Kitty wells11/7/2023 ![]() It Wasnt God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels was the first feminist song in country music and the recording made Kitty Wells country musics first female singing star in her own right, giving her the distinction of becoming the first female country singer to have a number 1 record (initially The Grand Ole Opry management felt the lyrics were unsuitable, but an intervention by the influential Roy Acuff saw them relent). Since both songs had used the tune of the old songs Im Thinking Tonight Of My Blue Eyes and The Great Speckled Bird, the case was thrown out of court. The publishers of The Wild Side Of Life sued on the grounds that their songs melody had been used. By 8 August, it was beginning a six-week stay at number 1 in the country charts and had become a Top 30 pop hit. ![]() ![]() Two months later, unaware that it had been released, Kitty Wells found she had recorded a future million-seller. On, under the production of Owen Bradley, she recorded It Wasnt God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels, the lyrics of which blamed unfaithful men for creating unfaithful women. However, for the session fee, she had been persuaded by Wright and Paul Cohen of Decca Records to record a demo of a female answer song to Hank Thompsons then current US country number 1, The Wild Side Of Life. In December 1951, she moved back to Nashville and with Johnnie And Jack becoming members of the Grand Ole Opry in January 1952, she decided to retire. A further session the next year failed to produce a hit and she left the label. Wells made her first solo recordings for RCA - Victor Records in 1949, one song being Gathering Flowers For The Masters Bouquet, now generally rated to be the first recording, on a major label, of a song that has become a country gospel standard. Over these years, Wells did not always sing on a regular basis with Wright, owing to the fact that, by this time, she had two children, Ruby Wright and Bobby Wright, to look after a second daughter, Carol Sue Wright, followed. Wright chose the name from an old song popularized on the Grand Ole Opry by the Pickard Family and the Vagabonds. In 1943, Muriel Deason first became known as Kitty Wells. In 1939, Wright and Muriel teamed up with Jack Anglin (their future brother-in-law), first appearing as Johnnie Wright And The Happy Roving Cowboys with Jack Anglin, later becoming Johnnie And Jack And The Tennessee Hillbillies, then the Tennessee Mountain Boys. Soon afterwards, the newlyweds and Wrights sister Louise began appearing on radio station WSIX as Johnnie Wright And The Harmony Girls. ![]() In 1937, Muriel met aspiring country singer Johnnie Wright and on 30 October that year, the two were married. The audience disagreed and the girls were given a regular early-morning programme. In 1936, they appeared on WSIX Nashville singing Jealous Hearted Me, and were cut off in mid-song by the station, who for some reason believed the song to be too risqué for their listeners. The following year, she teamed with her sisters Mabel and Willie Mae and their cousin, Bessie Choate, to form the singing Deason Sisters. She grew up singing in the church choir, learned to play guitar and in 1934, she dropped out of school to work in a local shirt factory. The family relocated to Humphries County but returned to Nashville in 1928, where Deasons father, who played guitar and sang for local dances, worked as a brakeman for the Tennessee Central Railroad. Muriel Ellen Deason, 30 August 1919, Nashville, Tennessee, USA.
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