{"id":14898,"date":"2019-05-04T23:00:08","date_gmt":"2019-05-05T05:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cmt.com\/news\/?p=1794352"},"modified":"2019-05-04T23:00:08","modified_gmt":"2019-05-05T05:00:08","slug":"ten-essential-tammy-wynette-songs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/music-news\/ten-essential-tammy-wynette-songs\/","title":{"rendered":"Ten Essential Tammy Wynette Songs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"byline\">by <span class=\"author\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cmt.com\/news\/author\/morrise\/\" title=\"Posts by Edward Morris\" rel=\"author\">Edward Morris<\/a><\/span> <span class=\"date\">44m ago<\/span><\/span> <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cmt.com\/artists\/tammy-wynette\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Tammy Wynette<\/a> didn\u2019t have <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cmt.com\/artists\/loretta-lynn\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Loretta Lynn<\/a>\u2019s tough-gal swagger nor <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cmt.com\/artists\/dolly-parton\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Dolly Parton<\/a>\u2019s wit and sparkle, but when it came to wringing tears out of country music audiences, she simply had no competition.<\/p>\n<p>Wynette sang knowingly and effectively for the single mother, the neglected wife, the impending divorcee \u2014 all of life\u2019s strugglers, among whom she was always one.<\/p>\n<div class=\"photo\" id=\"4e54869e\">\n<div class=\"deferred_content\"><noscript class=\"deferred_content\" data-deferred-info=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;img&quot;}\"><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/cmt.mtvnimages.com\/uri\/mgid:file:http:shared:cmt.com\/news\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2018\/05\/GettyImages-540230109-1525471760.jpg?quality=0.85&amp;format=jpg&amp;width=480\" srcset=\"http:\/\/cmt.mtvnimages.com\/uri\/mgid:file:http:shared:cmt.com\/news\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2018\/05\/GettyImages-540230109-1525471760.jpg?quality=0.8&amp;format=jpg&amp;width=481 481w, http:\/\/cmt.mtvnimages.com\/uri\/mgid:file:http:shared:cmt.com\/news\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2018\/05\/GettyImages-540230109-1525471760.jpg?quality=0.8&amp;format=jpg&amp;width=660 660w, http:\/\/cmt.mtvnimages.com\/uri\/mgid:file:http:shared:cmt.com\/news\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2018\/05\/GettyImages-540230109-1525471760.jpg?quality=0.8&amp;format=jpg&amp;width=768 768w, http:\/\/cmt.mtvnimages.com\/uri\/mgid:file:http:shared:cmt.com\/news\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2018\/05\/GettyImages-540230109-1525471760.jpg?quality=0.8&amp;format=jpg&amp;width=980 980w, http:\/\/cmt.mtvnimages.com\/uri\/mgid:file:http:shared:cmt.com\/news\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2018\/05\/GettyImages-540230109-1525471760.jpg?quality=0.8&amp;format=jpg&amp;width=1200 1200w, http:\/\/cmt.mtvnimages.com\/uri\/mgid:file:http:shared:cmt.com\/news\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2018\/05\/GettyImages-540230109-1525471760.jpg?quality=0.8&amp;format=jpg&amp;width=1500 1500w, http:\/\/cmt.mtvnimages.com\/uri\/mgid:file:http:shared:cmt.com\/news\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2018\/05\/GettyImages-540230109-1525471760.jpg?quality=0.8&amp;format=jpg&amp;width=1800 1800w\" title=\"Tammy Wynette\" class=\"js-srcset-img shortcode-image\" alt><\/p>\n<p><\/noscript><\/div>\n<div class=\"photocredit\">Michael Putland\/Getty Images<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>She was born Virginia Wynette Pugh on May 5, 1942 in Itawamba County, Miss. Raised by her grandparents, she showed an early affinity for performing, taking music lessons and singing with local gospel groups. Wynette married the first of her five husbands just before graduating from high school.<\/p>\n<p>By the time she moved to Nashville in 1966, she had worked as a beautician and barmaid and was the divorced mother of three children. Fortunately, Billy Sherrill, a producer for Epic Records, recognized not just her talent as a singer and songwriter but also her determination to make something of herself. From her first single \u2014 the doleful \u201cApartment #9\u201d \u2014 Sherrill and Wynette aimed her songs straight at the tear ducts.<\/p>\n<p>In 1967, she scored the first two of her eventual 20 No. 1 hits \u2014 \u201cMy Elusive Dreams\u201d (with David Houston) and \u201cI Don\u2019t Wanna Play House\u201d (a ditty in which a child explains to her playmate that when her mama \u201cplayed house\u201d with another guy, her daddy \u201csaid goodbye.