Coccinelle

Jacqueline Charlotte Dufresnoy (23 August 1931 - 9 October 2006), better known by her stage name Coccinelle, was a French actress, entertainer and singer. She was transgender, and was the first widely publicized post-war gender reassignment case in Europe, where she was an international celebrity and a renowned club singer.

Born in Paris at rue Notre Dame de Nazareth Nr. 66 in the 3rd arrondissement of Paris, she took the stage name Coccinelle (French for "ladybug") when she entered show business, making her debut as a showgirl in 1953 at Chez Madame Arthur where her mother was a flower seller. She later performed regularly at the famous nightclub Le Carrousel de Paris, which also featured regular acts by other famous trans women such as April Ashley and Marie-Pier Ysser. 

She sang the title track of Premier rendez-vous, a 1941 film directed by Henri Decoin. She became a media sensation, and performed the Cherchez la femme revue which ran for 7 months at the Olympia in Paris between 1963 and 1964. In 1987 her autobiography was published, titled Coccinelle par Coccinelle.  

In 1959 she appeared in Europa di notte by director Alessandro Blasetti. That same year, Italian singer Ghigo Agosti dedicated the song Coccinella to her, provoking widespread consternation and controversy. Coccinelle appeared in the 1962 film Los Viciosos and was the first French trans woman to become a major star, when Bruno Coquatrix splashed her name in red letters on the front of Paris Olympia for her 1963 revue, Cherchez la femme. She later appeared in the 1968 film Días de viejo color.  

Coccinelle worked extensively as an activist on behalf of transgender people, founding the organization "Devenir Femme" (To Become Woman), which was designed to provide emotional and practical support for those seeking gender reassignment surgery. She also helped establish the Center for Aid, Research, and Information for Transsexuality and Gender Identity. In addition, her first marriage was the first union to be officially acknowledged by the government of France, establishing transgender persons' legal right to marry. Her 1987 autobiography Coccinelle was published by Daniel Filipacchi. Coccinelle was hospitalized in July 2006 following a stroke and died on 6 October at Marseille.

Moe Tucker

Maureen Ann "Moe" Tucker (born August 26, 1944) is an American musician and singer best known for having been the drummer for the New York City-based rock band the Velvet Underground. As a teenager Tucker was an avid fan of Babatunde Olatunji, whose music she first heard on Murray the K's radio show. Olatunji, along with Bo Diddley and the Rolling Stones, inspired her to become a musician. She began playing the drums in 1963, at age 19. Without any formal instruction, she learned by playing along with popular songs on a second-hand drum kit.

When she was asked to join the Velvet Underground, Tucker had dropped out of Ithaca College and was working for IBM as a keypunch operator. The band's original percussionist, Angus Maclise, had left in November 1965 because he felt the band sold out when it took a paying gig. Tucker was drafted because Velvets guitarist Sterling Morrison remembered her as the younger sister of one of his college friends who played the drums. Tucker was frequently noted for her androgynous appearance. Tucker's style of playing was unconventional. She played standing up rather than seated (for easier access to the bass drum), using a simplified drum kit of tom toms, a snare drum and an upturned bass drum, playing with mallets rather than drumsticks. She rarely used cymbals; she claimed that since she felt the purpose of a drummer was simply to "keep time", cymbals were unnecessary for this purpose and drowned out the other instruments.

Apart from drumming, Tucker sang co-lead vocals on three Velvet Underground songs: the acoustic guitar number "After Hours" and the experimental poetry track "The Murder Mystery", both from 1969's The Velvet Underground album, as well as "I'm Sticking with You", a song recorded in 1969 but left (officially) unreleased until it appeared on the 1985 outtakes compilation VU. Lou Reed said of "After Hours" that it was "so innocent and pure" that he could not possibly sing it himself. In the early days, Tucker also occasionally played the bass guitar during live gigs, an instrument that was usually played by the band's regular bassist John Cale. Morrison would normally play the bass if Cale was occupied with viola or keyboards, despite his lack of enthusiasm for playing the instrument. However, some songs had Reed and Morrison playing their usual guitars and Cale was occupied with viola or keyboards and as a result, nobody was on bass: two examples of this are "Heroin" and "Sister Ray". 






Tucker temporarily left the group but she  returned to the band in late 1970, by which time Reed had left the group and Doug Yule had assumed leadership. She toured North America (United States and Canada) and Europe (United Kingdom and the Netherlands) with the band during 1970 and 1971; shortly afterward, she quit the band and the music business altogether.

