The single took off during the summer of 1952, and sold more than 800,000 copies in its initial release. Nevertheless, audiences were greatly enamored of the song. It was temporarily banned from the Grand Ole Opry. Wells' slight alteration of 'trustful' to 'trusting' lifted the network ban on the song. NBC, in particular, was troubled by the lyric, 'It brings back memories of when I was a trustful wife'. The record's message was controversial at the time and was banned by many radio stations. Wells' single retorted, 'It's a shame that all the blame is on us women.' 'It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels' was an answer song to Hank Thompson's ' The Wild Side of Life' and its lyrical treatment of seductive, wayward women. 'I wasn't expecting to make a hit,' said Wells later. Wells was disenchanted with her career prospects and was considering retirement, but agreed to the session (at Owen Bradley's studio on May 3, 1952) because of the $125 union scale recording payment. In 1952, Paul Cohen, an executive at Decca Records, approached Wells to record ' It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels'. 1952: 'It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels' While these early records gained some notice, promoters still were not keen on promoting female singers, so Wells was dropped from the label in 1950. Wells, however, did not sing on their records until signing with RCA Victor in 1949, releasing some of her first singles, including 'Death At The Bar' and 'Don't Wait For The Last Minute To Pray', neither of which charted. On Louisiana Hayride, Wells performed with her husband's duo. Acuff advised Wright not to make his wife his show's headliner because he thought women could not sell country music records. Before Wells' rise to stardom with 'Honky Tonk Angels', Roy Acuff and the Smoky Mountain Boys toured with Wright and Wells for a time. Wells toured with the pair, occasionally performing backup vocals. Johnnie Wright chose the name from a folk song called 'Sweet Kitty Wells'. At this time, Wells adopted 'Kitty Wells' as her stage name. Their band became known first as the Tennessee Hillbillies and then the Tennessee Mountain Boys. Soon, Wright met Jack Anglin (who married Johnnie's sister Louise), and they became the duo Johnnie & Jack. Wells sang with Wright and his sister Louise Wright the three toured as Johnnie Right and the Harmony Girls. Īt the age of 18 Wells married Johnnie Wright, a cabinetmaker who aspired to country music stardom (which he would eventually achieve as half of the duo Johnnie & Jack). As a teenager, Wells sang with her sisters, who performed under the name the Deason Sisters, on a local radio station beginning in 1936. Her father, Charles, and his brother were musicians, and her mother, Myrtle, was a gospel singer. (She is one of the few well known country performers to have been born in Nashville.) Wells began singing as a child, learning guitar from her father, who was a brakeman on the Tennessee Central Railroad. Wells was born Ellen Muriel Deason on August 30, 1919, one of six siblings, to Charles Cary Deason and his wife, Myrtle, in Nashville, Tennessee. 1.2.1 1952: 'It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels'.Wells' success and influence on country music garnered her the title 'Queen of Country Music'. In 1991, Wells became the third country music artist, after Roy Acuff and Hank Williams, and the eighth woman to receive the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. In 1976, she was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Wells ranks as the sixth most successful female vocalist in the history of the Billboard country charts, according to historian Joel Whitburn's book The Top 40 Country Hits. Her chart-topping hits continued until the mid 1960s, paving the way for and inspiring a long list of female country singers who came to prominence in the 1960s. Wells is the only artist to be awarded top female vocalist awards for 14 consecutive years. “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels” would also be her first of several pop crossover hits.

country charts and turned her into the first female country superstar. She broke down a barrier to women in country music with her 1952 hit recording ' It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels', which also made her the first female country singer to top the U.S. Ellen Muriel Deason (Aug– July 16, 2012), known professionally as Kitty Wells, was an American pioneering female country music singer.

Kitty wells