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.
