Best Known As: Country singer and sometime actress
Reba McEntire first reached the country music charts in 1976, but it wasn't until 1984 that she had hit records in "How Blue" and "Somebody Should Leave." By 1987 she had been named the Country Music Association's Female Vocalist of the Year four times in a row. In the 1990s she continued to tour and record and branched out into television and movie roles. In late 2000 she took over the title role of Annie Oakley in the Broadway show Annie Get Your Gun.
McIntire made her motion picture debut in the 1990 film Tremors.
Jim Zerface,
Bill Zerface,
Kendal Franceschi,
Jane Mariash,
Bruce Burch,
Tom Shapiro,
Chick Rains,
Tommy Lee James,
Sonny Throckmorton,
Randy Sharp,
Pamela Rose,
Bill Rice,
Lisa Palas,
Pat McManus,
J.D. Martin,
Johnny MacRae,
Dickey Lee,
Mary Ann Kennedy,
Harlan Howard,
Chip Hardy,
Rick Giles,
Bob DiPiero,
Rick Carnes,
Janis Carnes,
Steve Bogard,
Charlie Black,
Bob Morrison,
Kerry Chater,
Gary Burr,
Rick Bowles,
Troy Seals,
Buck Ram,
Don Schlitz,
Don King,
Dave Loggins,
Gerry House
Representative Albums: "Reba #1's," "Greatest Hits," "For My Broken Heart"
Representative Songs: "Whoever's in New England," "Little Rock," "Somebody Should Leave"
Biography
Reba McEntire was the most successful female recording artist in country music in the 1980s and 1990s, during which time she scored 22 number one hits and released five gold albums, six platinum albums, two double-platinum albums, four triple-platinum albums, a quadruple-platinum album, and a quintuple-platinum album, for certified album sales of 33.5 million over the 20-year period. While she continued to sell records in healthy numbers into the 21st century, she expanded her activities as an actress in film and on the legitimate stage, and particularly on television, where she starred in a long-running situation comedy. Such diversification made her the greatest crossover star to emerge from country music since Dolly Parton.
Reba Nell McEntire was born March 28, 1955, in McAlester, OK, the second daughter and third of four children of Clark Vincent McEntire, a professional steer roper, and Jacqueline (Smith) McEntire, a former school teacher. Her older brother Del Stanley ("Pake") McEntire also became a country singer, while her younger sister Martha Susan ("Susie") McEntire Luchsinger became a gospel singer. McEntire was raised on the 7,000-acre family ranch in Chockie, OK, traveling with her parents and siblings to the rodeos at which her father competed. Clark McEntire was named World Champion Steer Roper three times, in 1957, 1958, and 1961. (McEntire's grandfather, John McEntire, had won the same title in 1934.) McEntire's mother had aspired to a career in music but never pursued it. She encouraged her children to sing and taught them songs and harmony during the long car trips between rodeos. Alice McEntire, the oldest child, did not actively seek a musical career, but the other three were members of a country group, the Kiowa High School Cowboy Band, as early as 1969, when McEntire began attending Kiowa High School in Kiowa, OK. She also entered local talent contests on her own. In 1971, the Kiowa High School Cowboy Band recorded a single, "The Ballad of John McEntire," for the tiny Boss Records label, which pressed 1,000 copies. As the early '70s went on, the band gave way to a trio, the Singing McEntires, consisting of the three siblings, which performed at rodeos. McEntire also followed in the family tradition of competing, becoming a barrel racer, the only rodeo event open to women.
McEntire graduated from high school in June 1973 and enrolled at Southeastern Oklahoma State University. While attending the National Rodeo Finals in Oklahoma City on December 10, 1974, she sang the national anthem on network television. Also present at the rodeo was country star Red Steagall, who was impressed by her voice and asked her to go to Nashville to record some demos for his song publishing company. After she did so in March 1975 during her spring break from college, he took the tapes around town trying to get her a record deal and succeeded with Mercury Records, which signed her to a contract on November 11, 1975, that called for her to record two singles for the label. On January 22, 1976, she entered a Nashville recording studio and cut the first of those singles, "I Don't Want to Be a One Night Stand," which, upon its release, climbed to number 88 in the Billboard country singles chart in May. On June 21, 1976, she married Charlie Battles, a champion steer wrestler she had met at a rodeo. Battles later became her business manager.
On September 16, 1976, McEntire did her second Mercury recording session, which produced her second single, "(There's Nothing Like the Love) Between a Woman and a Man." It peaked at number 86 in March 1977. In the meantime, on December 16, 1976, she graduated from college on an accelerated three-and-a-half-year program with a major in elementary education and a minor in music, freeing her to pursue her career full-time. Her record label, however, seemed in no particular hurry, although it picked up her option for further recordings. Her third single, "Glad I Waited Just for You," recorded on April 13, 1977, peaked at number 88 in August, the same month Mercury released her debut album, Reba McEntire, which did not chart. On September 17, 1977, she made her debut at the Grand Ole Opry.
Two and a half years into her recording career, with very little to show for it, McEntire was paired with labelmate Jacky Ward for the two-sided single "Three Sheets in the Wind"/"I'd Really Love to See You Tonight" (the B-side a cover of the pop hit by England Dan & John Ford Coley), which reached number 20 in July 1978. That and her touring as an opening act for Steagall, Ward, and others increased her exposure, and her next solo single, "Last Night, Ev'ry Night," reached number 28 in October, beginning a string of singles that made it at least into the country Top 40. She first got into the Top 20 with her cover of the Patsy Cline hit "Sweet Dreams," which peaked at number 19 in November 1979. She still wasn't selling any albums, however; her second LP, Out of a Dream, released in September 1979, did not chart.
McEntire continued to make strides on the singles chart, reaching the Top Ten for the first time with "(You Lift Me) Up to Heaven," which peaked at number eight in August 1980. Feel the Fire, her third album, released in October 1980, was another failure, but after a couple more Top 20 singles she reached the Top Five with "Today All Over Again" in October 1981. The song was featured on her fourth album, Heart to Heart, released in September, which helped it become her first to chart, reaching number 42 in the country LP list. She achieved a new high on the singles chart in August 1982 when "I'm Not That Lonely Yet" reached number three. It was included on her fifth album, Unlimited, released in June 1982, which hit number 22. But that was only the beginning. The LP also spawned "Can't Even Get the Blues" and "You're the First Time I've Thought About Leaving," which became back-to-back number one hits in January and April 1983. By then, she had moved up from playing nightclubs and honky tonks to being the regular opening act for the Statler Brothers. She went on to work in the same capacity with Conway Twitty, Ronnie Milsap, Mickey Gilley, and others.
It might be argued that Mercury Records had taken a 20-year-old neophyte singing the national anthem at a rodeo and, over a period of more than seven years, groomed her until she became a chart-topping country star. McEntire appears not to have viewed things that way, however. On the contrary, she seems to have been unhappy with the songs the label gave her to sing and the musical approach taken on her records, feeling that she was being pushed too much in a country-pop direction. She also has criticized Mercury's promotional efforts on her behalf. And, despite her recent success, the long years of development meant she was nowhere near repaying the investment Mercury had made in her, which, of course, was charged against her potential royalties on the company books. (Although she received yearly advances from the label, she later said that she did not see her first royalties from Mercury until 1988.) So, she sought a release from her contract and, after cutting one more album for Mercury, her sixth LP, Behind the Scene, released in September 1983, she signed to MCA Records, her new contract taking effect on October 1, 1983. The first fruits of the switchover suggested that not much had changed. Her debut MCA single, "Just a Little Love," was a Top Five hit in June 1984, shortly after the release of an album of the same name, but that LP was actually less successful than Unlimited.
