It was absolutely one of many extra exceptional chart debuts of the pre-rock’n’roll period, and it was doubtlessly “just” a novelty reply document. On July 19, 1952, a number of weeks earlier than her thirty third birthday, a neighborhood Nashvillean referred to as Muriel Ellen Deason, recognized on disc as Kitty Wells, entered the Billboard nation chart with a response to Hank Thompson’s smash hit of the day, “The Wild Side Of Life.” She created a sensation in her personal proper with the chart’s first-ever No.1 for a feminine artist, “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels.”
Wells’ Decca single was noteworthy for a lot of different causes, not least the fearless proto-feminism of a lyric that referred to as out the unfaithfulness of males. All of the extra strikingly, “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels” was written by a person, producer-artist JD “Jay” Miller. He was particularly recognized for his work with Cajun acts and, aged 30 on the time of the hit, was nearly three years Wells’ junior.
‘The first female western record to happen in years’
Wells was fearless in confronting the feelings of Thompson’s phrases head-on. “The Wild Side Of Life,” written by Arlie Carter and William Warren, was a break-up music that very a lot took mens’ aspect and, successfully, accused girls of free morals (“I didn’t know God made honky tonk angels/I might have known you’d never make a wife/You gave up the only one that ever loved you/And went back to the wild side of life”).
The music spent 15 weeks at No.1 from Could 1952, however, as a songwriter, Miller wasn’t having any of it. Neither, when she minimize her reply, was Wells. The lyrics even referred to the hit taking part in on the jukebox. “It wasn’t God who made honky tonk angels, as you said in the words of your song,” she retorted. “Too many times married men think they’re still single/That has caused many a good girl to go wrong.” The battle of the sexes had arrived in nation music, and even with Thompson’s launch nonetheless on the charts, Wells took her bow.
“Here, Miss Wells has better material to work with, and she reads it in appealing style,” wrote Billboard of “… Honky Tonk Angels,” It went on to a six-week reign on the gross sales chart and 5 on the jukebox play survey. “This is the first female western record to happen in years,” reported Cashbox. “It’s due to go pop any second.” The music didn’t make that crossover, however the profession that Kitty had been attempting to launch for thus a few years was lastly up and operating.
Opening a door for generations of females
Wells had been singing together with her sisters on native radio from her teenagers, and was married from the age of simply 18 to Johnnie Wright of the performing duo Johnnie & Jack. They made the charts earlier than she did: Kitty toured with the duo and Wright’s sister Louise as The Concord Ladies, and Wells recorded for RCA Victor from 1949, however with out success. Johnnie & Jack, then again, went on to quite a few hits on that label, with seven Prime 10 singles between 1951 and 1954, together with the No.1 “(Oh Baby Mine) I Get So Lonely.”
Hearken to the perfect of Kitty Wells on Apple Music and Spotify.
The publishers of “The Wild Side Of Life” launched a lawsuit, since their music’s melody had been used within the reply disc. However since each had been based mostly on the sooner melodies “I’m Thinking Tonight Of My Blue Eyes” and “The Great Speckled Bird,” the case was dropped. “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels” utterly re-routed Wells’ profession, setting her down the trail to turning into one among nation music’s most beloved singers.
En path to 81 chart entries
She adopted it with two extra reply information, responding to Webb Pierce and Carl Smith, respectively, with “Paying For That Back Street Affair” and “Hey Joe.” Each songs made the Prime 10 in 1953, as Kitty set about amassing 81 chart appearances, 35 of them within the Prime 10.
Within the course of, she opened a door for generations of feminine singers and legitimised their work in a approach she couldn’t have dreamed. Wells’ final chart entry, in 1979, was quite poetic: it was a model, with Rayburn Anthony, of the very music she had channelled to make it within the first place, “The Wild Side Of Life.”
Purchase or stream “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels” on Kitty Wells’ twentieth Century Masters compilation.