In the 1990s Tucker started recording and touring again, releasing a number of albums on small, independent labels that feature her singing and playing guitar, fronting her own band. This band at times included former Velvets colleague Sterling Morrison. Tucker also participated in the 1993 Velvet Underground reunion, touring Europe and releasing the double album Live MCMXCIII. Apart from releasing her own records, Tucker has made guest performances on a number of others' records, including producing Fire in the Sky (1992) for Half Japanese, whose guitarist, John Sluggett, plays drums on her own recordings. In Jeff Feuerzeig's documentary about Half Japanese, The Band That Would Be King, Tucker performs and is interviewed extensively. Also, she has appeared with Magnet and former Velvet Underground band members Lou Reed (New York) and John Cale (Walking on Locusts). Tucker also played drums on and produced the album The Lives of Charles Douglas by indie rocker and novelist Charles Douglas (also known as Alex McAulay) in 1999. She played bass drum, wrote songs, and sang with the New York/Memphis punk rock–delta blues fusion group the Kropotkins with Lorette Velvette and Dave Soldier in 1999–2003, recording "Five Points Crawl". In 2017 she played at the Grammy Salute to Music Legends awards ceremony. A band, amongst others, consisting of John Cale, played two Velvet Underground classics "Sunday Morning" and "I'm Waiting For The Man". The Velvet Underground was the recipient of the 2017 Merit Award. 

Raffaella Carrà

Raffaella Maria Roberta Pelloni (born 18 June 1943), better known as Raffaella Carrà, is an Italian singer, dancer, television presenter, and actress. She is a popular figure in Europe and Latin America, both as a result of her many well-known taped presentations and records, and because of her many popular TV shows. Carrà is widely regarded as a gay icon.

Since 1961, Carrà has sung and danced on the variety shows of Italian television. In particular, since the early 1970s, they have contained elaborate choreography, mesmerizing elaborate themes, and her uninhibited style. She was the first television personality to show her belly button on camera. This was met with heavy criticism from the Vatican and Catholic churches in the countries that watched her show, Canzonissima.

Carrà had a hit song with the sensual Tuca Tuca (1971), written for her singing and dancing television presentations by her long-time collaborator and former boyfriend, Gianni Boncompagni. Similarly, in 1971 Carrà achieved other hits with Ma che musica maestro and Chissà se va. Her greatest international hit single was Tanti Auguri (Best Wishes), which has become a popular song with gay audiences. The song is also known under its Spanish title Para hacer bien el amor hay que venir al sur (which refers to Southern Europe, since the hit was recorded and taped in Spain). The Estonian version of the song Jätke võtmed väljapoole was performed by Anne Veski.

"A far l'amore comincia tu" (To make love, your move first) was another success for her internationally, known in Spanish as En el amor todo es empezar, in German as Liebelei, in French as Puisque tu l'aimes dis le lui, and in English as Do It, Do It Again. It was her only entry to the UK Singles Chart, reaching number 9 in 1978, where she remains a one-hit wonder. "A far l'amore comincia tu" has also been covered in Turkish by a Turkish singer Ajda Pekkan as "Sakın Sakın Ha". In 1977, she recorded another hit single, Fiesta (Party) originally in Spanish, but then recorded it in french and italian after the song hit the charts. In 1984, Carrà recorded "Spera, aspetta e spera", italian version for "Lança Perfume", classic from Rita Lee, the queen of brazilian rock'n roll. In 1985, Carrà's Starlight Express video was released featuring characters, costumes and sets from the show.

Carrà has gained new attention for her appearance as the female dancing soloist in a 1974 TV performance of the proto-rap funk gibberish song Prisencolinensinainciusol (1973) by Adriano Celentano. A remixed video containing her dancing went viral on the internet in 2008. In 2008 a video of a performance of her only UK hit single, Do It, Do It Again, appeared in the Doctor Who episode Midnight.

Gudrun Gut

Gudrun Gut (born in 1957 in Celle as Gudrun Bredemann) is a German musician, DJ, presenter, music producer and owner of the music label Monika Enterprise. 

