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Barbara Ann Mandrell (born December 25, 1948) is an American country music singer. She is best-known for a 1970s–1980s series of Top 10 hits and TV shows (1980-82) that helped her become one of country music`s most successful female vocalists of the 1970s and 1980s.
She is the only female in country music history to win the Country Music Association`s "Entertainer of the Year" award twice, and she has also won the Country Music Association`s "Female Vocalist of the Year" twice.
Barbara Mandrell`s first number-one hit was 1978`s "Sleeping Single in a Double Bed" and immediately followed by "(If Loving You Is Wrong) I Don`t Want to Be Right" in early 1979. Later in the year, "Years" also reached number one, as did three more singles: "I Was Country When Country Wasn`t Cool" (her signature song, then "`Till You`re Gone" and "One of a Kind Pair of Fools"—between 1981 and 1983, a period also during which Mandrell received numerous industry awards and accolades.
Born the oldest daughter into a musical family in Houston, Texas, on Christmas Day of 1948, Barbara Mandrell was already reading music and playing accordion at age five.[1] Just six years later, she was so adept at playing steel guitar that her father brought her to a music trade convention in Chicago, where her talents caught the attention of Chet Atkins and Joe Maphis. Soon after, she became a featured performer in Maphis` Las Vegas nightclub show, followed by later television performances and tours with Red Foley, Tex Ritter and Johnny Cash.[1] Her network TV debut came on the NBC-TV program Five Star Jubilee in 1961.
While growing up, she was taught the pedal steel and lap steel guitars and many other instruments, including the accordion, saxophone and banjo. She even played steel guitar for the legendary Patsy Cline. Cline once wrote to a friend in a letter that Mandrell was "a 13 year old blonde doll that plays the steel guitar out of this world! What a show woman!" Mandrell toured as a 13-year-old with Cline, Johnny Cash and George Jones. She also played guitar for Joe Maphis in Las Vegas[1] and even on the Town Hall Party show. A couple of years later, Barbara and her sisters, as well as her parents founded the Mandrell Family Band.[1] With this, they toured all over the United States and Asia. The drummer in the band, Ken Dudney became Mandrell`s husband shortly after she finished high school.
Later, Dudney enlisted in the Navy, serving as a pilot, and was sent overseas. Mandrell decided that she would become a country singer and moved to Nashville. Her father was now her manager and with his help, she signed on with Columbia Records in 1969. Over the next couple of years, Mandrell had a few minor hits. This was only showing the potential Barbara had inside of her to become successful. Her producer at the time was Billy Sherrill, who was known for producing other well-known singers in Country music like Tammy Wynette, Charlie Rich and Tanya Tucker.
Within 48 hours of a nightclub appearance near the Grand Ole Opry, she received offers for recording contracts from six record companies. [3] After signing with Columbia in 1969, she notched her first chart hit, a remake of the Otis Redding classic "I`ve Been Loving You Too Long." In 1970, Mandrell scored the first of many Top 40 hits with "Playin` Around With Love." In the same year, she began performing with singer David Houston, and their partnership also generated considerable chart suc
Biography Credit: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Mandrell
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She won Grammy Awards in 1982 and 1983 for her gospel recordings.
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