You may have heard that Kitty Wells passed away today. I'm not going to sit here and pretend that I have much in the dark recesses filed away about her, so here's a scant few factoids. She was contemplating retirement in 1952, after only three years as a solo singer, when she was approached to record "It Wasn't God That Made Honky Tonk Angels." She agreed to record it because she was to receive $125, union scale at the time. It was an answer song to Hank Thompson's "The Wild Side of Life." Thompson's song was your basic woe is me type country song, with wimpering about his woman leaving him, how he's the only one who ever loved her, and lamenting about her partying tendencies. Wells's song basically cried bullshit on that, saying that cheating men are to blame for women leaving. Doesn't sound like a big deal does it? Well, the Grand Ole Opry thought so, banning Wells, and the song. That is, until it became a #1 hit on the country and western charts, the first by a woman. (Remind me, who made the Opry the experts anyway?) Wells went on to record some fifty albums and was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1976. I guess she showed them.
Here's two Kitty Wells answer songs, and the dudes who inspired the comebacks (courtesy of Carnival Saloon), along with some Wells what not.
~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~
Listen:Hank Thompson - The Wild Side of Life at Carnival Saloon
Kitty Wells - It Wasn't God That Made Honky Tonk Angels at Carnival Saloon
Webb Pierce - Back Street Affair at Carnival Saloon
Kitty Wells - Paying For That Back Street Affair at Carnival Saloon
Kitty Wells - My Big Truck Drivin' Man mp3 at Beware of the Blog
Kitty Wells - I Heard The Juke Box Playing mp3 at Probe Is Turning-On the People
Kitty Wells- Release Me mp3 at Rocky-52
Visit:
Kitty Wells at Wikipedia
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