taped a seven-week series on the Nashville Network (TNN) titled Loretta Lynn & Friends, and performed about 50 dates that year as well. The album's only single, a cover of "Silver Threads and Golden Needles" only reached #68. However the album became very successful for the trio, peaking at #4 on the Top Country Albums chart and #42 on the Billboard 200 and sold enough copies to be certified "Gold" by the RIAA shortly after its release. In 2004, Lynn made a comeback with the highly successful album Van Lear Rose, the second album on which Lynn either wrote or co-wrote every song. The album was produced by her "friend forever" Jack White of The White Stripes, and featured guitar work and backup vocals by White. Her collaboration with White allowed Lynn to reach new audiences and generations, even garnering high praise in magazines that specialize in mainstream and alternative rock music, such as Spin and Blender.Rolling Stone voted the album the second best of the year for 2004. (White has long been an admirer of Lynn and claims she is his favorite singer. He has covered several songs of hers, including the controversial "Rated X.")