Barbara started her career at a very young age singing country music.
She cut her very first single at only 15 years old. In 1963, she moved
to St. Louis, MO,
and by 1965, she was a regular on a local TV show and recorded for a
local label, Norman Records, but none of her singles released were much
more than regional hits.
In 1968, after high school graduation, she decided to follow her dream and moved to Nashville. She briefly signed with Kapp Records with no success. She also recorded briefly for MCA Records.
He listened to Barbara's songs and decided that she was ready for a major record deal and he signed her with Columbia Records
in 1969.
Her first single in 1969, "Love Is A Gentle Thing", was a
minor hit as was her next single, "A Woman's Hand".
In 1970, she scored
her first Top 40 hit with "A Girl Who'll Satisfy Her Man".
Between 1970
and 1972, Barbara scored 4 more Top 40 hits, the biggest of these being
"Love's Old Song" and "Thanks For The Mem'ries".
The success of "Teddy Bear Song"
1973 would turn out to be the breakthrough year for Barbara as she
released the biggest hit of her career with "Teddy Bear Song".
It not
only became a number 1 hit on the country charts but also reached the
pop charts as well peaking at No. 32. It was also nominated for a Grammy
that year.
"Teddy Bear Song" spent 2 weeks at the No. 1 spot and became
Fairchild's signature song. She followed up "Teddy Bear Song" very well
with another smash hit with "Kid Stuff" that year which reached number 2
on the country charts and barely made the Top 100 on the pop charts at
No. 95.
In 1974, she scored another Top 10 with the song "Baby Doll".
Between 1974 and 1977, she had several other major successes among these
being "Standing In Your Line", "Little Girl Feelin'", "Mississippi" (originally recorded by the Dutch band Pussycat), "Cheatin' Is" and "Let Me Love You Once Before You Go".
But by 1978, her country success began to rapidly fade away as her
singles began to show up in the lower regions of the charts.
In 1980,
she signed with Paid Records where she recorded several duets with Billy Walker but none of these singles brought her back into the upper regions of the charts.
In 1986, she signed with Capitol Records
in an attempt at a comeback but the single released "Just Out Ridin'
Around" only reached No. 84 and would represent her last single to
chart.
Although he started out singing straight-up country and western material in the 1970s, he moved towards a more pop-friendly
sound in the 1980s, bringing him further success on not just the
country charts, but the pop charts as well.
According to the Federal Aviation Administration,
Gilley is a licensed pilot, who holds an instrument rating with
commercial pilot privileges for multi-engine airplanes, as well as
private pilot privileges for single engine aircraft.[1]
For many years, Gilley lived in the shadow of his cousin, Jerry Lee Lewis, the rock and roll singer and musician in the 1950s.
The two as children grew up close by each other; Gilley lived just across the Mississippi River from Louisiana where Lewis grew up.
Gilley, Lewis, and another cousin Jimmy Swaggart played piano together as children. This is when Gilley first learned to play the piano.
Together, they all sang boogie-woogie and Gospel
music, however, Gilley did not consider himself a professional singer
until Jerry Lee hit the top of the charts in the 1950s.
Mickey cut a few
singles on his own in late 1950s and played sessions in New Orleans with producer Huey Meaux. In 1958, he had a record "Call Me Shorty" on the Dot label and it sold well.
In the 1960s, he played at many clubs and bars, getting a following at the Nesadel Club in Pasadena, Texas.
In 1967, Paula Records released Gilley's first album called Down the Line and the following, he had a minor hit from the album called "Now I Can Live Again".
In 1970 Gilley opened up his first club in Pasadena, Texas, called Gilley's Club,
replacing the club that was there called Shelley's Club.
The club later
became known as the "world's biggest honky tonk."
He owned "Gilley's
Club" with former owner of Shelley's Club, Sherwood Cryer, who asked Gilley to re-open the bar with him.
The club portion of Gilley's burned in 1990, and later the rodeoarena portion was razed in 2005 to make way for a school.
Recording career in the 1970s before Urban Cowboy
In 1974, Gilley recorded a song that originally was only supposed to
be recorded for fun entitled "Room Full of Roses", written by Tim Spencer of the Sons of the Pioneers, which was a one-time hit for George Morgan.
The song was released by Astro Records that year, and then Playboy Records
got a hold of the single, and got national distribution for "Room Full
of Roses".
From then on, Gilley was signed to Playboy Records working
with his long-time friend Eddie Kilroy.
"Room Full of Roses" became the song that put Gilley on national radar,
hitting the very top of the Country charts that year, as well as making
it to No. 50 on the pop music charts.
"Room Full of Roses" today
remains as one of his signature songs.
He had a string of top tens and No. 1s throughout the 1970s.
He remained a popular Country act for the rest of the 1970s.
Other hits
in the 1970s include "Chains of Love" (1977), "Honky Tonk Memories"
(1977), "She's Pulling Me Back Again" (1977), and "Here Comes the Hurt Again" (1978).
