Barbara Mandrell

Childhood

Barbara Ann Mandrell was born on Christmas Day of 1948 to Mary Ellen (née McGill; born 1931) and Irby Matthew Mandrell (1924 – 2009) in Houston, Texas.^[1] Her mother was a homemaker and musician hailing from a large family in rural Wayne County, Illinois. Her father Irby was a World War II naval veteran and Texas police officer from Garland County, Arkansas. Irby Mandrell was an accomplished musician and entrepreneur as well. He used his impeccable social skills and knowledge of the music industry to manage all three of his daughters' careers for over 3 decades.

Mandrell was an only child until July 13, 1954, when her sister Thelma Louise Mandrell was born. Baby sister Ellen Irlene Mandrell arrived 18 months after Louise on January 29, 1956.

The eldest daughter of the musical family, Barbara Mandrell was already reading music and playing accordion when her sisters were infants.^[1] Six years later, she had become so adept at playing steel guitar that her father took her to a music trade convention in Chicago. While there, her talents caught the attention of RCA Records producer and session musician Chet Atkins and popular musician and bandleader Joe Maphis. Soon after, she became a featured performer in Maphis' Las Vegas nightclub show, followed by tours with Red Foley, Tex Ritter, and Johnny Cash.^[1] Her network TV debut came on the NBC-TV series Five Star Jubilee in 1961.

While growing up, Mandrell learned to play the pedal steel and lap steel guitars and many other instruments, including the accordion, saxophone, and banjo. She played steel guitar for Patsy Cline, who once wrote to a friend that Mandrell was, "a 13-year-old blonde doll who plays the steel guitar out of this world! What a show woman!" Mandrell toured at age 13 with Cline, Johnny Cash, and George Jones. She also played guitar for Joe Maphis in Las Vegas^[1] and on the Town Hall Party show in Los Angeles. A few years later, Mandrell and her sisters Louise and Irlene, as well as her parents, founded the Mandrell Family Band.^[1] They toured across the United States and Asia. Their drummer, Ken Dudney, became Mandrell's husband shortly after graduating from Oceanside High School.^[1]

Career discovery

Dudney received a commission 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 then her manager, and with his help, she signed with Columbia Records in 1969. Over the next few years, Mandrell had a few minor hits. Her producer at the time was Billy Sherrill, known for producing other well-known singers in country music such as Tammy Wynette, Charlie Rich, and Tanya Tucker.

1969–1974: Country beginnings

Within 48 hours of a nightclub appearance near the Grand Ole Opry, she received offers for recording contracts from six record companies. 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 success.^[3] Mandrell's first releases earned respect from her country peers, but her first big breakthrough with fans came in 1973 with the single "The Midnight Oil"; it was the first song sung from the perspective of the woman who is doing the cheating, which at the time was unheard of.

While with Columbia Records, Mandrell worked with legendary country producer Billy Sherrill. Under Sherrill's direction, Mandrell recorded country-soul material, which never gained her widespread success. Her early hits included 1970s "After Closing Time" (a duet with David Houston) and 1971's "Tonight My Baby's Comin' Home", "Treat Him Right", and her version of Joe Tex's "Show Me." Her records did not generate high sales on the Columbia label. Sherrill later said in the book, How Nashville Became Music City, that he was asked every year by the other Columbia executives, why he was keeping Mandrell, because she was not selling records. Sherrill kept Mandrell with the label until 1975.

1975–1984: Country-pop

In 1975, Mandrell jumped to the ABC/Dot label, and under the guidance of producer Tom Collins, reached the top five for the first time with the single "Standing Room Only". After a series of successive hits, she scored her second number one with 1978's "Sleeping Single in a Double Bed", immediately followed by another chart-topper, "(If Loving You Is Wrong) I Don't Want to Be Right" in early 1979.^[4] "If Loving You Is Wrong" was also a major crossover smash, becoming Mandrell's only single to reach the top 40 on the pop chart, peaking at number 31. The song also peaked in the top 10 on adult contemporary radio stations.

