Top tens: Barbara Mandrell

[Peter Durward Harris]

1 - Years
2 - Married but not to each other
3 - Darlin'
4 - If I were a river
5 - Midnight angel
6 - I'm a believer
7 - You are no angel
8 - She's out there dancing alone
9 - I'll be your jukebox tonight
10 - Woman to woman

[pwdennis]

1. Midnight Angel
2. I Wish That I Could Fall In Love Again
3. After Closing TIme (w/ David Houston)
4. Do Right Woman/Do Right Man
5. Tonight My Baby's Coming Home
6 Fooled By A Feeling
7. A Perfect Match (w/ David Houston)
8. In TImes Like These
9. I'll Be Your Jukebox Tonight
10. Crackers

[Razor X]

1. The Midnight Oil
2. Tonight My Baby's Coming Home
3. Standing Room Only
4. Midnight Angel
5. (If Loving You Is Wrong) I Don't Want To Be Right
6. Sleeping Single In A Double Bed
7. Years
8. The Best Of Strangers
9. In Times Like These
10. I Wish That I Could Fall In Love Today

[Peter Durward Harris]

Razor - in the Reba thread, you said you thought Barbara would never retire. I decided it was approriate to reply here. I was disappointed that Barbara retired, she being second only to Dolly among country singers as far as I'm concerned. However, it's clear from her biography "Get to the heart" that the accident effectively finished her. While she made a full physical recovery, the mental scars were permanent. She managed to prove to the world that she had indeed recovered to the point where she could do all the things she did before, but having proved it, she really wasn't interested anymore. Without the accident, I expect she would have carried on just as Dolly, Reba and the rest have done.

[Razor X]

Razor - in the Reba thread, you said you thought Barbara would never retire. I decided it was approriate to reply here. I was disappointed that Barbara retired, she being second only to Dolly among country singers as far as I'm concerned. However, it's clear from her biography "Get to the heart" that the accident effectively finished her. While she made a full physical recovery, the mental scars were permanent. She managed to prove to the world that she had indeed recovered to the point where she could do all the things she did before, but having proved it, she really wasn't interested anymore. Without the accident, I expect she would have carried on just as Dolly, Reba and the rest have done.

I wonder, though, if she would have retired if her albums were still selling. She continued to record and tour for 13 years after the accident. She did say in her bio that she didn't want to return to work after the accident, but her family finally talked her into it. At the time she intended to do only one more tour, just to prove that she could do it, and then retire. But she hung in there for a good long time after that.

She definitely blames the accident for derailing her career and says it never really recovered -- primarily because of the bad publicity she got for suing the estate of the driver that hit her, which she had to do under Tennessee law to collect from her own insurance company. It's possible that she lost some fans and some goodwill over that, but it's also possible that her career peak was coming to an end anyway. I guess we'll never know. I do miss her. Her variety show was more responsible than anything else for getting me interested in country music. i wish she'd go back into the studio once in a while and give us something new to listen to.