Billie Jo Spears
Billie Jo Spears (born Billie Joe Moore; January 14, 1938 – December 14, 2011)[1][2] was an American country music singer. She was known for a series of singles whose characters often represented women in assertive positions. Among these recordings was a song about sexual harassment ("Mr. Walker, It's All Over"), and a song about rekindling sexual desire ("Blanket on the Ground)".
Billie Jo Spears
December 14, 2011 (aged 73)
- Singer
- record producer
1953–2011
5, including:
-
Terry Bethel(divorced)
-
Doug Walton(divorced)
-
Mike Edlin(divorced)
3
Vocals
Spears was raised in a working-class Texas family. She made her first recording at age 13 on the Abbott label. Singer–songwriter Jack Rhodes discovered her early music and helped her secure a professional partnership with producer Kelso Herston. Under Herston's production, she had her first top-ten song with 1969's "Mr. Walker, It's All Over" (issued on Capitol Records). Several follow-up releases were not successful, and after recovering from a vocal setback she returned to United Artists. Her second release was 1975's "Blanket on the Ground", which topped the American country chart and became a commercial pop success in several countries.
Spears followed with several more American top ten and top 20 country songs like "What I've Got in Mind", "Misty Blue", "If You Want Me", "'57 Chevrolet" and a cover of "I Will Survive". Spears continued to have success overseas, particularly in the United Kingdom where she had several more top 40 songs. In 1981, Spears left United Artists (now Liberty) and recorded several albums with British labels during the 1980's and 90's. She also continued to tour throughout, most notably in the United Kingdom. Meanwhile, Spears married and divorced five times between the 1960's and 90's. In 2011, Spears died of cancer at age 73.
Early life[edit]
Billie Jean Moore was born in Beaumont, Texas and was one of six children.[3] Her father was a truck driver, while her mother worked as a shipyard welder and waitress.[3][4] Moore was usually called "BJ" during her childhood and the nickname stuck throughout her adult life.[5] She was routinely exposed to country music throughout her childhood.[6] Her mother spent some of her free time performing as a guitarist in a western swing band called the Light Crust Doughboys.[7]
Moore's sister Betty first had aspirations of becoming a country artist and even signed a recording contract, but she chose a domestic life over a professional career.[3] Moore began singing professionally at age 13. She was discovered by songwriter Jack Rhodes, who helped her land an appearance on the Louisiana Hayride television program. This brought Moore to the attention of the Abbott label.[8] In 1953, the company released her first single while she was still a teenager titled "Too Old for Toys, Too Young for Boys". The track was issued under the name "Billie Jo Moore".[9] According to the Encyclopedia of Music in the 20th Century, the record brought in an estimated $4,200.[10] However, a separate statement from The Independent claimed that the record only brought Moore $2000.[3]
Moore graduated from Beaumont's French High School in 1955.[5] Upon graduating, she worked a series of jobs outside the music industry.[6] This included working as a carhop for four years at Neva's, a restaurant near her hometown.[5] She also held a position as a clerical worker for the Beaumont Bag and Burlap Company.[7] Meanwhile, Jack Rhodes persuaded Moore to pursue a career as a country music artist.[6] In 1964, she moved to Nashville, Tennessee.[3][1] During this period, she changed her professional name to "Billie Jo Spears".[5]
Career[edit]
1964–1973: Initial success[edit]
Spears tried to find a recording contract after moving to Nashville. She first made several demonstration records with producer Pete Drake. In 1964, she secured a recording deal with United Artists Records.[11] She cut several singles that were issued by United Artists but failed to become successful. Her producer at the time was Kelso Herston, who would move to Capitol Records. Believing in her musical abilities, he helped her switch to Capitol in 1968.[11][12] Spears's first single for the label was the song "Harper Valley PTA".[13] Released at the same time was a competing version by Jeannie C. Riley which became the commercially successful version.[14] Spears's next single, "He's Got More Love on His Little Finger", became her first to make the American Billboard country chart.[15] It was followed later in the year by her debut studio album titled The Voice of Billie Jo Spears.[12]
Spears' next single release was 1969's "Mr. Walker, It's All Over". Its musical style and lyrical themes were said to resemble that of "Harper Valley PTA".[8][12] The song told the story of a New York City secretary who confronts her boss after facing sexual harassment in the work place.[16] The song became Spears's commercial breakout, reaching the top five of the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart,[15] the top 80 of the Billboard Hot 100[17] and the top ten of the Canadian RPM Country Tracks survey.[18] Capitol then issued Spears's second studio album of the same name, which reached the Billboard Top Country Albums top 30.[19] The disc featured several new recordings that followed similar storylines to her top ten single and included a cover of Tammy Wynette's "Stand by Your Man".[20]
Artistry[edit]
