Lorrie Morgan
Loretta Lynn Morgan (born June 27, 1959)[1][2] is an American country music singer and actress. She is the daughter of George Morgan, widow of Keith Whitley, and ex-wife of Jon Randall and Sammy Kershaw, all of whom are also country music singers. Morgan has been active as a singer since the age of 13, and charted her first single in 1979. She achieved her greatest success between 1988 and 1999, recording for RCA Records and the defunct BNA Records. Her first two RCA albums (Leave the Light On and Something in Red) and her BNA album Watch Me are all certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The 1995 compilation Reflections: Greatest Hits is her best-selling album with a double-platinum certification; War Paint, Greater Need, and Shakin' Things Up, also on BNA, are certified gold.
Lorrie Morgan
- Musician
- singer
- actress
1972–present
2
George Morgan (father)
Vocals
- Hickory
- MCA
- RCA
- BNA
- Image Entertainment
- Country Crossing
- Stroudavarious
Morgan has made more than 40 chart entries on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts, including three number-one singles: "Five Minutes", "What Part of No", and "I Didn't Know My Own Strength", and 11 additional top-10 hits. Morgan has recorded in collaboration with her father, as well as Whitley, Randall, Kershaw, Frank Sinatra, Johnny Mathis, Tammy Wynette, The Beach Boys, Dolly Parton, Andy Williams, the New World Philharmonic, and Pam Tillis. She is also a member of the Grand Ole Opry. Morgan's musical style is defined largely by country pop influences and her dramatic singing voice, with frequent stylistic comparisons to Tammy Wynette.
Early life[edit]
Loretta Lynn Morgan was born in Nashville, Tennessee, on June 27, 1959.[2] She is the fifth child of country music singer George Morgan.[2][3] At age 13, Lorrie Morgan made her first performance on the Grand Ole Opry, when her father brought her onstage to perform "Paper Roses". According to Morgan herself, the performance received a standing ovation.[4] Morgan's father died in 1975, so she and the members of his band toured various small clubs until 1977, when they disbanded and she began touring with Roy Wiggins. After this, she worked as a receptionist, songwriter, and demo singer for Acuff-Rose Music.[1]
Musical style and influences[edit]
Morgan's style is defined by her singing voice, and the combination of ballads and uptempo material present in her discography. Robert K. Oermann of The Tennessean described her as "the blonde with the torchy delivery",[25] and Alanna Nash called her voice a "throaty sob".[56] Remz wrote in a review of Greater Need that "Morgan's voice always has been her strength, often getting right at the heart of songs of heartbreak and loss, her signature",[30] while saying in a review of To Get to You that she "turn[s] in readings with a good deal of emotion tossed in without being overwrought. Sometimes the singing is almost too perfect, sacrificing intensity in the process."[57] Nash contrasted her with Tammy Wynette, writing of her first greatest-hits album that it was "a reminder that Morgan is capable of delivering the kind of feisty songwriting that harkens back to Wynette’s halcyon days in the '70s." Morgan also felt that the comparisons to Wynette in her singing style and song choices were helpful in making her music appeal to female fans.[24] Nash has also described Morgan as "plainspoken", referring to "What Part of No" as a song that "showcases her pull-no-punches style."[24] Writing for The Times of Northwest Indiana, Jim Patterson stated that "Like Wynette, Morgan is tough but vulnerable, scarred by tragedy and dogged by the tabloids. And like Wynette, she can make it all come pouring out in her voice."[3] James Manheim of AllMusic said of her songs' themes that they displayed a "sense of humor and play to her usual strengths in the genres of the breakup ballad and everywoman barroom encounter song."[51]
Other contributions[edit]
Morgan has contributed to a number of collaborative works. In 1993, she recorded a rendition of Buck Owens' "Crying Time" for the soundtrack of the film The Beverly Hillbillies, and charted for six weeks on Hot Country Songs with this rendition.[2] She contributed to three multi-artist albums in 1994. First was the Eagles tribute album Common Thread: The Songs of the Eagles, which featured her covering that band's 1979 song "The Sad Café".[58] The second was Frank Sinatra's Duets II, on which she sang a medley of James Ingram and Patti Austin's "How Do You Keep the Music Playing?" and Sinatra's "My Funny Valentine".[59] Lastly, she contributed to Keith Whitley: A Tribute Album, which dubbed her voice with Whitley's on the duet "I Just Want You".[60][61] The Beach Boys' 1996 album Stars and Stripes Vol. 1, a collaborative album with several country music artists, featured her on a rendition of "Don't Worry Baby".[62] Also in 1996, she was one of many artists to contribute to "Hope: Country Music's Quest for a Cure", a multi-artist charity single sponsored by the T. J. Martell Foundation to promote leukemia research. This song charted on Hot Country Songs for four weeks in mid-1996.[63]