Country music originated in the southern parts of the US. It began gaining popularity in the 1920’s, as folk, gospel and Celtic music started to gain in popularity by means of good country songs of the time. Today, country and western music has evolved into a completely different type of music, with numerous of sub styles within it, but country musicians still have a devoted fan base and most music aficionados are absolutely in love with the soft guitar and the country twang of the vocals of the music.
There are some good old country songs that may not have gained as much popularity as some others, but they are all still an integral part of the evolution of country music. During past years, many artists have come and gone and left their mark in the country music hall of fame. All country songs tell a story. Some are about love gone wrong or right, some are about drinking, and some are just about everyday life. Some make us laugh and some make us cry but they all appeal to our inner most emotions. One of the all time greatest country songs was sung by LeAnn Rimes and was entitled Blue and how it came to be is a story in itself.
LeAnn Rimes was discovered by Bill Mack who was a record promoter and disc jockey in Dallas. He was impressed by LeAnn’s vocal ability, and over the next 3 years he also made numerous attempts to bring LeAnn to the attention of a mainstream audience. The centerpiece of Bill Mack’s plan to make her successful was to have her record the song Blue, which Mack had penned in the early 60’s. Bill Mack claimed that Blue was originally intended to be recorded by the late Patsy Cline but she was killed in a plane crash prior to ever recording the song. By 1995, Mack was able to get Rimes signed to Curb Records, once the record executives at the label heard LeAnn sing Blue.
Following her signing on with the Curb record label, LeAnn re-recorded a new version of the song which was scheduled to be released on her debut studio album. In 1996, the new version of Blue was released as a single and quickly found its way to Number 10 on the Billboard Country Chart. By the time it was released it was claimed that Mack had been waiting over 30 years in order to get the song recorded by the perfect artist. However, it was later determined that the story was an exaggeration, and that it had already been recorded by 3 different artists. Kenny Roberts and Mack himself both released versions of the song on Starday Records in the 1960’s.
Then in 1993, Catherine Britt, an Australian artist, released her own version as a single in her native country. However, the story was spread continually to the national media which further added to the idea that Rimes was the natural successor to the legendary Patsy Cline. LeAnn’s album Blue was also released in 1996, and sold over 123,000 copies in its first week, which was the highest figure in country history up until that point. The album peaked at Number 1 on most country music charts and debuted at number 3 on country music albums chart, and eventually sold a total of 4,000,000 copies in the US and 8,000,000 copies around the world.
With the album’s success, LeAnn received numerous major industry awards. In 1996 she won the Country Music Association’s Horizon Award, and became the youngest person to ever be nominated and win a Country Music Association award. The following year she was awarded two Grammy awards, one for Best New Artist and another for Best Female Country Performance for the song Blue.