\u201d)<\/p>\n<p>Wynette got a big boost in 1970 when four of her songs \u2014 including the soon-to-be-iconic \u201cStand By Your Man\u201d and \u201cD-I-V-O-R-C-E\u201d \u2014 were featured on the soundtrack to the Jack Nicholson-Karen Black movie, <em>Five Easy Pieces<\/em>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"photo\" id=\"3953b608\">\n<div class=\"deferred_content\"><noscript class=\"deferred_content\" data-deferred-info=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;img&quot;}\"><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/cmt.mtvnimages.com\/uri\/mgid:file:http:shared:cmt.com\/news\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2018\/05\/GettyImages-158509285-1525471851.jpg?quality=0.85&amp;format=jpg&amp;width=480\" srcset=\"http:\/\/cmt.mtvnimages.com\/uri\/mgid:file:http:shared:cmt.com\/news\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2018\/05\/GettyImages-158509285-1525471851.jpg?quality=0.8&amp;format=jpg&amp;width=481 481w, http:\/\/cmt.mtvnimages.com\/uri\/mgid:file:http:shared:cmt.com\/news\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2018\/05\/GettyImages-158509285-1525471851.jpg?quality=0.8&amp;format=jpg&amp;width=660 660w, http:\/\/cmt.mtvnimages.com\/uri\/mgid:file:http:shared:cmt.com\/news\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2018\/05\/GettyImages-158509285-1525471851.jpg?quality=0.8&amp;format=jpg&amp;width=768 768w, http:\/\/cmt.mtvnimages.com\/uri\/mgid:file:http:shared:cmt.com\/news\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2018\/05\/GettyImages-158509285-1525471851.jpg?quality=0.8&amp;format=jpg&amp;width=980 980w, http:\/\/cmt.mtvnimages.com\/uri\/mgid:file:http:shared:cmt.com\/news\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2018\/05\/GettyImages-158509285-1525471851.jpg?quality=0.8&amp;format=jpg&amp;width=1200 1200w, http:\/\/cmt.mtvnimages.com\/uri\/mgid:file:http:shared:cmt.com\/news\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2018\/05\/GettyImages-158509285-1525471851.jpg?quality=0.8&amp;format=jpg&amp;width=1500 1500w, http:\/\/cmt.mtvnimages.com\/uri\/mgid:file:http:shared:cmt.com\/news\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2018\/05\/GettyImages-158509285-1525471851.jpg?quality=0.8&amp;format=jpg&amp;width=1800 1800w\" title=\"Wynette &amp; Jones At Countryside Opry\" class=\"js-srcset-img shortcode-image\" alt><\/p>\n<p><\/noscript><\/div>\n<div class=\"photocredit\">Kirk West\/Getty Images<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>With her third husband, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cmt.com\/artists\/george-jones\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">George Jones<\/a>, Wynette charted such durable 1970s hits as \u201cTake Me,\u201d \u201cWe\u2019re Gonna Hold On\u201d and \u201cGolden Ring.\u201d Although she would chart many more singles throughout the 1980s and \u201890s, she would not ring up any more No. 1s.<\/p>\n<p>Wynette was involved in a dust-up with Hillary Clinton in 1992, when Bill Clinton was running for his first term as president. In response to a question on the TV show <em>60 Minutes<\/em> about one of her husband\u2019s alleged affairs, Mrs. Clinton snapped, \u201cYou know, I\u2019m not sitting here, some little woman standing by my man like Tammy Wynette.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Wynette understandably took umbrage at the slight and fired off a letter of protest to Mrs. Clinton \u2014 who promptly apologized to Wynette and country fans generally for her ill-chosen words.<\/p>\n<p>Plagued by ill health for years \u2014 even as she continued an exhausting touring schedule \u2014 Wynette died at her home in Nashville on April 6, 1998. Later that same year, she was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n<p>In 1999, \u201cStand By Your Man\u201d was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n<p>Here are a few of our favorite performances and songs from Wynette\u2019s glory days on what would have been the late singer\u2019s 76th birthday:<\/p>\n<div class=\"author\">\n<div class=\"description\">Edward Morris is a veteran of country music journalism. He lives in Nashville, Tennessee, and is a frequent contributor to CMT.com.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cmt.com\/news\/1794352\/ten-essential-tammy-wynette-songs\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: CMT News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Edward Morris 44m ago Tammy Wynette didn\u2019t have Loretta Lynn\u2019s tough-gal swagger nor Dolly Parton\u2019s wit and sparkle, but when it came to wringing tears out of country music audiences, she simply had no competition. Wynette sang knowingly and effectively for the single mother, the neglected wife, the impending divorcee \u2014 all of life\u2019s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-14898","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-music-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-11 11:35:00","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KRKY Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14898\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}