During the 1980s, Mandrell had more hits, including "Crackers" and "Wish You Were Here". All of these singles and more reached the country top 10 and some also hit number one, including "Years". Three more singles hit number one: "I Was Country When Country Wasn't Cool", "'Till You're Gone", and "One of a Kind, Pair of Fools", between 1981 and 1983, a period during which Mandrell also received many industry awards and accolades.^[5] "I Was Country When Country Wasn't Cool" is one of Mandrell's best-known songs. The best-known version is the live version featuring George Jones. In 1983, she won a Grammy award for "Best Inspirational Performance" for the song, "He Set My Life to Music".

In 1980, Mandrell became the third woman to win the "Entertainer of the Year" award from the Country Music Association. She repeated in 1981 by winning the award for the second time. This was unprecedented, as prior to her, it was presumed, that it only went to an artist once, but she nabbed it a second year in a row with her non-stop touring, hit records, and popular TV show. This began the huge array of awards and she would win: several CMA, ACM, and MCN awards, seven American Music Awards, and nine People's Choice, making her one of the most awarded country acts in history.

Performing ‘To Me’ duet with DoRite, Dan Schafer,
‘Moments’ tour 1986

A collection of duets with Lee Greenwood, Meant for Each Other, followed in 1984.^[6] From this album, Greenwood and Mandrell had two hits on the country chart spanning 1984 and 1985, including the top-five hit, "To Me", and the top-20 "It Should Have Been Love by Now".

Also in 1984, she opened a fan-based attraction across from the old location of the Country Music Hall of Fame in the heart of Music Row in Nashville called Barbara Mandrell Country, a museum about her life and career.

1984: Car crash

While Mandrell was at the peak of her popularity, she had a major setback when she was involved in a serious automobile crash on September 11, 1984. According to Toni Reinhold in Redbook, the singer "sustained multiple fractures in her right leg, including a broken thigh bone, knee, and ankle. She also suffered lacerations and abrasions and a severe concussion that caused temporary memory loss, confusion, and speech difficulties." After a year and a half of rehabilitation, she recovered and returned to recording and performing. Mandrell told interviewers that the crash made her reassess her priorities; she retired in November 1997, 13 years after the crash, and now spends more time with her family.^[7] Mandrell is now a confirmed seat belt advocate, especially because prior to the crash, neither she nor her two oldest children Matthew and Jaime (also involved in the crash) were normally seat belt wearers. Mandrell saw a station wagon in front of her with the tailgate down and children not being restrained in the back, and felt the need to tell her children to buckle up just before the crash.^[8]

During the recuperation period, Mandrell was unable to work, so she needed to collect on her insurance to pay for medical bills and to keep her touring band paid. On the Ralph Emery on the Record show, Mandrell explained that the problem was that, under Tennessee law, she had to go through the formality of filing a lawsuit against survivors of the dead driver who had caused the accident, 19-year-old college student Mark White, to collect from her own insurance company.^[9]

Mandrell further stated that she instructed for her attorneys to phone White’s family and tell them that she wanted no money from them and was only taking such action to get her own insurance company to pay for her medical costs, but most fans never knew about that or about Tennessee's insurance law. They saw only the headlines about the lawsuit against the family who had lost a son. Before the case went to trial, she adds, her insurance company filed for bankruptcy. Her record and ticket sales fell off “in a big way,” Mandrell says.

“I’m not blaming the public,” she tells Emery, adding that given the information most of them got through the media, “I would have felt the way they felt.”

Mandrell's career recovered in the mid-1980s and, despite the neotraditional country boom and an overall loss in interest in country-pop artists during that period, continued to chart top-40 country hits consistently until 1989. Her last top-10 hit was a cover version of the 1960 song "I Wish I Could Fall in Love Today," which peaked at number 5 on the country charts; her last top-40 country hit, "My Train of Thought," peaked at number 19. Subsequent albums and singles failed to chart as country music largely abandoned many established stars in favor of newer acts in the early 1990s.