McEntire took strong action. Set to have Harold Shedd (Alabama's producer, and thus a hot commercial property) produce her next album, she rejected his suggestions for songs and the sweetened arrangements he imposed on them and appealed to Jimmy Bowen, the newly installed president of MCA's country division. Bowen allowed her to pick her own material and to eliminate the strings and other pop touches used on Just a Little Love and her Mercury releases. The result was the pointedly titled My Kind of Country, released in November 1984, which was dominated by covers of old country songs previously performed by Ray Price, Carl Smith, Connie Smith, and Faron Young. Even before the album's release, however, and before its advance single, "How Blue," hit number one, McEntire was named Female Vocalist of the Year by the Country Music Association (CMA) on October 8, 1984. It was a surprising win; Dolly Parton, Barbara Mandrell, and Charly McClain had all arguably been more successful during the previous 12 months. But it was a forward-looking recognition for a performer who was wisely aligning herself with such artists as Ricky Skaggs and George Strait as a "new traditionalist," moving country music back to its roots after the decline of the pop-country Urban Cowboy phenomenon of the early '80s.
"How Blue" hit number one in January 1985, followed by the second single from My Kind of Country, "Somebody Should Leave," which topped the chart in May as the album reached number 13. (Eventually, it was certified gold.) With such success, McEntire was able to start headlining her own concerts. For her next album, Have I Got a Deal for You, released in July 1985, she worked directly with Bowen, the two billed as co-producers. Another new traditionalist collection, it included her own composition "Only in My Mind," a Top Five hit, as well as a Top Ten hit in the title song; though the LP was not as successful as its predecessor, it too went gold over time, and it helped McEntire earn her second consecutive CMA award as Female Vocalist of the Year. Another important accolade came on January 14, 1986, when she became a member of the Grand Ole Opry.
Perhaps even more important than McEntire's decision to perform music in a more traditional country style was her search for material that she felt women would respond to. Just as Loretta Lynn had spoken for pre-feminist women in the 1960s, McEntire had begun to address the emotional and empowering concerns of women in the 1980s. "Whoever's in New England," her next single, released in January 1986 just ahead of an album of the same name, was a case in point. Kendal Franceschi and Quentin Powers' song was written in the voice of a Southern woman who believes her husband is having an affair during his business trips up north, but pledges that she will remain available to him when "whoever's in New England's through with you." It was a career-making song for McEntire, not least because it was promoted by her first music video. Reaching number one in May 1986, it marked a major breakthrough for her, beginning a string of chart-topping hits that didn't begin to slow down for the next three years. "Little Rock," the follow-up single, also hit number one, as did the Whoever's in New England album, her first LP to be certified gold. (It later went platinum.)
Her career in high gear, McEntire released her next album, What Am I Gonna Do About You, in September 1986, prefaced by a single of the same name that hit number one, as did the gold-selling LP, which also featured the chart-topping single "One Promise Too Late." On October 13, 1986, McEntire not only won her third consecutive Female Vocalist of the Year Award from the CMA, but also was named Entertainer of the Year. On February 24, 1987, she won her first Grammy Award for Country Female Vocal for "Whoever's in New England." She released Reba McEntire's Greatest Hits in April; it became her first platinum album and eventually sold over three million copies. (It also became her first album ever to cross over to the pop charts.) On June 25, 1987, she filed for divorce from Charlie Battles, her husband of 11 years. After her divorce was settled and Battles was awarded the couple's ranch in Oklahoma, she moved to Nashville.
McEntire's string of hits continued with the release of The Last One to Know in September 1987, prefaced by a single of the same name that reached number one in December. The album, also featuring the number one hit "Love Will Find Its Way to You," reached number three and eventually went platinum. McEntire won an unprecedented fourth straight CMA award as Female Vocalist of the Year in October. In November, she released a holiday album, Merry Christmas to You, which, over the years, sold more than two million copies. She engendered controversy with her next album release, Reba, which appeared in May 1988. Here, an artist who had jumped on the new traditionalist bandwagon in 1984 abruptly jumped off, returning to more of a pop-oriented style, without a fiddle or a steel guitar anywhere. The album's leadoff single was "Sunday Kind of Love," a cover of the 1947 Jo Stafford pop hit. It peaked at number five in July, actually the worst showing for a McEntire single in nearly three years. But the album had already begun a run of eight weeks at number one by then, and it was supported by the subsequent chart-topping singles "I Know How He Feels" and "New Fool at an Old Game." It eventually went platinum. Also in 1988, McEntire founded Starstruck Entertainment, a company that handled management, booking, publishing, and other aspects of her career and, eventually, represented other artists as well.
Sweet Sixteen, released in May 1989, was actually McEntire's 14th regular studio album, but her 16th counting her authorized MCA hits compilation and Christmas album. The leadoff single was a cover of the Everly Brothers' "Cathy's Clown" that hit number one in July, and it was followed by three Top Ten hits, "'Til Love Comes Again," "Little Girl," and "Walk On," as the LP spent 13 weeks at the top of the charts, with sales eventually crossing the million mark. It also reached the pop Top 100. McEntire had already recorded her next album, Live, the previous April for release in September and, though it took more than a decade, another platinum certification. That gave her some breathing space. On June 3, 1989, she married Narvel Blackstock, her manager, who had been part of her organization since joining her band as its steel guitar player in 1980. On February 23, 1990, she bore him a son, Shelby Steven McEntire Blackstock. A month earlier, she had made her feature film acting debut in the comic horror film Tremors, which had been shot the previous spring.
McEntire was back on tour by May 1990, and she returned to record making in September with her 15th regular studio album, Rumor Has It, which was prefaced by the single "You Lie," a number one hit. Three other songs from the LP placed in the country Top Ten: the title song, a revival of Bobbie Gentry's 1969 hit "Fancy," and "Fallin' Out of Love." The album eventually sold three million copies. McEntire was on tour promoting it when, on March 16, 1991, seven members of her band and her road manager were killed in a plane crash after a show in San Diego. She dedicated her next album, For My Broken Heart, to them when it was released in October. The disc was another massive hit, going gold and platinum simultaneously shortly after its release and eventually selling four million copies, its singles including the chart-topping title song and another number one, "Is There Life Out There." Also in 1991, McEntire co-starred in the TV mini-series The Gambler Returns: The Luck of the Draw. Her 17th album, It's Your Call, was released in December 1992, and, like Rumor Has It, it was an immediate million seller, eventually going triple platinum. (It was also her first Top Ten pop album.) Its biggest single was "The Heart Won't Lie," a duet with Vince Gill that hit number one in April 1993. McEntire's next chart-topper was also a duet, "Does He Love You," sung with Linda Davis; it hit number one in November 1993 and was included on her September release Greatest Hits, Vol. 2, an album that sold two million copies practically out of the box and another three million over the next five years. "Does He Love You" won McEntire her second Grammy, for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals, and a CMA award for Vocal Event. She also appeared in the TV movie The Man from Left Field in 1993.