Spears's musical style was rooted in the country genre.[29][11][33] Specifically, her early Capitol recordings embedded aspects of traditional country. Writers Mary A. Bufwack and Robert K. Oermann found that her sixties-era recordings had a "diminutive honky-tonker" style[16] while Richie Unterberger of AllMusic found the same selections to have "harder edge" compared to other female artists.[20] Many writers found that Spears's United Artists/Liberty recordings shifted towards country pop and country disco.[4] Author Kurt Wolff disagreed in his book Country Music: The Rough Guide: "Though Billie Jo Spears had her biggest hits during the 1970s, she was far more earthy and grounded than most singers passing for 'country' during the decade."[29]
Bufwack and Oermann found that her late seventies music was "some of the most distinctive pop-country fusion discs of the day."[33] Stephen L. Betts of Rolling Stone found that Spears also had elements of country disco, highlighting 1979's "I Will Survive" in the article Country Disco: 15 Great, Wild and WTF Songs. "With the familiar piano opening by Hargus "Pig" Robbins and backing vocals from the Jordanaires, the Grammy-nominated country-meets-western-meets-Studio 54 concoction remains deliciously odd and totally irresistible," he concluded.[49]
Writers and critics also highlighted the blues-influenced style of Spears's vocal delivery. AllMusic's Steve Huey called her "a perfect torch balladeer" with a "sultry, bluesy voice".[11] In an AllMusic review of a compilation album, Stephen Cook called Spears's vocals "smoky and sensual".[50] Music writers also noticed Spears's characteristic twang in her vocal performances. Bufwack and Oermann commented that she had a "Texas accent as thick as salsa and twice as tangy."[16] Kurt Wolff commented, "Her voice was strong and confident sort of a combination of Loretta Lynn twang and the swampy soul of Bobbie Gentry."[29] Stephen L. Betts described her as a "twangy Texan".[49]
Legacy[edit]
Writers and journalists have remembered Spears for songs that showed women in strong and assertive positions. Following her death, Bill Friskics-Warren of The New York Times wrote, "Ms. Spears rose to prominence in the late 1960s with a string of up-tempo, socially conscious songs portraying plucky survivors."[1] Mary A. Bufwack and Robert K. Oermann explained in their 2003 book that Spears's choice of material set her apart: "Billie Jo was unusual for a country female of the period in that she recorded hardly any 'victim' material. Almost all of the star's hit ballads are of women leaving, surviving or otherwise asserting themselves."[32]
Spears's music has been recorded by other artists and has been considered influential to other artists. Tammy Wynette was influenced by Spears's sixties-era United Artists recordings. According to producer Kelso Herston, Wynette studied her singing style by listening to Spears's records in his Nashville office. "I still think that she was influenced some by Billie Jo. She really did like her," he told biographer Jimmy McDonough.[51] Lorrie Morgan knew many of Spear's recordings about assertive women and cut Spears's "Standing Tall" for her 1995 compilation Reflections: Greatest Hits.[52] Morgan also performed many of Spears's popular songs in her concerts, including "Silver Wings and Golden Rings".[53]
Personal life and death[edit]
Spears was married a total of five times.[4][1][8] Dates of Spears's marriages and divorces have not been published. However, several of her spouses names have appeared in books. The Insider's Country Music Handbook reported that Spears was briefly married and divorced from both Terry Bethel and Doug Walton. Both were country music musicians.[54] The book Grassroots Music in the Upper Cumberland reported a brief marriage to Mike Edlin, another fellow musician.[55] Finding Her Voice: This History of Women in Country Music explained that Spears married her third husband in 1975, who was fifteen years younger than she. His name was not given. Spears spoke of the age difference in the book, "I guess I just think young. If it was the other way around, no one would give it a second thought...You're only as young as you feel."[32] From her various marriages, Spears had three children: Tim Pierce, Kevin Jones and Ronnie Jones.[1]
In the early 1970s, it was discovered that Spears had nodules on her vocal cords. She underwent two surgeries and had to spend six months in silence so her voice could recover.[56] "I was singing too high and straining on the high notes. It took six months of total silence to recover. I lowered all my keys and I don't scream anymore," she said.[3] In 1980, Spears was injured in a car accident in Nashville, Tennessee. Billboard reported that she suffered a concussion, a fractured arm and multiple cuts. She was hospitalized for one day and had to cancel several concert engagements. However, she made a full recovery.[57] In 1993, she underwent triple bypass heart surgery and made a full recovery.[58]
A heavy smoker, Spears suffered from lung cancer in her final years. In her autobiography, singer and friend Philomena Begley spoke of how Spears became increasingly weaker and frail shortly before her death. Begley also said that Spears continued to smoke despite her diagnosis.[59] Spears chose to spend her final days in hospice care at her home in Vidor, Texas.[5] On December 14, 2011, she passed away at her Vidor home at the age of 73.[1]