Gudrun Gut grew up in Lüneburger Heide. She has lived in Berlin since 1975. She studied visual communication at the Berlin University of the Arts from 1978 to 1984. She has been active in Berlin's alternative music scene since the late 1970s: in 1977 she was a member of the performance band DIN A Testbild with Mark Eins and others. In 1979 she founded the band Mania D with Karin Luner, Bettina Köster, Eva Gössling and Beate Bartel. With Bettina Köster she opened the Eisengrau shop in Goltzstrasse in Berlin-Schöneberg in 1978. Clothes, tapes, fanzines and other items from Berlin producers were sold there. She later continued the shop with Blixa Bargeld. Gudrun Gut, N. U. Unruh and Beate Bartel were founding members of Einstürzende Neubauten along with Blixa Bargeld. In Women in Rock, a documentary from 1980, Mania D is represented with two pieces, and in 1995 this documentary was re-released. At the beginning of 1981 she founded the band Malaria! with Bettina Köster. The band's best-known title Kalter Klares Wasser was released in April 1981. In 1982 she founded the experimental project Matador (with Manon Pepita Duursma and Beate Bartel).  

In 1990 she voiced Ophelia (with Blixa Bargeld as Hamlet) in the radio play production of Heiner Müller's Hamlet Machine. This was followed by several music for radio plays with Wolfgang Rindfleisch as dramaturge and in 2002 music for the children's educational play Brand im Hafen? From 1991 she worked with the Canadian Myra Davies in the performance/spoken word project Miasma. Since 1993, Gudrun Gut has been running the Ocean Club project. In 1996, she released the pop CD The Ocean Club, and from August 1997 to July 2012 she hosted and produced the weekly show Ocean Club Radio on Radio Eins together with Thomas Fehlmann.





In 1990, Gudrun Gut founded her label Moabit Musik, on which she (re)releases mainly her own music and cultural affinities. In 1997, Monika Enterprise followed as her second label, on which Quarks, Komëit, Barbara Morgenstern and Contriva, among others, are released. In 2005 she released the 7″ single Move me on the Irish label Earsugar. After the success of the single she finished her album I put a Record on, which was released in 2007. Worldwide concerts followed.

Sharon Jones

Sharon Lafaye Jones (May 4, 1956 – November 18, 2016) was an American soul and funk singer. She was the lead singer of Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, a soul and funk band based in Brooklyn, New York. Jones experienced breakthrough success relatively late in life, releasing her first record when she was 40 years old. In 2014, Jones was nominated for her first Grammy, in the category Best R&B Album, for Give the People What They Want.

A regular gospel singer in church, during the early 1970s Jones often entered talent shows backed by local funk bands. Session work then continued with backing vocals, often credited to Lafaye Jones, but in the absence of any recording contract as a solo singer, she spent many years working as a corrections officer at Rikers Island and as an armored car guard for Wells Fargo, until receiving a mid-life career break in 1996 after she appeared on a session backing the soul and deep funk legend Lee Fields. The session was organized by Gabriel Roth and Philippe Lehman, then the owner of the now-defunct French record label Pure Records. Jones was the only one of three singers called to the session to show up. Having completed all the backing parts herself, Roth and Lehman were suitably impressed with her performance and recorded "Switchblade", a solo track with Jones. This track and "The Landlord" were included on the Soul Providers' album Soul Tequila, released by Lehman on Pure circa 1996. The Soul Providers—with members of the Brooklyn bands Antibalas and the Mighty Imperials—later formed the Dap-Kings, who became Jones's regular backing band.

Lehman and Roth started a new label based in Brooklyn, Desco Records, now also defunct. Soul Tequila was re-released as Gimme the Paw, which omitted "The Landlord" but kept "Switchblade". Jones recorded and released three 45-rpm singles for Desco: "Damn It's Hot" part 1 backed by part 2, "Bump N Touch" part 1 backed by "Hook and Sling Meets the Funky Superfly" (a medley cover of tracks by Eddie Bo and Bobby Williams), and "You Better Think Twice" backed by "I Got the Feeling" (a James Brown cover). The singles gained some notice among 45 soul and funk collectors, particularly because in the early days of Desco Records some collectors may have believed them to be originals from the early seventies, as they were not dated. These singles were also released on a compilation CD, the Desco Funk 45' Collection, with tracks by various other artists in the Desco stable. Launched on the back of the popularity of Desco Records, Daptone Records' first release was a full-length album by Sharon Jones. A new band, the Dap-Kings, was formed from the former members of the Soul Providers and the Mighty Imperials. Some of the musicians went on to record for Lehman's Soul Fire label, while some formed the Budos Band, an Afro-beat band. From the original Soul Providers, Roth (also known as Bosco Mann) on bass, guitarist and emcee Binky Griptite, percussionist Fernando Velez, trumpet player Anda Szilagyi and organist Earl Maxton were joined by original Mighty Imperials saxophonist Leon Michels and drummer Homer Steinweiss, plus Neal Sugarman from Sugarman 3, to form The Dap-Kings.

