ROOTS of Country Music

The Professional Work of Liz Anderson

(Jan. 13, 1930 ~ Oct. 28, 2011)

Career Highlights

Barn Dance Affiliate: Ozark Jubilee

Film, Night Club, Radio & TV

• The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour, 4
• The Johnny cash Show, 4
• The Porter Wagoner Show, 4
• The Wilburn Brothers Show, 4 

1-Film, 2-Night Club, 3-Radio, 4-TV 

Billboard Chart Data 

• No. 1 Singles: 0
• Top-40 Singles: 8
• Crossover Singles: 0
• Charted Singles: 19
• Years Active: (1966-1973)

Career Labels:

• RCA Records (1966-1970)
• Epic Records (1970-1973)

Billboard Top-10 Singles

1. Go Now Pay Later -1966
2. The game of Traingles#
3. The Wife of the Party
4. Mama Spank* -1967
5. Tiny Tears
6. Thanks a Lot For Tryin' Anyway
7. Mother, May I, 1 -1968
8. Husband Hunting -1970

#-With Bobby Bare & Norma Jean

*-Biggest Chart Single

1-With Lynn Anderson

---------------------------------------------------------------------------Liz Anderson whose real name is Elizabeth Jane Haaby, was born in Roseau, Minnesota to a poor, religious family. Liz started singing and playing with a mandolin at the age of eight at her local church. In 1957, the family moved to Sacramento, California. The limited popularity at the time of country music in California led Anderson to start writing songs. Liz is the mother of country singer Lynn Anderson.

Anderson began publishing her songs and made friends within the burgeoning country music community in Bakersfield during the early 1960s. Some of the first hits from her pen were Be Quiet Mind by Del Reeves and Pick of the Week, which was recorded by Roy Drusky in 1964.

In 1965, Merle Haggard recorded her song All My Friends Are Gonna Be Strangers. Anderson won a BMI award for the song. Anderson published over 260 songs during her career and earned five BMI awards. Many major country artists of the 1960s recorded her songs on their albums, including Charley Pride, Tammy Wynette, Ernest Tubb, Loretta Lynn, George Jones, Skeeter Davis, Waylon Jennings, Kitty Wells, Connie Smith and Bill Anderson.

Anderson's first hit was in 1967 when she scored a Top-5 hit called Mama Spank. She also wrote hits for Merle Haggard such as All My Friends Are Gonna Be Strangers and The Lonesome Fugitive. In addition, Liz has written several other songs including I Watched You, Be Quiet Mind and I Don't Wonder for Del Reeves. The songwriting continued when she wrote Pick of the Week which was recorded in 1964 for Roy Drusky, who took it to No. 14.

Liz came to the attention of RCA producer Chet Atkins, who liked her style of singing and signed her to RCA in 1965. Anderson's first two singles fared well but it was her third Game of Triangles (No. 5, 1966) that became a big hit followed by a top-5 hit, Mama Spank. Game of Triangles included vocals by Bobby Bare and Norma Jean. Her other Top-40 hits included, Go Now Pay Later (No.23, 1966), The Wife of the Party (No. 22, 1966), Thanks A Lot For Tryin' Anyway (No. 40,1967) and Husband Hunting (No. 26, 1970).

Around that time her only child, daughter Lynn, was rising as a country singer. Anderson wrote a number of her daughter's early hits, including her 1967 debut single Ride, Ride, Ride (1966), as well as her first big hit, the Top-5, If I Kiss You (Will You Go Away) (1967).

Anderson had a duet with her daughter Lynn in 1968 with Mother May I which rose to number 25 on the Billboard Singles Chart. With her chart success on the wane in 1971 she moved to Epic Records when she had some minor chart success.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------Researched, compiled and written by Richard Bell, Country Music Historian, Roots of Country Music, Nashville, Tennessee, USA. April 18, 2011