These songs were a mix of honky tonk and countrypolitan that brought Gilley to the top of the charts in the 1970s.
However, a new breed of singers were entering Country Music.
These singers were Country-crossover artists that brought Country
success with them onto the pop charts.
In order to compete with these new breed of Country singers, Gilley had
to sound like them and have that kind of country-pop success that these
singers were having.
In 1978, Gilley signed on with Epic Records, when Playboy Records
was bought by Epic. By 1979, his success was fading slightly.
Songs
like "The Power of Positive Drinkin'", "Just Long Enough to Say
Goodbye", and "My Silver Lining" just made the Top Ten.
He also turned his attention to Branson, Missouri, where he became one of the first to build a theater there, which was a soon-to-be boom town for the Country Music industry.
On March 2, 2002, Gilley, along with his two famous cousins Lewis and Swaggart, were inducted into the Delta Music Museum Hall of Fame in Ferriday, Louisiana.
Gilley also appeared on "Urban Cowboys", episode 9 in the third season of American Pickers,
which aired originally on September 5, 2011.
In 2012, Gilley signed a
Branson-based vocal group, Six, to a three-year lease to perform in his
theater, with an option to buy it when the contract expires.[3]
Personal
Gilley's first wife was Geraldine Garrett, who he married in 1953 and
divorced in 1961. She was the mother of three of his four children
(Keith Ray, Michael, and Kathy). Geraldine died on March 6, 2010.
Gilley's second wife is the former Vivian McDonald, by whom he has another son, Gregory. They married in 1962.[2]
Gilley's children Kathy and Keith are in the music business.
In July 2009, Gilley was helping a neighbor move some furniture when he fell with the love seat
falling on top of him, crushing four vertebrae.
The incident left him
temporarily paralyzed from the neck down, but with some intense physical
therapy he was able to walk again and return to the stage a year later.
However, he still lacks the hand coordination necessary to play the
piano.[4]
Recording career in the 1970s before Urban Cowboy
In 1974, Gilley recorded a song that originally was only supposed to
be recorded for fun entitled "Room Full of Roses", written by Tim Spencer of the Sons of the Pioneers, which was a one-time hit for George Morgan.
The song was released by Astro Records that year, and then Playboy Records
got a hold of the single, and got national distribution for "Room Full
of Roses".
From then on, Gilley was signed to Playboy Records working
with his long-time friend Eddie Kilroy.
"Room Full of Roses" became the song that put Gilley on national radar,
hitting the very top of the Country charts that year, as well as making
it to No. 50 on the pop music charts.
"Room Full of Roses" today
remains as one of his signature songs.
He remained a popular Country act for the rest of the 1970s.
Other hits
in the 1970s include "Chains of Love" (1977), "Honky Tonk Memories"
(1977), "She's Pulling Me Back Again" (1977), and "Here Comes the Hurt Again" (1978).
These songs were a mix of honky tonk and countrypolitan that brought Gilley to the top of the charts in the 1970s.
However, a new breed of singers were entering Country Music.
These singers were Country-crossover artists that brought Country
success with them onto the pop charts.
In order to compete with these new breed of Country singers, Gilley had
to sound like them and have that kind of country-pop success that these
singers were having.
In 1978, Gilley signed on with Epic Records, when Playboy Records
was bought by Epic. By 1979, his success was fading slightly. Songs
like "The Power of Positive Drinkin'", "Just Long Enough to Say
Goodbye", and "My Silver Lining" just made the Top Ten.
Recording career in the 1980s with the success of Urban Cowboy
His career was given a second go-around when
one of his recordings was featured on the box-office-selling movie Urban Cowboy.
The song was the Country remake of the Soul standard "Stand by Me".
As the movie was becoming successful, so was "Stand by Me".
The song
rose to the top of the Country charts in 1980, as well as hitting the
Top 5 of the Adult Contemporary
charts, as well as making the Pop Top 40.
The song turned Gilley into a
pop-country crossover success, yet, despite it being his only Adult
Contemporary hit, it did become one of his signature songs.
All these songs from 1983 were No. 1 hits for
Gilley. In 1984, he had a hit, which just missed topping the Country
charts called "You've Really Got a Hold On Me".
Another hit followed
with a duet with Charly McClain,
"Candy Man," and a solo hit with "Too Good To Stop Now", both of which
made the Top 5 that year.
However, his stream of hits was beginning to
start coming to an end.
Up until 1986, Gilley struggled to make it into the Top 10. He was
only releasing two singles each year.
The year 1985 brought Top 10's
with "I'm the One Mama Warned You About" and "You've Got Something On
Your Mind", followed by a Top 5 with "Your Memory Ain't What It Used To
Be", and a Top 10 with "Doo-Wah Days" in 1986.
Not only was his chart success fading, but Gilley has a series of financial problems that led to the closing of his club in Pasadena, Texas.
In 1988, Gilley signed with Airborne Records, and released an album, Chasin' Rainbows, which resulted in his last Top 40 country hit in "She Reminded Me Of You," which made No. 23 that year.
