Post by erik on Oct 8, 2022 12:53:04 GMT -5
In honor of the passing of country music legend Loretta Lynn, the Pop Music Hits Spotlight looks at her highest-charting Hot 100 single, one that proved quite controversial among the Nashville elitists during its day.
THE PILL (Loretta Lynn; MCA; 1975)—Loretta Lynn’s story is the quintessential country music story. Born in abject poverty in Butcher Hollow, Kentucky in 1932, Loretta worked her way out of that and, beginning in 1960 with her first major hit “I’m A Honky Tonk Girl”, she came to stake a claim for women in country music over the next several decades. Her style, something of a combination of Patsy Cline and Kitty Wells, often ranged from the Nashville Sound/countrypolitan style of the former to the feminist honky-tonk of the latter, with hits like “Fist City”, “You’re Lookin’ At Country”, “You Ain’t Woman Enough (To Take My Man)”, and “Don’t Come Home A Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ On Your Mind). Her 1970 hit “Coal Miner’s Daughter” also became the title of her autobiography, which then became a huge hit movie in 1980. But unlike a lot of others in Nashville who, mostly unintentionally, “crossed over” onto the pop music side of the fence, Loretta never sought such an audience. That said, even with being a scion of country music, Loretta sometimes wrote and recorded songs of a topical nature that were exceptionally controversial. One of those songs was “The Pill”, which she wrote and actually recorded in 1972, but which her record label, MCA-Nashville, considered so incendiary that they didn’t release it for two and a half years. The song, which Loretta co-wrote with Lorene Allen, Don McHan, and T.D. Bayless, tells of a woman who is tired of her husband getting her pregnant year after year, but now is happy that she can control her reproductive proclivities with “The Pill” (referring to the birth control pill that was introduced in 1960). More than a few country music stations refused to play “The Pill” even after it was released as a single in January 1975, which is why it stalled at #5 on the C&W singles chart that March instead of going to #1. The ironic thing, however, is that, while she may have not sought out such a crossover hit, and despite the fact that no pop Top 40 station would even touch it, “The Pill” did stick on the Billboard Hot 100 for four weeks, peaking at #70 and becoming her biggest pop hit. Loretta’s success continued well into the 1980’s; and although it slowed down due to health issues, she remained a role model for many female artists. Loretta passed away on October 4, 2022 at her home in Hurricane Mills, Tennessee at the age of 90. As of this writing, no cause of death has been made public.
THE PILL (Loretta Lynn; MCA; 1975)—Loretta Lynn’s story is the quintessential country music story. Born in abject poverty in Butcher Hollow, Kentucky in 1932, Loretta worked her way out of that and, beginning in 1960 with her first major hit “I’m A Honky Tonk Girl”, she came to stake a claim for women in country music over the next several decades. Her style, something of a combination of Patsy Cline and Kitty Wells, often ranged from the Nashville Sound/countrypolitan style of the former to the feminist honky-tonk of the latter, with hits like “Fist City”, “You’re Lookin’ At Country”, “You Ain’t Woman Enough (To Take My Man)”, and “Don’t Come Home A Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ On Your Mind). Her 1970 hit “Coal Miner’s Daughter” also became the title of her autobiography, which then became a huge hit movie in 1980. But unlike a lot of others in Nashville who, mostly unintentionally, “crossed over” onto the pop music side of the fence, Loretta never sought such an audience. That said, even with being a scion of country music, Loretta sometimes wrote and recorded songs of a topical nature that were exceptionally controversial. One of those songs was “The Pill”, which she wrote and actually recorded in 1972, but which her record label, MCA-Nashville, considered so incendiary that they didn’t release it for two and a half years. The song, which Loretta co-wrote with Lorene Allen, Don McHan, and T.D. Bayless, tells of a woman who is tired of her husband getting her pregnant year after year, but now is happy that she can control her reproductive proclivities with “The Pill” (referring to the birth control pill that was introduced in 1960). More than a few country music stations refused to play “The Pill” even after it was released as a single in January 1975, which is why it stalled at #5 on the C&W singles chart that March instead of going to #1. The ironic thing, however, is that, while she may have not sought out such a crossover hit, and despite the fact that no pop Top 40 station would even touch it, “The Pill” did stick on the Billboard Hot 100 for four weeks, peaking at #70 and becoming her biggest pop hit. Loretta’s success continued well into the 1980’s; and although it slowed down due to health issues, she remained a role model for many female artists. Loretta passed away on October 4, 2022 at her home in Hurricane Mills, Tennessee at the age of 90. As of this writing, no cause of death has been made public.