Jessi Colter is 71 years old today. Colter is country music artist who is best known for her collaboration with her husband, country singer and songwriter Waylon Jennings, and for her 1975 country-pop crossover hit, Im Not Lisa. Jessi Colter was one of the few female artists to emerge from the mid-1970s “outlaw” movement. After meeting her future husband, Colter pursued a career in country music, releasing her first studio LP in 1970, A Country Star Is Born. Five years later, Colter signed with Capitol Records and released her first solo single, “Im Not Lisa,” which topped the country charts and reached the top 5 on the pop charts. In 1976 she was featured on the collaboration LP Wanted: The Outlaws, which became a Platinum album, and helped her become one of the few female outlaw country stars. Colter was born Miriam Johnson and raised in Phoenix, Arizona, in a strict Pentecostal home. Her mother was a Pentecostal preacher and her father was a race car driver. At age 11, Colter became the pianist at her church. After high school (Mesa High, AZ 1961), she began singing in local clubs in Phoenix. In 1970, Jennings and Colter sang duet on two top 40 country chart hits that also helped Colter gain a recording contract with RCA Records the same year. She released her debut album, A Country Star is Born, on RCA, with Jennings and Chet Atkins co-producing. The album was not successful and it was Colter’s only album for RCA. In 1975, Colter was signed with Capitol Records. On the label, she released her debut single, “Im Not Lisa.” The song was Colter’s breakthrough single, reaching No. 1 on the Billboard Country Chart and also peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard Pop Chart, becoming a crossover hit in 1975. Her second album, titled “Im Jessi Colter” was also released that year and debuted at No. 1 on the Top Country Albums chart and No. 50 on the Billboard 200. The follow-up single from her album “Whats Happened to Blue Eyes” was also very successful, peaking at No. 5 on the Billboard Country Chart and No. 57 on the Pop Chart. The single’s B-side, “You Aint Never Been Loved (Like Im Gonna Love You),” charted among the Top Pop 100 also in 1975. In 1976, Colter released her second and third Capitol studio albums, “Jessi” and “Diamond in the Rough.” Both albums were as successful as Colters 1975 album, both debuting at No. 4 on the Top Country Albums chart. The lead single from her Jessi album, Its Morning (And I Still Love You) was a Top 15 country hit in 1976. In 1981, Colter and her husband returned to release a duet album entitled “Leather and Lace.” The albums first single, “Storms Never Last,” was written by Colter, and the second single, “The Wild Side of Life”/“It Wasnt God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels,” was also a major hit in 1981, peaking at No. 10 on the Billboard Country Chart. Stevie Nicks wrote the title track of the album; however, after receiving word that Colter and Jennings might divorce, Hicks released her own version of the song as a duet with Don Henley. It peaked at No. 6 on Pop chart, also in 1981. Also in 1981. Colter released her final studio album on Capitol records, “Ridin Shotgun,” which also spawned Colter’s last charting single on the country charts, “Holdin’ on.” As the decade progressed, Colter’s decided to let her recording career decline in order to help take care of and nurse her husband through his drug abuse and various medical problems. She remained active during this time. In 2000, Colter performed on Jennings’s live album “Never Say Die,” released two years before his death in 2002, at age 64. In 2006, Colter returned to recording with a new studio album released off the Shout! Factory label, Out of the Ashes. “Out of the Ashes” was Colter’s first studio album in over 20 years. The album was produced by Don Was and reflected on Jennings’s passing away. Her late husband, Waylon Jennings, had an unused vocal, “Out of the Rain,” which was featured on the track. Colter and Jennings had one son, Waylon Albright “Shooter” Jennings (born May 19, 1979). Here, Colter performs “I’m Not Lisa.”
Posted on: Sun, 25 May 2014 04:58:07 +0000
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