By 1994, while continuing to reign as country's most successful female singer, McEntire was increasingly turning her attention to other concerns. Her 18th regular studio album, Read My Mind, appeared in April. Another instant million-seller that went on to go triple platinum, it threw off five country chart singles, among them the chart-topping "The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter" and, controversially, "She Thinks His Name Was John," a song about a woman who contracts AIDS from a one-night stand. Even McEntire's star power could propel such an atypical country subject only as high as number 15 in the charts. Meanwhile, she had parts in two feature films released during the summer, a speaking role in the drama North and a cameo in the children's comedy The Little Rascals. (She also made an uncredited appearance in the Western film Maverick and was heard on the soundtrack album.) She executive produced and starred in a TV movie based on her song, Is There Life Out There? And she published her autobiography, Reba: My Story, which became a best-seller.
McEntire's 19th album was called Starting Over, released in October 1995. Intended to mark the 20th anniversary of her recording career, it was a collection of covers of well-known songs. It not only topped the country charts but hit number five in the pop charts, selling a million copies out of the box. But, boasting only one Top Ten hit, a revival of Lee Greenwood's "Ring on Her Finger, Time on Her Hands," among three chart singles, and not achieving a multi-platinum certification, it suggested that McEntire finally had peaked commercially as far as country music was concerned. (In a considerable departure for a country singer, MCA released a dance remix of McEntire's revival of the Supremes' "You Keep Me Hangin' On" from the album that reached number two on Billboard's dance chart.) That didn't keep her from starring in another TV mini-series, Buffalo Gals, playing famed Western sharpshooter Annie Oakley, a part her rodeo background suited her to perfectly. She bounced back on the country charts somewhat with her 20th album, What If It's You, released in November 1996. The album spawned four Top 20 hits, with "How Was I to Know" reaching number one and "The Fear of Being Alone" and "I'd Rather Ride Around with You" each getting to number two. Simultaneously certified gold and platinum, the album eventually topped two million copies.
The singles drawn from What If It's You kept McEntire's name in the country charts throughout 1997, as did the holiday benefit record "What If," the proceeds from which were donated to the Salvation Army. But for the first time since 1978, she did not release a new album, even a compilation, during the calendar year. Aiming for a splash, she teamed up with the popular country duo Brooks & Dunn in the spring of 1998 for a single called "If You See Him/If You See Her." It hit number one in June, helping to set up the release of her 21st album, If You See Him, which also brought her three additional Top Ten hits on its way to selling a million copies. She appeared in the TV movie Forever Love (the title of one of those Top Ten hits) during the year and made several guest-star appearances on TV series.
After publishing her second book of memoirs, Comfort from a Country Quilt, in May 1999, McEntire had two new albums ready for the fall. Secret of Giving: A Christmas Collection, a September release, was her second holiday CD, which she accompanied with a TV movie, Secret of Giving. The disc eventually went gold. So Good Together, issued in November, was her 22nd regular studio album, prefaced by the Top Five single "What Do You Say." Although none of the songs from the album topped the country charts, it did feature a second Top Five hit, "I'll Be," and a Top 20 hit in "We're So Good Together," and it went platinum before the end of 2000.
As in 1997, McEntire went without an album release in 2000, and in this case, it turned out that she definitely was positioning herself for a career beyond country music, as events in 2001 showed. In February of that year, she stepped in as a replacement star in the Broadway revival of Irving Berlin's musical Annie Get Your Gun that had begun performances in 1999 with Bernadette Peters in the title role of Annie Oakley. Barry and Fran Weissler, the producers of the revival, were known on Broadway for making money by keeping production costs down and by the extensive use of what was derisively called "stunt casting": bringing in a well-known personality, often one without much of a theater background, as a replacement to extend the run of a show, as a means of exciting the tourist crowd who would recognize the name of a prominent TV star, for example. McEntire had been preceded as a replacement in Annie Get Your Gun by soap opera star Susan Lucci and TV actress Cheryl Ladd, both of whom kept the show going while being largely ignored or derided by theater insiders.
McEntire turned out to be an entirely different proposition. First, although she lacked legitimate theater experience, she had by now done plenty of acting on television and even a little in film. Second, she had long since brought unusually high production values to her concerts that included choreography and costume changes, good preparation for similar demands in the theater. Third, she could, of course, sing. And fourth, with her rodeo background and Oklahoma accent, she was an ideal Annie Oakley, just as she had been in her previous TV portrayal. (Never mind that the real Annie Oakley was from Ohio; in everybody's mind, this female sharpshooter and star of Buffalo Bill's Wild West show, the precursor to the modern rodeo, was a Westerner.) The result was a triumph for McEntire. Reviews were ecstatic, and tickets sold out. The Tony Awards did not have a category for replacements (one has since been added), but she was given special awards for her performance by the Drama Desk, the Outer Critics Circle, and Theatre World. She stayed in the show until June 22, 2001. Unfortunately, there was no new cast album recorded to immortalize her appearance.
During the run of Annie Get Your Gun, McEntire was seen in a small part in the film One Night a McCool's, released in April 2001. Her most extensive filmed acting role began on October 5, 2001, however, when the half-hour situation comedy Reba premiered on the WB TV network (later renamed the CW network). The show became the primary focus of McEntire's activities, and she moved to Los Angeles to accommodate it. She had not, however, given up country music entirely. In the summer of 2001, she released a single, "I'm a Survivor," that peaked in the country Top Five and prefaced a new compilation, Greatest Hits, Vol. 3: I'm a Survivor, released in October. It topped the country charts and went gold.
McEntire was occupied primarily with her TV series during 2002 and 2003. She finally returned to record making after two years in the summer of 2003 with a new single, "I'm Gonna Take That Mountain," which peaked in the country Top 20. Room to Breathe, her 23rd regular studio album and first in three years, followed in November and went platinum over the next nine months. The disc's second single, "Somebody," hit number one, and it was followed by another Top Ten hit, "He Gets That from Me," and the Top 20 "My Sister."
Reba continued on into 2004 and 2005. McEntire found time in the spring of 2005 to return to the musical theater, if only for one night. In another piece of inspired casting, she portrayed the "cock-eyed optimist" from Arkansas, Ensign Nellie Forbush, in a special concert version of Rodgers & Hammerstein's South Pacific performed at Carnegie Hall. The all-star production, also featuring Broadway star Brian Stokes Mitchell and actor Alec Baldwin, was filmed for a PBS special on the network's Great Performances series and recorded for an album, both of which appeared in 2006.
By 2005, the catalogs of Mercury and MCA had been combined in the major label Universal, and in November MCA released McEntire's first combined hits collection, the double-CD set Reba: #1's, with two newly recorded tracks. It went gold and platinum simultaneously. In 2006, as she began the sixth season of Reba, McEntire also voiced a character in the holiday film release Charlotte's Web. The sixth season of Reba proved to be the last, as the show signed off the air on February 18, 2007. Not one to sit idle, McEntire toured the U.S. from May 25 through August. On September 18, 2007, she released a new album, Reba Duets, featuring such guests as Justin Timberlake, Don Henley, Kelly Clarkson, Kenny Chesney, Carole King, Faith Hill, Ronnie Dunn of Brooks & Dunn, Vince Gill, Rascal Flatts, LeAnn Rimes, and Trisha Yearwood. It was prefaced by the single "Because of You," a duet with Clarkson. For the week ending October 6, 2007, Reba Duets became McEntire's first album ever to enter the pop charts at number one.