In 2002, under the name Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, the group released the album Dap Dippin' with Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, for which they received immediate attention and acclaim from enthusiasts, DJs and collectors. With three more albums under their belt, Naturally (2005), 100 Days, 100 Nights (2007) and I Learned the Hard Way (2010) they are seen by many as the spearhead of a revival of soul and funk.

It was announced on June 3, 2013, that Jones had been diagnosed with bile duct cancer and had undergone surgery, which forced her to postpone the release of the group's fifth album, Give the People What They Want. The diagnosis was later changed to stage II pancreatic cancer, for which Jones had surgery on her liver and underwent chemotherapy. The chemotherapy caused hair loss, and for a time she performed bald, refusing to wear wigs. During the screening of her documentary at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival, Jones revealed that her cancer had returned, and that she would be undergoing chemotherapy again. She suffered a stroke while watching the 2016 United States presidential election results and another the following day. Jones remained alert and lucid during the initial period of her hospital stay, jokingly claiming that the news of Donald Trump's victory was responsible for her stroke. Jones died on November 18, 2016, in Cooperstown, New York, aged 60. 

Joy Ryder

Joy Ryder embodied the best of all possible styles ... Although Ryder has been called a blues singer, she was a jack of all trades: jazz stylist, punk diva and rock 'n' roll rabble rouse. Brooklyn-born Ryder (nee Denise Whelan) was the daughter of jazz singer and bassist Phil Whelan, who had a hit with the song "One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer" with his band The Five Encores. Her childhood was filled with her father's rehearsals and her own piano lessons from the age of four. 

In 1967, aged 16, she worked with Wavy Gravy and The Hog Farm performing at the Electric Circus, attended peace demonstrations, volunteered with The Yippies, UATWMF, and The Diggers. Joy also worked with Kusama, the famed avant-garde painter in her large-scale happenings. In 1968 she went to study at the University of Hawaii.

She started singing in bands that played local Army bases and then changed her name to Joy Ryder. She dropped out of the University of Hawaii, returning to NY and looked for singing work. She studied acting at the Lee Strasberg Institute, then at an audition, she met guitar player, Avis Davis and they started a band, The Davis/Ryder Band, and toured the underground rock circuit, opening for acts like the Ramones, John Cale and Iggy Pop. After recording their rock anthem "No More Nukes," they performed for a quarter of a million people at Battery Park City in 1979 with Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, Crosby, Stills and Nash, and others.

In 1980, Joy moved to Berlin to work with underground theatre director Tony Ingrassia, where she appeared in films, plays and had several mainstream recording contracts with RCA, Polydor, CBS and Mercury Records. Since the late 1980s Joy made her home on Staten Island and was a much beloved figure in the NY music scene. She died from liver cancer caused by Hepatitis C on the 14th of February 2015.

Rita Lee

Rita Lee (born Rita Lee Jones, December 31, 1947) is a Brazilian rock singer, composer and writer. She is a former member of the Brazilian band Os Mutantes and is a popular figure in Brazilian entertainment, where she is also known for being an animal rights activist. She has sold more than 60 million albums worldwide. Her autobiography Rita Lee: Uma Autobiografia was the best-selling non-fiction book of 2017 in Brazil.

Os Mutantes was formed in São Paulo in 1966 by two brothers: Arnaldo Baptista (bass, keyboards and vocals) and Sérgio Dias Baptista (guitar and vocals), and lead singer Rita Lee. They were originally named Six Sided Rockers. The Baptistas' father was a poet and mother a pianist, and the two had previously had an all-male band called The Wooden Faces, while Lee was on an all-female band called The Teenage Singers. Sérgio Dias' guitar, the Golden Guitar (Guitarra de Ouro), was created by Arnaldo and Sérgio's brother, Cláudio César Dias Baptista, who built many of their instruments and electronic effects. Their current name was settled upon immediately before a performance on a Brazilian television program. 

