Lynn Anderson

Every week, I'm going to introduce an album of many of my favourite country collections. This will be a weekly thing, and I hope everyone enjoys it. To start off, this album by Lynn Anderson, the “Songbook” is a compilation of the greatest songs by Lynn. It’s a 2 CD album comprising of the very best collection of her hits spanning an entire career including “Rose Garden”, "You Needed Me”, "Stand By Your Man” and my utmost favourite, “Blue Bayou”. I will introduce Part 1 this week and the second part next week. Even though, Linda Ronstadt fabulously sang “Blue Bayou”, Lynn version is perfect. Lynn was born 26 September 1947 in North Dakota. Her first step to stardom came in 1965 when a famous producer caught her and her mum, Liz Anderson, singing together at a Nashville party. In the 60s Lynn released her debut album “Ride Ride Ride”. She won “Best Female Vocalist” at the 1968 Academy of Country Music and her career took off after that, with 3 consecutive hit singles charting in the US country top 5. Lynn’s successful mainstream formula involved crisp light vocals, snappy clever songs with tropical hooks and the mixing of fiddles and steel guitars with string sections and drums. By 1970, Lynn had released 9 albums under chart records. She had her first international No.1 chart hit with “I Never Promised You a Rose Garden”. That classic song and album on which it appeared on earned her numerous country awards and it put her stamp on the country-pop phenomenon. This song had been remixed for the clubs during the 90s and it is still one of the most played songs. Today, she continues to be a popular concert attraction to Country and Pop music fans around the world and Billboard currently ranks her among the top-ten most successful country female artists for all-time record sales. Watch both the videos of "Rose Garden" and one is a duet with Martina McBride.