The October 28, 2008, release of the three-disc set 50 Greatest Hits marked the conclusion of her contract with MCA Nashville, and McEntire signed to Valory Music. Through the singer’s Starstruck imprint, Valory released her next album, Keep on Loving You, on August 18, 2009. For the week ending September 5, 2009, it became her second album to enter the Billboard pop chart at number one. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
Grammy award-winning country music singer Reba McEntire was raised on a ranch in Oklahoma, where her father competed in rodeos. Immersed in Southern country culture from birth, McEntire learned to ride as well as to sing from an early age, and she formed a singing group with her brother and sister when she was young called the Singing McEntires. She enrolled at Southeastern Oklahoma State University in Durant in the mid-'70s, where she majored in teaching, but in 1975, after singing a crowd-pleasing rendition of the "Star Spangled Banner" at a local rodeo, McEntire was inspired to travel to Nashville to pursue a music career. She scored a major-label record deal and released her first album the same year she got married.
It took a few years for her career to truly take off, but by the mid-'80s, McEntire was one of the most successful country singers in the industry. Though she was divorced in 1987, she remarried Narvel Blackstock, her then-manager and steel guitar player in 1989. Soon, the singer decided to branch out in her creative pursuits, appearing in the horror comedy Tremors with Kevin Bacon in 1990, the same year she gave birth to her son. Her warmth and charisma shone through onscreen, and McEntire began to cultivate a second career in acting, appearing in projects like 1994's North and 1995's Buffalo Girls. In 2001, the singer decided to switch career focuses for a while and pursue acting full-time, playing a single mom on her own sitcom, Reba. The show was a huge hit, earned her a Golden Globe nomination, and would continue to run for six seasons. ~ Cammila Albertson, All Movie Guide
Reba Nell McEntire (born March 28, 1955) is a Grammy award-winning American country music artist. She began her career in the music industry singing with her siblings on local radio shows and rodeos. As a solo act, she was invited to perform at a rodeo in Oklahoma City, which caught the attention of country artist Red Steagall. He brought her to Nashville, Tennessee, where she eventually signed a contract with Mercury Records in 1975. She released her first solo album in 1977 and released five additional studio albums under the label until 1983.
Signing with MCA Nashville Records, McEntire took creative control over her second MCA album, My Kind of Country (1984), which had a more traditional country sound and produced two number one singles: "How Blue" and "Somebody Should Leave". The album brought her breakthrough success, bringing her a series of successful albums and number one singles in the 1980s and 1990s. McEntire has since released 25 studio albums, acquired 22 #1 singles, and 28 albums have been certified Gold, Platinum or Multi-Platinum in sales by the Recording Industry Association of America.
In the early 1990s, McEntire branched into film starting with 1990's Tremors. She has since starred in the Broadway revival of Annie Get Your Gun and starred in her television sitcom, Reba (2001 - 2007) for which she was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series - Musical or Comedy .[1] She has sometimes been referred to as "The Queen of Country",[2][3] having sold 41-million records in the United States and 50-million worldwide.[4] In the United States, she ranks as the seventh best-selling female artist in all genres and is the second best-selling female country artist of all time.[5]
Reba Nell McEntire was born on March 28, 1955, outside of Kiowa, Oklahoma to Jacqueline Smith and Clark Vincent McEntire.[1] Her father and grandfather were champion steer ropers and her father was a World Champion Steer Roper three times (1957, 1958, and 1961). Her mother originally had plans to become a country music artist but decided not to pursue that professionally and worked as a schoolteacher. Instead, McEntire's mother taught her children how to sing.[6] On car rides home from her father's rodeo trips, the McEntire siblings were taught songs and learned their own harmonies, eventually forming a vocal group called the "Singing McEntires". Consisting of her brother, Pake, and her younger sister, Susie (her older sister, Alice did not participate), the group sang at rodeos and recorded a song together titled "The Ballad of John McEntire". Released on an Indie label, Boss, the song pressed one thousand copies.[1] In 1974, McEntire attended Southeastern Oklahoma State University and intended on becoming an elementary school teacher (eventually graduating December 16, 1976[1]). While not attending school, she also continued to sing locally.[6] That same year she was also invited to perform the national anthem at an Oklahoma City rodeo. At the rodeo, country artist Red Steagall (who was also performing that day) was impressed by her vocal ability and offered his help in making McEntire a country artist in Nashville, Tennessee. After recording a demo tape, she eventually signed a recording contract with Mercury Records in 1975.[7]
Music career
1976 – 1983: Career launch at Mercury
McEntire made her first recordings for Mercury January 22, 1976, when she cut her debut single. Upon its release that year, "I Don't Want to Be a One Night Stand" failed to become a major hit on the Billboard country music chart, peaking at #88 in May.[8] She completed her second recording session September 16, which included the production of her second single, "(There's Nothing Like The Love) Between a Woman and Man", which only reached #86 in March 1977. She recorded a third single that April titled "Glad I Just Waited for You", which reached #88 by August. That same month, Mercury issued her self-titled debut album.[1] The album was a departure from any of McEntire's future releases, as it resembled the material of Tanya Tucker and Tammy Wynette, according to Allmusic reviewer Greg Adams.[9] The album itself did not chart the BillboardTop Country Albums chart upon its release.[1][7] After releasing two singles with Jacky Ward ("Three Sheets in the Wind"/"I'd Really Love to See You Tonight" and "That Makes Two of Us" at #20 and #26, respectively[8]), Mercury issued her second studio album in 1979, Out of a Dream. The album's cover of Patsy Cline's "Sweet Dreams" became McEntire's first Top 20 hit, reaching #19 on the Billboard country chart in November 1979.[1][8]
In 1980, "You Lift Me Up (To Heaven)" brought her to the Top 10 for the first time.[10] Her third studio album, Feel the Fire was released in October and spawned two additional Top 20 hit singles that year.[1] In September 1982, McEntire's fourth album, Heart to Heart was issued and became her first album to chart the Billboard Top Country Albums list, peaking at #42. Its lead single, "Today All Over Again" became a Top 5 country hit and the second single, "I'm Not That Lonely Yet" became her biggest hit up to that point, peaking at #3.[1] The album received mainly negative reviews from critics. William Ruhlmann of Allmusic gave it two-and-a-half out of five stars, stating she did not get creative control of her music. Ruhlmann called "There Ain't No Love" "essentially a soft pop ballad".[11] Most of the album's material consisted of mainly country pop-styled ballads, which was not well-liked by McEntire herself.[7] Her fifth album, Unlimited was issued in June 1982 and spawned her first Billboard Number One singles in early 1983: "Can't Even Get the Blues" and "You're the First Time I've Thought About Leaving".[8] The following year her sixth album, Behind the Scene was released and was positively-received by music critics.[6] In 1983, McEntire announced her departure from Mercury, criticizing the label's country pop production styles.[1]
1984 – 1990: Breakthrough success