The band released five albums between 1968 and 1972. In that time, Lee had also released her first two solo works, although these records were produced with fellow members of Os Mutantes. In 1968, Os Mutantes performed on the album/manifesto Tropicália ou Panis et Circensis (Philips), with Nara Leão, Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Gal Costa, and Tom Zé. This was also when they recorded their first LP, Os Mutantes, and they also backed Gilerto Gil on his second self-titled solo album . In September 1968, Os Mutantes backed Caetano Veloso during his two notorious performances in TV Globo's Third International Song Festival in Rio. The ensemble was met with howls of disapproval from leftist students in the audience at their first-round appearance, due to their challenging psychedelic music, as well as Veloso's lurid costume, and his sexually provocative stage moves. The confrontation climaxed in the second round of the competition on September 15, when Veloso performed his newly-written psychedelic protest song "É Proibido Proibir" ("It is Forbidden to Forbid"). Left-wing students in the audience (who were strongly opposed to the Tropicalismo experiment) loudly abused, booed and jeered the performers, and pelted the stage with fruit, vegetables and paper balls. A large group in audience showed their disapproval by turning their backs to the stage, prompting Lee and her bandmates to turn their backs on the audience, and Veloso responded angrily to the heckling, haranguing the students at length for their conservatism. The group also performed their "Caminhante Noturno", which won seventh place. In the same year, they participated at the IV FMPB with their "Dom Quixote" and, by Lee and Tom Zé, "2001". At the end of this year, they performed with the Baianos at the Sucata nightclub, Rio, and recorded their second album, also self-titled. 

In 1969, following the arrests of Gil and Veloso, Os Mutantes went to Europe, playing at Cannes, France, at the MIDEM, and in Lisbon, Portugal. Then, they returned to Brazil and presented the show O Planeta dos Mutantes, the first multi-media experiment in Brazil. With bassist Liminha and drummer Dinho, they participated in the V FIC with "Ando Meio Desligado" (Arnaldo and Rita).

In 1970, Lee recorded her solo album, Build Up, produced by Arnaldo Baptista. Soon after, they had a stint at the Olympia in Paris. In that period, during their somewhat frequent tours in Europe, they recorded an LP that was never fully released, Tecnicolor, with the exception of some tracks included on 1971's Jardim Elétrico. The LP, A Divina Comédia ou Ando Meio Desligado, is from that year and Jardim Elétrico (Polydor) from the next. In 1972, Lee recorded another solo album backed by Os Mutantes, Hoje É o Primeiro Dia do Resto da Sua Vida (Philips). After releasing the Mutantes e Seus Cometas no País do Baurets, Lee was ejected from the group by Arnaldo. 

In late 1972, Lee left Os Mutantes and started a solo career. She was initially part of a female duo with singer Lúcia Turnbull called Cilibrinas do Éden, and after a short time the duo met Lisergia, a band that would eventually become Lee's backing band with the name of Tutti Frutti. In 1974, the band recorded their first album Atrás do Porto Tem Uma Cidade (There is a City Behind the Harbor) that brought some great songs such as "Mamãe Natureza", "Menino Bonito", and "Pé de Meia". In 1975, she recorded the album Fruto Proibido with the band. The album was praised by critics, sold more than 200,000 copies – a record to Brazilian rock and roll singers at the time – and Lee was given the title "Queen of Rock".

In 1976 she composed with Paulo Coelho the single "Arrombou a Festa", which sold 200,000 copies. Soon after, she recorded the single "Doce de Pimenta" with singer Elis Regina, and recorded and toured with Gilberto Gil in the show/album Refestança. In 1978, she released Babilônia, her fourth and last album with the band Tutti Frutti. The last work came after disagreements between members of the band. The guitarist Luis Carlini left the band, taking the name Tutti Frutti with him. Rita and the rest of the band finished the tour under the name Rita Lee & Cães e Gatos. Lee started recording with Roberto de Carvalho. The couple wrote hits such as "Mania de Você" (1979), "Lança Perfume" (1980), "Saúde" (1981), "Flagra" (1982), and "On The Rocks" (1983).

Ma Rainey

"Ma" Rainey (born Gertrude Pridgett, September 1882 or April 26, 1886 - December 22, 1939) was one of the earliest African-American professional blues singers and one of the first generation of blues singers to record. She was billed as the "Mother of the Blues". She began performing as a teenager and became known as Ma Rainey in 1904. She toured with the Rabbit Foot Minstrels and later formed her own group, Rainey and Rainey, Assassinators of the Blues. Her first recording was made in 1923. In the next five years, she made over 100 recordings, including "Bo-Weevil Blues" (1923), "Moonshine Blues" (1923), "See See Rider Blues" (1924), "Black Bottom" (1927), and "Soon This Morning" (1927).Rainey was known for her powerful vocal abilities, energetic disposition, majestic phrasing, and a "moaning" style of singing. Her qualities are present and most evident in her early recordings "Bo-Weevil Blues" and "Moonshine Blues".

