Tammy Wynette Sometimes When We Touch - Higher Ground (CD)

Tammy Wynette – Sometimes When We Touch / Higher Ground combines two albums by the American country singer on one digitally remastered CD from Morello Records. The release pairs Sometimes When We Touch, originally issued in 1985, with Higher Ground from 1987, capturing a period when Wynette explored changing directions in country music. The 20-track programme includes “Sometimes When We Touch,” a duet with Mark Gray, and “You Can Lead a Heart to Love (But You Can't Make It Fall).” Higher Ground features further notable collaborations, including “Your Love” with Ricky Skaggs, “Talkin’ to Myself Again” with The O’Kanes and “Beneath a Painted Sky” with Emmylou Harris. Both albums were produced by Steve Buckingham.

Tammy Wynette

Geb. 5. 5. 1942 in der Nähe von Tupelo - Mississippi
Record Labels: Epic
Erster Hit: Apartment No. 9 (1966)
Erster Top Ten Hit: Your Good Girl`s Gonna Go Bad (1967)
Erster No. 1 Hit: I Don't Wanna Play House (1967)

Ein französischer Kritiker hat sie einmal die Edith Piaf der Country Music genannt: Wynette Pugh alias Tammy Wynette. Sie gehört seit Mitte der 60er Jahre zu den erfolgreichsten Country Sängerinnen mit einer unüberschaubaren Serie großer Hits. Ihr bekanntester Erfolg: Stand By Your Man, ein Millionseller aus dem Jahre 1968. Dreimal hintereinander wurde sie von der CMA zur besten Sängerin des Jahres gewählt, 1968, 1969 und 1970. Bei der Station WBRC in Birmingham - Alabama hatte Tammy Wynette begonnen, nachdem sie sich aus ärmlichsten Verhältnissen stammend, etwas nach oben gearbeitet hatte. Sie sang in Clubs, wurde von Porter Wagoner für dessen Show engagiert und unterschrieb 1966 einen Schallplattenvertrag, dem sehr rasch die großen Erfolgstitel folgten. 1968 ging sie die Ehe mit George Jones ein, 1975 wurde sie wieder geschieden. Als Duettpartner jedoch, so versichert Tammy Wynette, haben wir immer gut zusammen harmoniert."

Tammy Wynette

D-I-V-O-R-C-E

“I hated myself for not writing that song. It fit my life completely,”said Tammy Wynette. It was the first significant hit for Bobby Braddock, who scored hits in five decades after coming to Nashville in 1964. Originally from Florida, he first came to Nashville in 1959 playing piano for a forgotten Decca act, Chuck & Betty. He returned in 1964 with Marty Robbins, and signed with Tree Music in 1966. He says he began D-I-V-O-R-C-Eas I L-O-V-E Y-O-U. “I wrote it and nobody bit,”he said. Curly Putman was Tree's songplugger at the time, and Braddock asked him what was wrong. “The melody around the title is too happy for such a sad song. It sounds like a detergent commercial,”Putman told him, and helped him rewrite it. Putman had written Tammy's first #1, My Elusive Dreams,and had Billy Sherrill's ear at Epic Records. Sherrill pounced on the rewritten version, borrowing the keyboard lick from Braddock's demo. The song lent itself to caricature or irony, but in Tammy Wynette's hands, there's none of either. It's painfully, awfully real. She was the singer of songs for people who have reached the end of the road. Released at the beginning of May, it shot to the top of the country charts on June 29, and even climbed up the Hot 100 as far as #62. If Tammy didn't parody the song, others couldn't resist. When Tammy's record became a belated #12 hit in England in 1975, Billy Connolly took his parody to #1. Connolly has a dog in place of the kid, and the owners spell out words like “vet” and “quarantine.” 

 - Colins Escott -

Various Country & Western Hit Parade 1968

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