McEntire signed with MCA Nashville Records in 1984 and released her seventh studio album, entitled Just a Little Love.Harold Shedd was originally the album's producer; however, McEntire rejected his suggestions towards country pop arrangements. It was instead produced by Norro Wilson, although the album still had a distinguishable country pop sound.[7] Dissatisfied with the album's sound, she went to MCA president, Jimmy Bowen, who told McEntire to find material that was best-suited to her liking. Instead of finding new material, she found previously-recorded country hits from her own record collection, which was then recorded for the album. The album's material included songs originally released as singles by Ray Price ("Don't You Believe Her", "I Want to Hear It from You"), Carl Smith ("Before I Met You"), Faron Young ("He's Only Everything") and Connie Smith ("You've Got Me [Right Where You Want Me"]).[12] The album spawned two number one singles: "How Blue" and "Somebody Should Leave". It was given positive reviews from critics, with Billboard Magazine praising McEntire as "the finest woman country singer since Kitty Wells" and Rolling Stone critics honoring her as one of their Top 5 favorite country artists.[6] Upon its release, My Kind of Country became her highest-peaking album on the Top Country Albums chart, reaching #13. The album also included instruments such as a fiddle and pedal steel guitar, and was aimed more towards a traditional country sound. McEntire was later praised as a "new traditionalist", along with Ricky Skaggs and George Strait. That year, she won the Country Music Association Awards' Female Vocalist of the Year, her first major industry award.[1][12]
In 1985, McEntire released her third MCA album, Have I Got a Deal for You, which followed the same traditional format as My Kind of Country.[13] It was the first album produced by McEntire and was co-produced with Jimmy Bowen. Like her previous release, the album received positive feedback, including Rolling Stone, which called it a "promising debut". The album's second single, "Only in My Mind" was entirely written by McEntire and reached #5 on the Billboard country chart.[6] On January 17, 1986, McEntire became a member of the Grand Ole Opry show in Nashville, Tennessee, and has been a member ever since.[14] In February 1986, McEntire's ninth studio album, Whoever's in New England was released. For this album, McEntire and co-producer Jimmy Bowen incorporated her traditional music style into a mainstream sound that was entirely different than anything she had previously recorded. Country Music: The Rough Guide called the production of the title track, "bigger and sentimentalism more obvious, even manipulative".[7] The title track peaked at #1 on the Billboard Country Chart and won her a Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance the following year.[8] In addition, the album became McEntire's first release to certify gold in sales by the Recording Industry Association of America (and was later certified Platinum). At the end of the year, McEntire won Entertainer of the Year from the Country Music Association, the highest honor in the awards show.[7]
McEntire released a second album in 1986, What Am I Gonna Do About You. Allmusic critic William Ruhlmann was not overly pleased with album's production, saying that it lacked the features that had been set forth on Whoever's in New England. Rulhlmann criticized the title track for "something of the feel of 'Whoever's in New England' in its portrayal of a woman trying to recover from a painfully ended love affair".[15] The title track was the lead single from the release and was a number one single shortly after its release.[8] This album also spawned a second Number One in "One Promise Too Late". The following year, her first MCA compilation, Greatest Hits was released and became her first album to be certified platinum in sales, eventually certifying triple-platinum.[1] A twelfth studio album was released in 1987, titled The Last One to Know. The emotions of her divorce from husband, Charlie Battles, were put into the album's material, according to McEntire. The title track from the release was a number one single in 1987 and the second single, "Love Will Find Its Way to You", also reached the top spot. [6] In late 1987, McEntire released her first Christmas collection, Merry Christmas to You, which sold two million copies in the United States, certifying double Platinum.[10] The album included cover versions of "Away in a Manger", "Silent Night", and Grandpa Jones's "The Christmas Guest".[16]
Her thirteenth album, Reba, was issued in 1988 and was not well-received by critics, who claimed she was moving farther away from her "traditional country" sound. Stereo Review disliked the album's contemporary style, stating, "After years of insisting that she'd stick to hard-core country 'because I have tried the contemporary-type songs, and it's not Reba McEntire—it's just not honest,' McEntire[...]has gone whole-hog pop. Okay, so maybe that's not so terrible. But her rendition of the soul classic 'Respect' is."[6] Although it was reviewed poorly, the album itself was certified platinum in sales and produced two number one singles: "I Know How He Feels" and "New Fool at an Old Game".[8] In addition, the release's cover version of Jo Stafford's "A Sunday Kind of Love" became a Top 5 hit on the Billboard country music chart.[17] Also in 1988, McEntire founded Starstruck Entertainment, which controlled her management, booking, publishing, promotion, publicity, accounting, ticket sales, and fan club administration. The company would eventually expand into managing a horse farm, jet charter service, trucking, construction, and book publishing.[6]
McEntire's fourteenth studio album was released in May 1989; entitled Sweet Sixteen, it spent thirteen weeks at number one on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart, while also becoming her first album to peak in the top 100 on the Billboard 200, reaching #78. The album was given positive reviews because unlike her previous studio album, the release, "welcomes the fiddles and steel guitars back as she returns to the neo-traditionalist fold", according to Allmusic, which gave the release four-and-a-half out of five stars. Reviewer William Ruhlmann found Sweet Sixteen to "double back to a formula that worked for her in the past". The lead single was a cover of The Everly Brothers' "Cathy's Clown", with McEntire's version reaching #1 in July on the Billboard country music chart. Three more Top 10 hits followed from Sweet Sixteen: "Till Love Comes Again", "Little Girl", and "Walk On", at #4, #7 and #2 respectively.[8] In September she released Reba Live, her first live album, which originally certified gold but certified platinum ten years later.[18][1]
Sixteen months after the release of Sweet Sixteen and after giving birth to a child, McEntire transitioned into 1990 with the release of Rumor Has It. The album's "sound and production were almost entirely pop-oriented", according to Kurt Wolff of Country Music: The Rough Guide.[7] Although Rumor Has It was an attempt to receive critical praise, many reviewers found the album to be "predictable". Stereo Review mainly found the recording displeasing in some places, but the reviewer also believed she "still leaves most of the competition in the dust", calling the album "glorious". Rumor Has It eventually sold three million copies by 1999, certifying triple-platinum by that year.[6] It was prefaced by the single "You Lie", which became her fifteenth number one single on the country chart.[8] In addition, the album's cover of Bobbie Gentry's 1969 hit "Fancy" and a new track, "Fallin' Out of Love", became Top 10 hits on the same Billboard country chart.[19]
1991: Aviation accident and For My Broken Heart
While on tour for her 1990 album, McEntire lost eight members of her road band and two plane crewman (Chris Austin, Kirk Cappello, Joey Cigainero, Paula Kaye Evans, Terry Jackson, Michael Thomas, Tony Saputo) when their charter jet plane crashed near San Diego, California on March 16, 1991. The accident occurred after McEntire's private performance for IBM executives the night before.[20] The first plane was a Hawker Siddeley charter jet had believed to have taken off around 1:45 AM from the Brown Field Municipal Airport, located near the border of Mexico. After a flight level of about 3,572 feet in the air, the Hawker aircraft crashed on the side of Otay Mountain, located ten miles east of the airport, while the second plane (carrying her other band members) did not crash. The accident was believed to have occurred due to poor visibility near Otay Mountain, which was not considered "prohibitive" for flying. The news was reported nearly immediately to McEntire and her husband, who were sleeping at a nearby hotel. A spokeswoman for McEntire at the time stated in the Los Angeles Times that "she was very close to all of them. Some of them had been with her for years. Reba is totally devastated by this. It's like losing part of your family. Right now she just wants to get back to Nashville."[21]
