CMT Blog: Archive

If I’m interpreting a sidebar on the People magazine Web site correctly, Barbara Mandrell is tabbed in the publication’s annual “Most Beautiful People” list, which this year is being expanded from 50 to 100. That’s a nice compliment to Babs, who turns 60 this Christmas.

During her heyday, she was one of country music’s greatest ambassadors, in part because her television show, Barbara Mandrell & the Mandrell Sisters, put the genre on prime time every Saturday night. The show was dismissed by critics, but the public loved it, and Barbara stopped only because it took time away from her family and her music.

As it was, critics dismissed that, too. Though some of her early recordings, particularly “The Midnight Oil,” displayed a strong sense of country tradition, she hit her commercial stride with pop-leaning recordings that often used Michael McDonald-style keyboard patterns to enhance the melody. Such was the case with “Sleeping Single in a Double Bed,” which was recorded 30 years ago this week (May 3). It set the template for her revised sound, and while naysayers might have had a problem with the sonics, it’s tough to argue that the wordplay in the title represents an extremely classic approach to country songwriting.

Ultimately, Barbara succeeded with the new sound. “Sleeping Single” became her first No. 1 record, and it won a fan-voted American Music Award for favorite country single.
 
She retired in the 1990s, but her mark is still recognized, not only via the People nod, but also through a real estate decision: Her former Tennessee home, Fontanel, provided a setting for some of John Rich’s recent CMT series Gone Country.

If Barbara got the last laugh on the critics, one of her musicians had a pretty song sense of humor, too. When she recorded “Sleeping Single,” one of the players signed the union time card as “Elmer Fudd.”