Pridgett claimed to have been born on April 26, 1886 (beginning with the 1910 census, taken April 25, 1910), in Columbus, Georgia. However, the 1900 census indicates she was born in September 1882 in Alabama, and researchers Bob Eagle and Eric LeBlanc suggest that her birthplace was in Russell County, Alabama. She began her career as a performer at a talent show in Columbus, Georgia, when she was about 12 to 14 years old. A member of the First African Baptist Church, she began performing in black minstrel shows. She later claimed that she was first exposed to blues music around 1902. She formed the Alabama Fun Makers Company with her husband, Will Rainey, but in 1906 they both joined Pat Chappelle's much larger and more popular Rabbit's Foot Company.

Beginning in 1914, the Raineys were billed as Rainey and Rainey, Assassinators of the Blues. Wintering in New Orleans, she met numerous musicians, including Joe "King" Oliver, Louis Armstrong, Sidney Bechet and Pops Foster. As the popularity of blues music increased, she became well known. From the late 1910s, there was an increasing demand for recordings by black musicians. In 1920, Mamie Smith was the first black woman to be recorded. In 1923, Rainey was discovered by Paramount Records producer J. Mayo Williams. She signed a recording contract with Paramount, and in December she made her first eight recordings in Chicago, including "Bad Luck Blues", "Bo-Weevil Blues" and "Moonshine Blues". She made more than 100 other recordings over the next five years, which brought her fame beyond the South. Paramount marketed her extensively, calling her the "Mother of the Blues", the "Songbird of the South", the "Gold-Neck Woman of the Blues" and the "Paramount Wildcat".

In 1924 she made some recordings with Louis Armstrong, including "Jelly Bean Blues", "Countin' the Blues" and "See, See Rider". In the same year she embarked on a tour of the Theater Owners Booking Association (TOBA) in the South and Midwest of the United States, singing for black and white audiences. She was accompanied by the bandleader and pianist Thomas Dorsey and the band he assembled, the Wildcats Jazz Band. They began their tour with an appearance in Chicago in April 1924 and continued, on and off, until 1928. Dorsey left the group in 1926 because of ill health and was replaced as pianist by Lillian Hardaway Henderson, the wife of Rainey's cornetist Fuller Henderson, who became the band's leader. 

Towards the end of the 1920s, live vaudeville went into decline, being replaced by radio and recordings. Rainey's career was not immediately affected; she continued recording for Paramount and earned enough money from touring to buy a bus with her name on it. In 1928, she worked with Dorsey again and recorded 20 songs, before Paramount terminated her contract. In 1935, Rainey returned to her hometown, Columbus, Georgia, where she ran three theatres, the Lyric, the Airdrome, and the Liberty Theatre until her death. She died of a heart attack in 1939.

Tammy Wynette

Tammy Wynette (May 5, 1942 - April 6, 1998) was an American country music singer-songwriter and one of country music's best-known artists and biggest-selling female singers. She was called the "First Lady of Country Music", and her best-known song, "Stand by Your Man", is one of the best-selling hit singles by a woman in the history of country music. Many of her hits dealt with classic themes of loneliness, divorce, and the difficulties of life and relationships. During the late 1960s and early 1970s, Wynette charted 20 number-one songs on the Billboard Country Chart. Along with Loretta Lynn and Dolly Parton, she is credited with having defined the role of women in country music during the 1970s. 

While working as a hairdresser in Midfield, Alabama, in 1965, Wynette sang on the Country Boy Eddie Show on WBRC-TV in Birmingham, which led to performances with country music star Porter Wagoner. In 1966, she moved from Birmingham to Nashville, Tennessee, in hopes of landing a recording deal. After being turned down repeatedly she auditioned for Epic Records producer Billy Sherrill. Initially reluctant to sign her, Sherrill found himself in need of a singer for a Bobby Austin and Johnny Paycheck penned tune, "Apartment No. 9". Upon hearing Wynette's version he was impressed and put her under contract. She changed her name to Tammy Wynette before releasing her first single, "Apartment No. 9"  in December 1966, and just missed the top 40 on the Country charts, peaking at number 44. It was followed by "Your Good Girl's Gonna Go Bad", which became a big hit, peaking at number three. The song launched a string of top-ten hits that ran through the end of the 1970s, interrupted only by three singles that didn't crack the Top Ten. After "Your Good Girl's Gonna Go Bad" was a success, "My Elusive Dreams", a duet with David Houston, became her first number one in the summer of 1967, followed by "I Don't Wanna Play House" later that year.[5] "I Don't Wanna Play House" won Wynette a Grammy award in 1967 for Best Female Country Vocal Performance, one of two wins for Wynette in that category.