McEntire dedicated her sixteenth album, For My Broken Heart, to her deceased road band. Released in October 1991, it contained songs of sorrow and lost love about "all measure of suffering",[22] according to Alanna Nash of Entertainment Weekly. Nash reported that McEntire "still hits her stride with the more traditional songs of emotional turmoil, above all combining a spectacular vocal performance with a terrific song on "Buying Her Roses", a wife's head- spinning discovery of her husband's other woman".[22] Within nine months, For My Broken Heart sold two million copies and McEntire was soon responsible for the highest album sales by any recording artist on the MCA Nashville record label.[6] The release peaked at #1 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart, while also reaching #13 on the Billboard 200,[23] selling an eventual total of four million copies in the United States, thus earning a quadruple-platium certification. Its title track became McEntire's sixteenth number one, followed by "Is There Life Out There", which also reached #1 on the Billboard country music chart.[1] The third single, "The Greatest Man I Never Knew" peaked in the Top 5 and her cover of Vicki Lawrence's "The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia" reached #12.[8]
1992 – 1996: Continued success
In December 1992, McEntire's seventeenth studio album, It's Your Call, was released. It became her first album to peak within the Billboard 200 Top 10, reaching #8.[24] McEntire commented that the record was a "second chapter" to For My Broken Heart,[25] while music reviewers such as Alanna Nash of Entertainment Weekly disagreed, writing, "In truth, it isn't nearly as pessimistic as its predecessor — and unfortunately it isn't anywhere as involving." Nash called the album's title track—which peaked at #5 on the BillboardHot Country Singles & Tracks chart—"one of those moment-of-truth sagas at which McEntire excels. In the song, a wife answers the phone to find her husband's girlfriend on the other end and seizes the opportunity not only to inform her mate that she knows of his affair but to give him the ultimatum of choosing between the two. She's not the only one who's waitin' on the line, she sings, handing her husband the phone. It's your call."[26][27] Christopher John Farley of Time Magazine wrote that the album ranged from being "relaxing" to "cathartic", and "these vocals from one of the best country singers linger in the mind".[28] The album's preceding singles—"The Heart Won't Lie" (a duet with then-labelmate Vince Gill) and "Take It Back"—were Top 10 hits on the Billboard country chart, reaching #1 and #5 respectively.[26] Like its preceding album, It's Your Call sold over a million copies, eventually certifying by the RIAA in sales of double-platinum.[29] "If I Had Only Known", a cut from this album, was later included in the soundtrack to the 1994 film 8 Seconds.[8]
In October 1993, McEntire's third compilation album, Greatest Hits Volume Two was released, reaching #1 and #5 on the Billboard Top Country Albums and Billboard 200 charts respectively.[30] Out of the ten tracks were two new singles: the first being a duet with Linda Davis titled "Does He Love You". The song later went on to reach #1 on the BillboardHot Country Singles & Tracks chart and win both women a Grammy for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals.[8] Its second single, "They Asked About You", was also a Top 10 hit. The additional eight songs were some of McEntire's biggest hit singles during a course of five years including "The Last One to Know", "I Know How He Feels", "Cathy's Clown", and "The Heart Won't Lie".[31] After originally selling two million copies upon its initial release (2× Multi-Platinum), Greatest Hits Volume Two would later certify at 5× Multi-Platinum by the RIAA in 1998.[32]
Her eighteenth studio release was 1994's Read My Mind. The album spawned five major hit singles onto the Billboard Country chart, including the number one single "The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter". The further releases ("Till You Love Me", "Why Haven't I Heard from You", and "And Still") became Top 10 singles on the same chart,[33] with "Till You Love Me" also reaching #78 on the Billboard Hot 100, a chart which she had not previously entered.[8] The album itself reached #2 on the both the Billboard 200 and Top Country Albums charts.[34] Charlotte Dillon of Allmusic gave the album four out of five stars, calling it "another wonderful offering of songs performed by the gifted country singer Reba McEntire". Dillon also felt that the album's material had "a little soul, a little swing, and some pop, too".[35]Entertainment Weekly's Alanna Nash also gave the album positive feedback, viewing the album to have "enough boiling rhythms and brooding melodies to reflect the anger and disillusionment of the middle class in the '90s", calling the track "She Thinks His Name Was John" to be the best example of that idea.[36] The song was eventually spawned as a single and was considered controversial for its storyline, which described a woman who contracts AIDS from a one-night stand.[37] Because of its subject, the song garnered less of a response from radio and peaked at #15.[1]Read My Mind became another major seller for McEntire and her label, selling three million copies by 1995 and certifying at 3× Multi-Platinum from the RIAA.[38]
After many years of releasing studio albums of newly-recorded material, McEntire's nineteenth studio album, Starting Over (1995) was collection of her favorite songs originally recorded by others from the 1950s through the early '80s. The album was made to commemorate twenty years in the music industry, but many music critics gave it a less positive response than her previous release.[6][39]Allmusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine commented that although the album was considered a "rebirth" for McEntire, he thought that some tracks were recorded for merely "nothing more than entertainment".[40] The album paid tribute to many of McEntire's favorite artists and included cover versions of "Talking in Your Sleep", "Please Come to Boston", "Starting Over Again", "On My Own", and "By the Time I Get to Phoenix".[7] "On My Own" featured guest vocals from Davis, as well as Martina McBride and Trisha Yearwood.[8] Despite negative reviews, Starting Over was certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America within the first two months of its release,[41] but only one single—a cover of Lee Greenwood's "Ring on Her Finger, Time on Her Hands"—was a Top 10 hit single.
1997 – 2001: What If It's You, If You See Him, So Good Together
McEntire made a major comeback into the music industry the following year with her twentieth studio album, What If It's You.[42] The album's lead single, "The Fear of Being Alone" reached #2 on the Billboard country music chart.[6] and its further two singles ("How Was I to Know" and "I'd Rather Ride Around with You") reached number one and #2 respectively.[1] The release garnered higher critical acclaim than Starting Over, with Thom Owens of Allmusic calling the album "nevertheless an excellent reminder of her deep talents as a vocalist".[43]MCA Nashville chairman Bruce Hinton told Billboard how pleased he was with McEntire's release, calling the album's ten tracks "powerful" and concluding by stating, "There are so many writers and so many great songs in Nashville, and Reba has collected her disproportionate share[...]She's country music's female artist of the 90's."[6]What If It's You peaked at #1 Top Country Albums and #15 on the Billboard 200, while also becoming her first album in three years to certify in multi-platinum sales, selling two million copies by 1999.[44][45] At the end of 1997, McEntire also charted at #23 a charity single entitled "What If". The proceeds of sales for this single were donated to the Salvation Army.[8]
In 1997, McEntire headlined a tour with Brooks & Dunn which led to the recording of "If You See Him/If You See Her" with the duo the following year.[42] This song was included on McEntire's If You See Him album and Brooks & Dunn's If You See Her album, both of which released on June 2.[46] Thom Owens of Allmusic reported in its review that both album titles were named nearly the same as "a way to draw attention for both parties, since they were no longer new guns — they were veterans in danger of losing ground to younger musicians".[47] The duet reached number one on the BillboardHot Country Singles & Tracks chart in June 1998 and spawned an additional three Top 10 hits during that year: "Forever Love", "Wrong Night", and "One Honest Heart".[8] In addition, If You See Him peaked within the Top 10 on both the Billboard 200 and Top Country Albums chart, reaching #8 and #2 respectively.
