The Youngest Country Music Artists to Achieve a Debut No. 1 Single
What's Your Mama's Name is the title track from Tanya Tucker's 1973 album. What's Your Mama's Name was written by Dallas Frazier and Earl Montgomery and was Tucker's fourth hit on the country chart and her first No. 1 Billboard single. When the song entered the Billboard country chart in 1973, Tucker was just fifteen years old.
The song stayed at No. 1 for a week and spent a total of fourteen weeks on the chart. On the Billboard Hot 100 pop chart, it reached No. 86. The song tells, in flashback, of a man named Buford Wilson. The story begins at least 30 years beforehand, when the young man travels to Memphis, Tennessee in search of a woman that he had a previous relationship with in New Orleans. He spends the next decade asking people about the woman's whereabouts, and is generally ignored.
The following are the five youngest artists to chart a debut No. 1 single:
- Tanya Tucker (b. Oct. 10, 1958)
What's Your Mama's Name (Mar. 24, 1973)
- Jean Sheppard (b. Nov. 21, 1933)
A Dear John Letter (Jul. 25, 1953)
- Bobby Helms (b. Aug. 15, 1936)
Fraulein (Mar. 30, 1957)
- Hank Williams Jr. (May 26, 1949)
All For the Love of Sunshine (Aug. 1, 1970)
- Jerry Lewis (b. Sep. 29, 1935)
Whole Lot of Shakin' Going on (Jun. 17, 1957)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The Oldest Country Music Artists to Achieve a Debut No. 1 Single
At age 51, Johnny Wright was the oldest country music artist to chart a debut No. 1 single on Billboard. Hello Vietnam, with backing vocals from Johnny Wright's wife, Kitty Wells, was Wright's most successful release on the Billboard country music chart as a solo singer. His singing partner from Johnnie and Jack (Jack Anglin), was killed in a car accident in March 1963. Hello Vietnam spent twenty weeks on the chart with three weeks at No. 1. Somewhat unusual for this song's success was the fact that the song openly and uncharacteristically, supported the Vietnam War effort.
The following are the five oldest artists to chart a debut No. 1 single:
- Johnny Wright (b. May 13, 1914)
Hello Vietnam (Aug. 28, 1965)
- Vern Gosdin (Aug. 5, 1934)
I Can Tell by the Way You Dance (Mar. 31, 1984)
- Lester Flatt (b. Jun. 19, 1914)
Battle of Jed Clampett (Dec. 8, 1962)
- Dottie West (Oct. 11, 1932)
A Lesson in Leavin' (Feb. 9, 1980)
- CW McCall (born Nov. 15, 1928)
Convoy (Nov. 29, 1975)
- Jim Glazier (b. Dec. 16, 1937)
You're Getting to Me Again (Jun. 9, 1984)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Researched, compiled and written by Richard Bell, Country Music Historian, Roots of Country Music, August 6, 2011.
References: Record Research: Country Music Singles 1944 -- 1993; Billboard Magazine; Roots of Country Music Chronicles.
