Wells’s recordings for RCA in 19 found no success, but Johnnie & Jack’s “Poison Love” took them to the Grand Ole Opry in 1952 (they’d previously performed on the Opry in 1947-1948). As “Rag Doll,” she spun records and sold quilting supplies. When they reunited after the war, Wells traveled with them to join the new Louisiana Hayride radio show on KWKH in Shreveport. It was during this time that Wright began to refer to his wife as “Kitty Wells,” a name taken from a nineteenth-century tune recorded in 1930 by the Pickard Family.ĭuring World War II, Anglin served in the army and Wright worked at a DuPont chemical factory north of Nashville. After Wright and Jack Anglin formed the duo Johnnie & Jack in 1939, Wells performed as their “girl singer” on radio shows while they traveled throughout the South in the early 1940s. The couple and Wright’s sister Louise performed as Johnnie Wright & the Harmony Girls. On October 30, 1937, at age eighteen, Wells married Johnnie Wright. With her two sisters and a cousin, Wells also performed on radio as the Deason Sisters. In 1934, with the Great Depression at its darkest depths, Wells dropped out of school to work at the Washington Manufacturing Company, where she was paid nine dollars a week to iron shirts. Her father and uncle were country musicians, and her mother was a gospel singer. Dressed demurely in gingham, no one would mistake her for a home wrecker.Born Ellen Muriel Deason in Nashville, Kitty Wells’s country roots ran deep. Her wounded innocence was only heightened by what would become her trademark vibrato and often awkward shyness. Kitty's record charted on July 19 and topped the charts on August 23. 'but it's electric.'It was recorded on when Wild Side Of Lifewas one week away from the #1 spot. 'It's almost a Dobro sound,'said Johnnie Wright. The key instrument was Shot Jackson's tremulous steel guitar. Paul Cohen turned the session over to Owen Bradley, and it became the first major hit that Bradley produced for Cohen.

'I said, 'Well, it probably won't be a hit, but at least we'll get a session fee out of it,''remembered Kitty. Kitty Wells and Johnnie Wright were unconvinced by the song. And the second night after he got back Kitty Wells recorded it,' Miller told John Broven. 'A friend of mine came in from Nashville, heard our Feature recording and took it back with him. Miller himself produced the original version by Alice 'Al' Montgomery for Feature Records. I pulled to the side of Highway 90, took a tablet I kept in my glove compartment, and began to write lyrics down.'Miller, of course, knew that the melody was in the public domain so he wouldn't have to give a half share to the original composer, as was the case with most answer songs. On this trip a set of lyrics came into my mind. They were playing 'The Wild Side Of Life.' I'd thought of writing a sequel on several occasions, but my lyric ideas were not strong enough. 'I was returning from a trip to Rayne,'Miller told Dorothy Horstman, 'and I had my car radio on. Johnnie asked him if Decca was interested in recording me, and he said, 'Yes.' In fact, he had a song he wanted us to listen to.'Troy Martin at Peer Music had pitched a song by Jay Miller from Crowley, Louisiana. One night, Johnnie & Jack were playing the Ernest Tubb Midnite Jamboree and happened to see Paul. 'While we were still in Shreveport, Johnnie had me make a demo record and he sent it to Paul Cohen, but we didn't hear anything from him. Tillman Franks says that Webb Pierce was the one who persuaded Paul Cohen at Decca Records to give Kitty a contract, but she doesn't remember it that way. In January 1952, Johnnie & Jack and Miss Kitty moved from Shreveport back to Nashville. She began recording for RCA at the same time as Johnnie & Jack, but was cut loose after two sessions. She took the stage name Kitty Wells from an 1860s parlor song by Thomas Sloan that had slipped into country music. Her early career with her husband, Johnnie Wright of Johnnie & Jack, is detailed in the notes accompanying 'The Queen Of Country Music' (Bear Family BCD 15638). Proclaimed the pride of southern womanhood by Governor Frank Clement in 1953, Kitty Wells was born Muriel Deason in Nashville on August 30, 1919. As a genre, answer songs have never done that well, but this was the spectacular exception.

Kitty wells