For 1999, McEntire released two albums. In September she issued her second Christmas album, The Secret of Giving: A Christmas Collection, which eventually sold 500,000 copies in the United States. In November, her twenty second studio album, So Good Together was released, spawning three singles. The first release, "What Do You Say" and the second release, "I'll Be" both reached the Top 5 on the Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart. The former also brought her into the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100 for the first time, peaking at #31 there.[8] The album would eventually certify Platinum by the end of the decade.[1] Unlike any of her previous albums, So Good Together was produced by three people, including McEntire. Entertainment Weekly commented that most of the album's material was "an odd set — mostly ballads, including an English/Spanish duet with Jose y Durval on Boz Scaggs' 'We're All Alone'".[48]
In 2001, McEntire returned with her third greatest-hits album: Greatest Hits Vol. 3: I'm a Survivor. The album helped McEntire receive her third gold certification from the Recording Industry Association of America, which made her the most certified female country artist in music history.[6] It spawned the #3 hit "I'm a Survivor", which would be her last major hit for two years, as McEntire would go on a temporary hiatus to focus on her television sitcom, Reba.[42] The album's only other new song, a cover of Kenny Rogers' "Sweet Music Man", went to #36.[8]
2003 – 2007: Return to the music industry
McEntire's seventy-sixth chart single, "I'm Gonna Take That Mountain", released in mid-2003, ended her two-year break from recording.[42] In November 2003, her twenty-third studio album, Room to Breathe, marked her first release of new material four years. Writing for the The Boston Globe, Steve Morse found the album's material to have a variety of musical stylings, saying the track "Love Revival" sounded like Tanya Tucker and calling "If I Had Any Sense at All" "a mournful country ballad".[49] Dan MacIntosh of Country Standard Time gave Room to Breathe a less-received review, reporting that "it ultimately falls short of leaving the listener breathless". He highlighted "I'm Gonna Take That Mountain" for sounding like a Bluegrass-inspired song such as music by Ricky Skaggs or Patty Loveless.[50] The album itself reached a peak of #4 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart and #25 on the Billboard 200, staying at the position for only one week.[51] The second single, "Somebody", became her twenty-second number one single on the BillboardHot Country Songs chart and first since "If You See Him/If You See Her" six years previous.[8] It took longer than expected to become a hit, according to McEntire, who said, "Yeah, that had us concerned. The album came out in November and it took 30 weeks for "Somebody" to work its way up the charts. Usually, it's 15 weeks. But this one had a resurgence of life, especially after the video came out. MCA is really kicking butt with it."[52] Its second single, "He Gets That from Me" reached #7, followed by the Amy Dalley co-written track "My Sister", which reached #16.[1]
In 2005, McEntire released a compilation entitled Reba #1's. The album comprised all thirty-three Number One hits in her career on all major trade charts. Two new songs were included on the album: "You're Gonna Be" and "Love Needs a Holiday". Both were released as singles, peaking at #33 and #60 respectively, with the latter becoming her first single in 27 years to miss the country top 40 entirely.[8]Country Standard Time called the tracks "Whoever's in New England" and "You Lie" the album highlights.[53] The album reached a peak of #3 on the Top Country Albums chart and #12 on the Billboard 200 upon its release, certifying 2× Platinum by the RIAA within two years. On August 30, 2007, McEntire received two CMA nominations: Female Vocalist of the Year and Vocal Event of the Year. With those two nominations plus another in 2008 and two more in 2009, Reba became the female artist with the most nominations (forty-eight) in the forty-three year history of the CMA Awards, surpassing Dolly Parton, who has forty-three.[54]
In mid 2007, McEntire announced the release of her twenty-fifth studio album, Reba: Duets, on September 18. McEntire stated that out of all the albums she had previously recorded, her newest release was particularly special: "This is an album that will go down in history as probably my favorite album to record because I got to work and sing and be with my friends. Out of everything in this whole career that I can say that I'm the most proud of, are my friends. And here's the proof." In promotion for the album, McEntire made appearances at radio shows and on The Oprah Winfrey Show September 19.[55] The album's lead single, "Because of You"—a duet with Kelly Clarkson, who originally recorded the song—became her fifty fifth Top 10 single on the BillboardHot Country Songs chart, tying her with Dolly Parton, who also had the same amount of Top 10 records.[56] The album was given high critical praise from magazines such as PopMatters, which called McEntire's vocals, "to sound sweet without being syrupy, while being extremely powerful. McEntire’s vocal strength yields a different kind of authority than the bluesy, drawling growl of Janis Joplin, the weathered rasp of Marianne Faithful, or even the soul-shrieking powerhouse of Tina Turner. Instead, Reba's voice combines the aspects of all three singers but tempers it with a Southern sweetness and an unmistakable femininity."[57] The album contained ten tracks of duets with country and pop artists, including Kenny Chesney, Trisha Yearwood, Carole King, and Justin Timberlake. Reba: Duets peaked at #1 on the Top Country Albums chart, while also becoming her first album in her thirty-year career to peak and debut at #1 on the Billboard 200, with 300,536 copies (according to Nielsen Soundscan) sold within its first week of release.[58] On January 17, 2008, McEntire embarked on the 2 Worlds 2 Voices Tour with Clarkson, which began in Dayton, Ohio.[59] A month after its release, the album was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America on October 19, 2007.[60] The album's only other single was "Every Other Weekend". Recorded on the album as a duet with Chesney, it was released to radio with its co-writer, Skip Ewing, as a duet partner.[61]
2008 – present: New record label
In early 2008, McEntire partnered again with Brooks & Dunn for a re-recorded version of their single "Cowgirls Don't Cry". McEntire is featured in the video, but not on the version found on the album Cowboy Town. It became McEntire's fifty-sixth Top Ten country hit, breaking Dolly Parton's record for the most Top Ten country hits for a solo female.[62] In November 2008, McEntire announced that she would be departing from her label of twenty-five years and signing with the Valory Music Group, an imprint of Big Machine Records. Under MCA, she had sold a total of fifty-five million records worldwide and won two Grammys.[63] The switch to Valory reunited McEntire with the label's president, Scott Borchetta, who had worked as senior vice president of promotion at MCA during most of the 1990s. McEntire later commented on her label switch, stating, "I am thrilled to be joining the Valory team. Scott and I worked together on some of the biggest singles of my career, and I am excited to renew our partnership."[64]
On April 5, 2009, McEntire debuted her first single on Valory at the 2009 Academy of Country Music Awards, entitled "Strange".[65] The song debuted at #39 on the BillboardHot Country Songs chart, giving McEntire the highest single debut of her career,[66] and went on to peak at #11. Her twenty-sixth studio album, Keep On Loving You was released August 18, 2009 and became McEntire's first solo studio album in six years.[67] The album gained fairly positive reviews from most album critics, including Jim Malec of The 9513, which gave Keep on Loving You three and a half out of five stars. Malec favored "Strange", calling McEntire's performance of the song "stellar". Criticism was given to the album's third track, "I Want a Cowboy", characterizing the song as an "annoying stop-and-go melody and lyrics more befitting a 17 year old Lila McCann, it is a song so generic and irrelevant that it would be album filler on the worst albums".[68] On August 26, Keep on Loving You became McEntire's second album to top both the Billboard Country and 200 charts, selling 96,000 copies within its first week. With the album, McEntire broke the record for the female country artist with the most Billboard #1 albums, which was previously held by Loretta Lynn.[69] On August 18, the label released the album's second single, "Consider Me Gone".[70]
Acting career
1990 – 1999: Entrance into film and television
During the late 1980s, many of McEntire's music videos were being described as "mini movies". In each video, she would portray a different character, which distinguished her music videos from other videos released by artists during that time. In the late 1980s, McEntire became interested in an acting career, eventually hiring an agent. In 1989, she co-hosted Good Morning America on the ABC network.[6]
In 1990, she obtained her first film role playing Heather Grummer in the horror comedy Tremors,[6] along with Kevin Bacon. The film explained the story of a small group of people living in Nevada who were fighting subterranean worm-like creatures. After the film's release, McEntire developed a strong interest in acting and made it her second career.[71][72] The following year, she starred along with Kenny Rogers and Burt Reynolds in the made-for-television movie, The Gambler Returns: The Luck of the Draw. In 1994, McEntire worked with director, Rob Reiner in the film, North, playing Ma Tex.[6] The film obtained negative reviews, receiving only two in a half stars from Allmovie.[73] In 1995, McEntire starred in a third made-for-television movie entitled, Buffalo Girls, which was based upon the life of western cowgirl, Calamity Jane (played by Angelica Houston). Playing Jane's friend, Annie Oakley, Buffalo Girls was nominated for an Emmy award.[74] In the mid 90s, McEntire auditioned and won the portrayal of Molly Brown for the making of the film, Titanic. However, production for the film was extended beyond its original duration, and therefore McEntire had to resign from the part, as she had already scheduled prior concert engagements. The role was instead given to Kathy Bates.[75] In 1998, she starred as Lizzie Brooks in a fourth TV film, Forever Love, which was based upon McEntire's hit single of the same name.