During 1968 and 1969, Wynette had five number-one hits – "Take Me to Your World", "D-I-V-O-R-C-E", "Stand by Your Man" (all 1968), "Singing My Song", and "The Ways to Love a Man" (both 1969). "Stand by Your Man" was reportedly written in the Epic studio in just 15 minutes by Billy Sherrill and Wynette, and was released at a time when the women's-rights movement was beginning to stir in the U.S. The message in the song stated a woman should stay with her man, despite his faults and shortcomings. It stirred up controversy and was criticized initially, and it became a lightning rod for feminists. Nevertheless, the song became very successful, reaching the top spot on the Country charts, and was also a top-20 pop hit, peaking at number 19 on the Billboard pop charts in 1968, Wynette's only top-40 hit as a solo artist on the pop charts. In 1969, Wynette won the Grammy award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance for "Stand by Your Man", which is now, according to critics, considered a "classic" or country music "standard". She earned a gold record (awarded for albums selling in excess of 500,000 copies) for Tammy's Greatest Hits which was certified in 1970 by the RIAA. The album was awarded platinum record status (awarded for albums selling in excess of 1,000,000 copies) in June 1989. In 1970, director Bob Rafelson used a number of her songs in the soundtrack of his 1970 film Five Easy Pieces.

During the early 1970s, Wynette, along with singer Loretta Lynn, ruled the country charts and was one of the most successful female vocalists of the genre. During the early 1970s, number-one singles included "He Loves Me All the Way", "Run Woman Run" and "The Wonders You Perform" (all from 1970), "Good Lovin' (Makes it Right)", "Bedtime Story" (both 1971) "My Man (Understands)", "'Til I Get it Right" (1972), and "Kids Say the Darndest Things" (1973). One of them, "The Wonders You Perform", was a hit in Italy in 1971, thanks to Ornella Vanoni, who recorded the song in an Italian version, "Domani è un altro giorno" ("Tomorrow is another day"). Wynette's marriage to country music singer George Jones in 1969 created a country music "couple". Though they divorced in 1975, the couple recorded a sequence of albums and singles together that hit the charts throughout the 1970s and early 1980s.Concurrent to her solo success, a number of her duets with Jones reached the top ten on the U.S. country singles charts during this time, including "The Ceremony" (1972), "We're Gonna Hold On" (1973), and "Golden Ring" (1976). In 1968, Wynette became the second female vocalist to win the Country Music Association Awards' "Female Vocalist of the Year" award, later winning an additional two other times (1969, 1970).  

Following 1976, Wynette's popularity slightly slowed, however, she continued to reach the Top 10 until the end of the decade, with such hits as "Let's Get Together (One Last Time), "One of a Kind" (both 1977), "Womanhood" (1978) "No One Else in this World" and "They Call It Makin' Love" (both 1979). She had a total of 20 number one hits on the U.S. country singles charts (16 solo, three with Jones, and one with Houston).  Beginning in the early 1980s, however, her chart success began to wane, though, she did continue to have top-20 hits during this period, including "Starting Over" and "He Was There (When I Needed You)" (both 1980), a cover of the Everly Brothers' hit "Crying in the Rain" (1981), "Another Chance", "You Still Get to Me in My Dreams" (both 1982) and "A Good Night's Love" (1983). A 1985 cover of the '70s Dan Hill hit "Sometimes When We Touch", performed with Mark Gray, reached No. 6 in 1985.

After years of medical problems which resulted in numerous hospitalizations, roughly 15 major operations and an addiction to pain medication, Wynette died on April 6, 1998, at the age of 55 while sleeping on her couch. Wynette's doctor from Pennsylvania said she died of a blood clot in her lung. Despite her persistent illnesses, she continued to perform until shortly before her death and had other performances scheduled.