ROOTS of Country Music

The Professional Work of Barbara Mandrell

1WithDavid Houston

Barbara Mandrell (born Dec. 25, 1948) is a country music singer best known for a 1970s-1980s series of top-10 hits and TV shows that helped her become one of country's most successful female vocalists of the era.

Born the oldest daughter into a musical family in Houston, Texas, Barbara 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 Lee 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 was fourteen, her family formed its own group, with her father Irby on vocals and guitar, her mother Mary Ellen on bass and Barbara handling pedal steel and saxophone. The band also included drummer Ken Dudney, whom Barbara would eventually marry. The Mandrells toured the U.S. and Asia before Barbara made her first recordings in 1963, among them the minor hit Queen for a Day.

After a few more years of touring, 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.

Her early hits included Tonight My Baby's Comin' Home and After Closing Time (a duet with David Houston). While with Columbia Records, Mandrell worked with legendary country producer Billy Sherrill, who also produced Charlie Rich and Tammy Wynette. Under Sherrill's direction, Mandrell recorded country-soul material, which never gained her widespread success. Her records barely sold on the Columbia label. Sherrill later said in the book, How Nashville Became Music City, he was continually asked every year by the other Columbia executives why he was keeping Mandrell because she wasn't selling records. Sherrill kept Barbara with the label until late 1974.

In 1975, Mandrell jumped to the ABC/Dot label and under the guidance of producer Tom Collins reached the top-5 for the first time with the single, Standing Room Only (No. 5, 1975). After a series of successive hits, she earned her second No. 1 with Sleeping Single in a Double Bed (No. 1, 1978), immediately followed by (If Loving You Is Wrong) I Don't Want to Be Right ) (No. 1, 1979). In 1979, Years also reached No. 1. Mandrell added one more chart topper in each of the next three years. I Was Country When Country Wasn't Cool (No. 1, 1981), Till You're Gone (No 1, 1982) and One of a Kind, Pair of Fools (No. 1, 1983).

Barbara was the first performer to be selected for Country Music Association's (CMA) Entertainer of the Year. She is currently the only female in country music history to win CMA’s Entertainer of the Year award twice (1980 & 1981). Mandrell has also won CMA's Female Vocalist of the Year twice (1979 & 1981). Barbara was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2009.

Listen to: Midnight Oil

Written by: Richard Bell, Roots of Country Music. Oct. 2011.