2000 – 2007: Broadway and television series
In early 2001, McEntire expanded into theater, starring in the Broadway revival of Annie Get Your Gun. Playing Annie Oakley (whom she previously portrayed in Buffalo Girls), McEntire's performance was critically acclaimed by several newspapers, including The New York Times, which commented, "Without qualification the best performance by an actress in a musical comedy this season."[76] McEntire personally called the musical, "some of the hardest work I've ever done in in my life".[77]
In October 2001, McEntire premiered her half-hour television sitcom on the WB network entitled, Reba. The show was based around single mother, Reba Hart, who learns how to handle life situations after her husband divorces her and their teenage daughter becomes pregnant.[78]Reba garnered critical acclaim and success, becoming the network's highest-rated television show for adults ranging from the ages of eighteen to forty nine.[6] The show would run for six seasons and nominate McEntire for a Golden Globe award.[72] In 2006, the series was moved to the CW network and remained there for one more season before its cancellation on February 18, 2007.[79] On August 16, 2009, McEntire confirmed that she is developing a new sitcom, however it is in the "very rough stages" at this point.[80]
Musical styles and legacy
Reba McEntire in concert on August 8, 2008.
McEntire's sound has been influenced the country music of Bob Wills, Merle Haggard, Dolly Parton, Barbara Mandrell, and Patsy Cline.[81] In college, McEntire would sneak into local dances at the Oklahoma-Texas border so she could dance to Wills's music, commenting that, "it didn't get any better than dancing to Bob Wills music". She also explained Merle Haggard's influence on her career, stating "I had every album he ever put out", and would sing "every song he did", along with her brother, Pake and sister, Susie. In addition, her first major hit, "Sweet Dreams" was a remake of Patsy Cline's version of the song, according to McEntire herself.[82] McEntire's music has been described to not only be built upon traditional country music, but also expand into the genres of Country pop, Mainstream pop, Soul, Adult Contemporary, and R&B. At times, her music has often been criticized for moving away from traditional country music. Many music critics have often called her music to be "melodramatic", "formulaic", and "bombastic", particularly after her 1988 album, Reba. Studio releases such as Sweet Sixteen,Rumor Has It,It's Your Call, and Starting Over have often been described by these terms.[6][7]
McEntire possesses a contralto vocal range[83] and performs "vocal gymnastics" with her voice,[84] a musical technique in which a singer twirls a note around, using their vibrato. McEntire has often credited Dolly Parton for influencing this trait, stating that she would always listen to Parton's records and find her style of vocal gymnastics, "so pretty".[77]
McEntire has often been regarded as one of country music's most influential female vocalists and most well-loved entertainers.[7][81] She has also been highly-credited for remaining one of country's most popular female artists for over two decades, maintaining her success by continually incorporating contemporary musical sounds without changing her traditional vocal style.[42][81] For many new artists, she has been credited as the inspiration to their careers in country music, including, Faith Hill, Martina McBride, Trisha Yearwood, and LeAnn Rimes.[81]The Net Music Countdown second handedly reported, "That influence has manifested itself in many ways. As a role model, she's shown others how to handle fame with grace and good humor while never backing down from her values or goals. Just as importantly, she's shown others to refuse to accept limitations on what she can do or how much she can achieve." McEntire also explained to the online website, "Whatever I'm doing, I feel like I'm representing country music". "It's always been my main career, and it's where my loyalties lie. I feel like I'm waving the flag of country music wherever I go, and I couldn't be prouder to do it."[85]
Personal life
McEntire's two siblings (both from the Singing McEntires) have also maintained careers in the music industry. Her brother, Pake McEntire was a successful country artist in the late 1980s and early 90s. Her sister, Susie Luchsinger, is a successful Christian music singer.[86]
In 1976, McEntire married national steer wrestling champion and rancher, Charlie Battles. Together, the couple owned a ranch in Oklahoma and managed her career. In 1987, McEntire divorced Battles and moved to Nashville, Tennessee. She later commented to Bob Allen of Country Music about their separation, saying, "I had to pack everything in one day and leave. I was totally starting over."[6] McEntire later claimed that she wanted to focus more on her music career, while Battles insisted that she would remain at home helping to take care of the ranch. McEntire stated, "I wasn't the little girl anymore, taking orders, and doing what he said." In 1989, McEntire married her manager and former steel guitar player, Narvel Blackstock. The couple wed in a private ceremony on a boat in Lake Tahoe. Together, the pair took over all aspects of McEntire's career, forming Starstruck Entertainment, which was originally designed to help manage her career. From her second marriage, McEntire inherited three stepchildren and gave birth to a son, Shelby on February 23, 1990.[77] The couple has since celebrated their twentieth wedding anniversary, and McEntire states that the secrets to her marriage are "Respect, faith, love, trust, and lots of patience".[87]
^ abcdefghijWolff, Kurt. "Ch. 12 - Wild and Blue: Traditionalism Makes a Comeback". in Orla Duane. Country Music: The Rough Guide. London, England: Rough Guides Ltd..
^ abcdNash, Alanna. "Ch. 11 - Tell Me 'Bout the Good Old Days". Will the Circle Be Unbroken: Country Music in America. New York, NY, USA: DK Publishing, Inc. pp. pg. 316.
McEntire, Reba (1994). Reba: My Story. New York: Bantam Books. ISBN9780553096071.
McEntire, Reba (1999). Comfort from a Country Quilt: Finding New Inspiration and Strength from Old-Fashioned Values. New York: Bantam Books. ISBN9780553107944.
Further reading
Bufwack, Mary A. (1998). "Reba McEntire". In The Encyclopedia of Country Music. Paul Kingsbury, Editor. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 339 (birth year listed as 1954).
