Barbara Mandrell

Barbara Ann Mandrell (born December 25, 1948) is an American retired country music singer and musician. She is also credited as an actress and author. During the late 1970s and early 1980s, she was considered among country's most successful music artists. She had six number one singles and 25 top ten singles reach the Billboard country songs chart. She also hosted her own prime-time television show in the early 1980s that featured music, dance numbers and comedy sketches. Mandrell also played a variety of musical instruments during her career that helped earn her a series of major-industry awards. Mandrell was born in Texas and raised mostly in California. Mandrell is from a musical family; she played several instruments by the time she was a teenager. Her skills on the steel guitar were noticed by country music entertainers, who gave Mandrell the chance to perform in public at age 13. During this period she became a regular on the television program Town Hall Party. She also performed as a musician when she toured in shows featuring Johnny Cash and Patsy Cline. Her family formed a band in her late teens which traveled overseas and entertained military bases. After marrying in 1967, Mandrell briefly retired, but was inspired to pursue a singing career after watching a performance of the Grand Ole Opry live at the Ryman Auditorium. In 1969, she signed her first recording contract with Columbia Records. She became a member of the Grand Ole Opry in 1972. In the early 1970s, Mandrell recorded a number of singles that combined country influences with R&B-soul. Her singles frequently made their way onto the country charts. Her most successful singles of this period were "Tonight My Baby's Coming Home" (1971) and "The Midnight Oil" (1973). In 1975, she moved to ABC-Dot records and reached her commercial breakthrough with country–pop singles like "Sleeping Single in a Double Bed" (1978), "(If Loving You Is Wrong) I Don't Want to Be Right" (1979), "I Was Country When Country Wasn't Cool" (1981) and "One of a Kind Pair of Fools" (1983). She became a concert headliner and won several major music awards including the Entertainer of the Year accolade from the Country Music Association two years in a row. Mandrell sustained serious head and leg injuries in a near-fatal car accident on September 11, 1984. She seriously considered retirement for a time. However, she returned to recording in 1985 and had several more top ten country singles including "Fast Lanes and Country Roads" (1985), "No One Mends a Broken Heart Like You" (1986), and "I Wish I Could Fall in Love Today" (1988). She resumed performing, touring, and began guest-starring in several television shows and numerous commercials. Mandrell appeared in several television films and shows during the late 1980s and 1990s like Burning Rage and Empty Nest. She continued recording into the 1990s, releasing several albums for the Capitol label including No Nonsense (1990). In 1997, Mandrell announced her retirement from performing and recording. She continued acting until 2000. In 2009, she was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame for her work in the industry. Mandrell was born in Houston, Texas, on Christmas Day, 1948. She is the eldest child born to parents Mary Ellen (née McGill; born 1931) and Irby Matthew Mandrell (October 11, 1924 – March 5, 2009). The family later moved to Corpus Christi, Texas, where her father was a police officer and her mother was a music teacher. Mandrell's younger sisters Louise and Irlene, were born there. While in Corpus Christi, Mandrell got acquainted with music. She sang and played music regularly at home. She also recalled having a natural ear for hearing music. "I remember once I was at my cousins' home in Falfurrias. We were playing outside—and I'm talking this is when I'm a little girl—and we were singing, of all things, 'I've Been Working on the Railroad.' All of a sudden I started to hear harmony. I began to sing it, and I just thought, 'This is the neatest thing in the world,'" she told Texas Monthly. In her early childhood, she began performing publicly. Her first recollection of performing in front people was at her family's church singing a rendition of the "Gospel Boogie". In addition to singing, Mandrell also learned several instruments as a small child. Mandrell's mother taught her how to play the accordion and read music before she entered into the first grade. When she was six years old, the family moved to Oceanside, California. Irby Mandrell opened his own music store. In her elementary school years, she learned to play saxophone while a part of the school band. During the same period, she started taking lessons on the steel guitar from her father's friend Norman Hamlet. After a year of practice on the instrument, Irby Mandrell took his daughter to a music trade show in Chicago, Illinois. At the program, she performed on the steel guitar. She was heard by country performer Joe Maphis who would help launch Mandrell's early career as a musician. In 1960, Joe Maphis brought eleven-year-old Mandrell onto his country music show in Las Vegas, Nevada. As part of Maphis's act, she performed the steel guitar. Maphis also helped her secure a regular spot on the country music California television program Town Hall Party. Feeling as if she was the only female musician, Mandrell discovered on Town Hall Party that other female instrumentalists also existed: "Men dominated the world of country music, but I looked around and discovered there were more women than you might have thought." On summers off from school, Mandrell routinely went back to Las Vegas to perform. In 1962, she toured country music shows with artists Johnny Cash and Patsy Cline. During the tour, 13-year old Mandrell shared hotel rooms with Cline since she was underage. She also performed steel guitar for Red Foley, Little Jimmy Dickens and Tex Ritter. When she turned 14, her parents formed the Mandrell Family Band with Barbara on steel guitar, mother Mary on piano, and father Irby on lead vocals. They also hired two outside musicians including drummer Ken Dudney, whom Mandrell would later marry in 1967. The Mandrell Family Band mostly played military bases around the United States and performed a variety of music including songs by The Beatles. While in the band, Mandrell also learned how to play banjo and bass guitar. Mandrell also engaged in other activities during her teenage years. In 1965, she was voted "Miss Oceanside California". She participated in the marching band, chorus and student council. She eventually graduated from high school in 1967. Shortly after high school graduation, Mandrell married Ken Dudney and chose to retire from performing to become a full-time housewife. Her last performance trip was to Vietnam where the Mandrell Family Band entertained the troops fighting in the Vietnam War. Upon returning, Mandrell found out that her husband had been sent temporarily overseas for his Navy pilot career. Feeling alone, Mandrell visited with her parents who had just moved to Nashville, Tennessee. There, the family attended a performance at the Grand Ole Opry. While watching the show that evening, Mandrell realized that she still wanted to perform. "I wasn't cut out to be in the audience," she recalled in 2003. With father Irby acting as her manager she got the chance to play steel guitar on a show located in the Printer's Alley section of Nashville. In addition to the steel guitar, Mandrell also sang on several selections in the show. Her skills as both a singer and musician caught the attention of six different record companies who offered her a recording contract. This included country music producer Billy Sherrill, who was watching the performance. In 1969, Mandrell signed with Sherill's label Columbia Records as a recording artist. Mandrell started her singing career by cutting covers of R&B–soul selections. Her first Columbia single made America's Billboard country songs chart in