Overall in his career, that spanned 15 years of chart success, Gilley has had 17 No. 1 hits on the Country charts.
This version was part of the batch of 50's hits Webb rerecorded in stereo for Decca for the Webb Pierce Story double album.
Webb Michael Pierce (August 8, 1921 – February 24, 1991) was one of the most popular Americanhonky tonk vocalists of the 1950s, charting more number one hits than any other country artist during the decade.
His biggest hit was "In the Jailhouse Now,"
which charted for 37 weeks in 1955, 21 of them at number one.
Pierce
also charted number one for several weeks' each with his recordings of
"Slowly" (1954), "Love, Love, Love" (1955), "I Don't Care" (1955),
"There Stands the Glass" (1953), "More and More" (1954), "I Ain't Never"
(1959), and his first number one "Wondering," which stayed at the top
spot for four of its 27 weeks' charting in 1952.
For many, Pierce, with his flamboyant Nudie suits and twin silver dollar-lined convertibles, became the most recognizable face of country music of the era and its excesses.[1]
He began to play guitar before he was a teenager and at 15 was given his own weekly 15-minute show, Songs by Webb Pierce, on KMLB-AM in Monroe.
He enlisted in the US Army, and in 1942 he married Betty Jane Lewis. After he was discharged, the couple moved to Shreveport, Louisiana, where Pierce worked in the men's department of a Sears Roebuck store.
In 1947, the couple appeared on KTBS-AM's
morning show as "Webb Pierce with Betty Jane, the Singing Sweetheart".
Pierce also performed at local engagements, developing his unique style
that was once described to be "a wailing whiskey-voiced tenor that wrang
out every drop of emotion."
Rise to fame
In 1949, California-based 4 Star Records
signed the Webbs under separate contracts, with his wife signed for
duets with her husband under the name Betty Jane and Her Boyfriends.[1]
However, success only came for Pierce, and in the summer of 1950, the couple divorced.
He moved to KWKH-AM and joined Louisiana Hayride during its first year,[2]
and devised a plan to achieve instant "stardom."
Before the show, he
bought tickets for several young girls in line and asked them to sit in
the first row, and after each of his songs to scream and beg for more.
It worked; their enthusiasm spread throughout the audience.[3]
He also founded a record label, Pacemaker; and Ark-La-Tex Music, a publishing company, with Horace Logan, the director of the Hayride. On Pacemaker, Pierce made several records between 1950 and 1951 designed to attract radio play around Louisiana.[1]
Shreveport to Nashville
In 1951, Pierce got out of his 4 Star contract and was quickly signed by Decca Records.
His second single, "Wondering", became his breakthrough hit, climbing to No. 1 early in 1952.
Pierce moved to Nashville, Tennessee where he met and married his second wife, Audrey Greisham.[1] In June 1952, he had his second No. 1 single with "That Heart Belongs to Me".
In September 1953, the Grand Ole Opry needed to fill the vacancy left by the firing of Hank Williams,
and Pierce was invited to join the cast.
After Williams' death, he
became the most popular singer in country music; for the next four
years, every single he released hit the top ten, with ten reaching
No. 1, including "There Stands the Glass" (1953), "Slowly" (1954), "More and More" (1954), and "In the Jailhouse Now"
(1955).
His singles spent 113 weeks at No. 1 during the 1950s, when he
charted 48 singles. Thirty-nine reached the top ten, 26 reached the top
four and 13 hit No. 1.
It is not known if Pierce knew the
political Wall or merely made up the name for the record and was unaware
of the actual Shady Wall.)
On February 19, 1957, Pierce resigned from the Opry after he refused to pay commissions on bookings and for associated talent.[4]
Pierce continued charting until 1982 with a total of 96 hits; and he toured extensively and appeared in the movies Buffalo Guns,Music City USA,Second Fiddle To A Steel Guitar, and Road To Nashville.
Lavish lifestyle and later years
As his music faded from the spotlight, Pierce became known for his excessive lifestyle. He had North Hollywood tailor Nudie Cohen, who had made flamboyant suits for Pierce, line two convertibles
with silver dollars.
He built a $30,000 guitar-shaped swimming pool at
his Nashville home which became a popular paid tourist attraction—nearly
3,000 people visited it each week—causing his neighbors, led by singer Ray Stevens, to file suit and prevail against Pierce to end the tours.[1]
He remained with Decca and its successor, MCA, well into the 1970s, but by 1977 he was recording for Plantation Records.
Even though he had occasional minor hits, charting in a 1982 duet with Willie Nelson,
a remake of "In the Jailhouse Now," he spent his final years tending to
his businesses, and his legend became clouded due to his reputation as a
hard drinker.[2]
Webb and daughter Debbie recorded the ballad "On My Way Out" as The
Pierces, and she was a member of the Country group "Chantilly" in the
early 1980s.
Pierce waged a long battle with pancreatic cancer, which he lost on February 24, 1991, and was buried in the Woodlawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Nashville.
