Tanya Tucker had her first country hit in 1972, when she was just 13 years
old. Over the succeeding decades,
Tanya Tucker became one of the few child performers to mature into adulthood
without losing her audience, and during the course of her career, she notched a
remarkable streak of Top Ten and Top 40 hits.
Born in Seminole, Texas, much of
Tanya Tucker's childhood was spent moving throughout the Southwest as her father
pursued construction jobs. At the age of six, she began taking saxophone
lessons; two years later, she decided she wanted to sing, and made an auspicious
debut with
Mel Tillis, who was so impressed by her talents that he invited her onstage
to perform. In 1969,
Tanya Tucker and her family moved to Las Vegas, where she regularly performed.
Eventually, she recorded a demo tape that gained the attention of songwriter
Dolores Fuller, who sent it to producer
Billy Sherrill. At the time,
Sherrill was the head of A&R at CBS Records, and he was so impressed with
the demo tape that he signed the teenaged vocalist to Columbia Records.
Sherrill initially planned to have
Tanya Tucker record "The Happiest Girl in the Whole USA," but she passed on the
tune, choosing "Delta Dawn" -- a song she heard
Bette Midler sing on The Tonight Show -- instead. Released in the spring of
1972, the song became an instant hit, peaking at number six on the country
charts and scraping the bottom of the pop charts.
At first, Columbia Records tried to downplay
Tanya Tucker's age, but soon word leaked out and she became a sensation -- her
second single, "Love's the Answer," also became a Top Ten hit later in 1972.
Tanya Tucker's third single, "What's Your Mama's Name," became her first number
one hit in the spring of 1973. Two other number ones -- "Blood Red and Goin'
Down" and "Would You Lay with Me (In a Field of Stone)" -- followed,
establishing
Tanya Tucker as a major star. In 1975, she signed with MCA Records, where she had
a string of hit singles that ran into the late '70s. In 1978, she decided to
radically change her image and cross over to rock with her T.N.T. album. Despite
the controversy over the record and its sexy cover, it went gold the following
year.
By the end of the '70s, her sales were declining -- in 1980 she only had two
hits. Also in 1980, she recorded a few singles with
Glen Campbell, with whom she was romantically linked. In addition to
recording, she also made her feature film debut in Hard Country. She switched to
Arista Records in 1982, where she had several hits, highlighted by the Top Ten
"Feel Right." In 1984 and 1985, she had no hits and signed with Capitol Records.
In early 1986, she returned with "One Love at a Time," which rocketed to number
three. For the rest of the decade, she scored a constant stream of Top Ten
singles, including four number one hits. Her success continued in the early
'90s, even though her sales began slumping as the decade wore on. By the new
millennium,
Tanya Tucker was still in the game.
Several retrospectives and various hits collections were released; In 2002,
Tucker issued her 31st album, her most personal album to date, Tanya. More
compilations followed, culminating in the live recording/DVD Live at Billy Bob's
Texas in 2005. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Music Guide
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