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Melba Montgomery
Melba Montgomery (born October 14, 1938) is an American country music singer. She is best known for her duet recordings in the 1960s with country music star George Jones and later Charlie Louvin. Her brother is the famous country music songwriter, Earl "Peanutt" Montgomery.
In the 1970s, Montgomery was a successful solo artist in her own right. Her best-known solo hit is the number-one hit, "No Charge".
Montgomery was born into a musical family on October 14, 1938, in Iron City, Tennessee, and raised in Florence, Alabama. She gained her first exposure to music through her father, a fiddler and guitarist who taught vocal lessons at the town's Methodist church. She started playing guitar at the age of 10. Music became a very important part of Montgomery's life and she soon had serious dreams about achieving success in the country music industry. At age 20, Montgomery and her brother won an amateur talent contest held at Nashville radio station WSM's Studio C, which at that time housed the Grand Ole Opry. Montgomery gained a recording contract with United Artists Records in 1962 with the help of singer/promoter Roy Acuff.
Montgomery went solo in 1962. She wrote "We Must Have Been Out of Our Minds", which she sang with George Jones. The song spent over 30 weeks on the Billboard Country chart, and peaked at number three by 1963. It became the duo's best-known song together. The single's success brought a successful duet album with Jones (What's in Our Hearts), which released two other Top 20 hit singles, "Let's Invite Them Over" and "What's in Our Hearts".
After finding success as a duet artist, Montgomery found the time to release a solo album. In 1964, Montgomery's first solo debut, America's No. 1 Country and Western Girl Singer. The album brought about a top-25 hit for Montgomery, "The Greatest One of All", which peaked at number 22 on the Billboard Country Chart. For the rest of the decade, Montgomery had a few other minor solo hits, none of which made the country top 40.
Jones continued to duet with Montgomery. However, in 1966, Montgomery was partnered with Gene Pitney for a duet album, Being Together, which spawned a top-15 hit, "Baby, Ain't That Fine".
Although they parted ways, singles continued to be released by the duo of Charlie Louvin and Montgomery, including "Did You Ever", which reached the top 30, followed by the minor hits like "Baby, What's Wrong With Us" and "A Man Likes Things Like That", which were released only as singles in 1971 and 1972.
In 1973, Montgomery switched to Elektra Records, where she focused more on a solo career. On her debut album for the label, Montgomery had a top-40 hit single, "Wrap Your Love Around Me", her first solo single to reach this far on the country charts in nearly 10 years. Released in 1974, "No Charge" became a number-one country hit on the Billboard country chart, as well as top-40 hit on the Billboard pop chart. The song and the album became successful, and Montgomery's only top 10-hit as a solo artist.
The title track of Montgomery's follow-up album, Don't Let the Good Times Fool You, reached the top 15 in 1975, the only top-40 hit from the album. Subsequent singles also released from the album, "Searchin' (For Someone Like You)" and "Your Pretty Roses Come too Late" did not bring much success. However, in 1977, under United Artists, Montgomery released a self-titled album, and a cover version of Merrilee Rush's pop hit, "Angel of the Morning" that reached the top 25. The single was Montgomery's last major country hit.
In 1986, Montgomery released her last single, "Straight Talkin'", which peaked at number 78.
Within the past 20 to 30 years, Montgomery has focused her career on songwriting. She has written songs for such artists as George Strait, Reba McEntire, Randy Travis, George Jones, Patty Loveless, Travis Tritt, Tracy Byrd, Terri Clark, John Prine, Jim Lauderdale, Sara Evans, Eddy Arnold, Connie Smith, Leon Russell, J.D. Souther, Rhonda Vincent, and many more.
