Ellen Muriel Deason (August 30, 1919 – July 16, 2012), known professionally as Kitty Wells, was an American country music singer. Her 1952 hit recording "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels" made her the first female country singer to top the U.S. country charts. “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels” also was her first of several pop crossover hits. Wells is the only artist to be awarded top female vocalist awards for 14 consecutive years. Her chart-topping hits continued until the mid-1960s, paving the way for and inspiring a long list of female country singers who came to prominence in the 1960s.
Wells ranks as the sixth-most successful female vocalist in the history of the Billboard country charts, according to historian Joel Whitburn's book The Top 40 Country Hits. In 1976, she was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. In 1991, Wells became the third country music artist, after Roy Acuff and Hank Williams, and the eighth woman, to receive the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Wells' success and influence on country music garnered her the title "Queen of Country Music".
Wells was born Ellen Muriel Deason on August 30, 1919, as one of six children of Charles Cary Deason and his wife, Myrtle, in Nashville, Tennessee. (She is one of the few well-known country performers to have been born in Nashville.) Wells began singing as a child, learning guitar from her father, who was a brakeman on the Tennessee Central Railroad. Her father and his brother were musicians, and her mother, Myrtle, was a gospel singer. As a teenager, Wells sang with her sisters, who performed under the name the Deason Sisters, on a local radio station beginning in 1936.
At the age of 18, Wells married Johnnie Wright, a cabinetmaker who aspired to country music stardom (which he would eventually achieve as half of the duo Johnnie & Jack).
Wells sang with Wright and his sister Louise Wright; the three toured as Johnnie Right and the Harmony Girls. Soon, Wright met Jack Anglin (who married Johnnie's sister Louise), and they became the duo Johnnie & Jack. Their band became known first as the Tennessee Hillbillies and then the Tennessee Mountain Boys. At this time, Wells adopted "Kitty Wells" as her stage name. Johnnie Wright chose the name from the folk ballad "Sweet Kitty Wells" by the Pickard Family. Wells toured with the pair, occasionally performing backup vocals. Before Wells' rise to stardom with "Honky Tonk Angels", Roy Acuff and the Smoky Mountain Boys toured with Wright and Wells for a time. Acuff advised Wright not to make his wife his show's headliner because he thought women could not sell country music records.
On Louisiana Hayride, Wells performed with her husband's duo. Wells, however, did not sing on their records until signing with RCA Victor in 1949, releasing some of her first singles, including "Death at the Bar" and "Don't Wait for the Last Minute to Pray", neither of which charted. While these early records gained some notice, promoters still were not keen on promoting female singers, so Wells was dropped from the label in 1950.
1952: "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels"
In 1952, Paul Cohen, an executive at Decca Records, approached Wells to record "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels". Wells was disenchanted with her career prospects and was considering retirement, but agreed to the session (at Owen Bradley's studio on May 3, 1952) because of the $125 union scale recording payment. "I wasn't expecting to make a hit," said Wells later. "I just thought it was another song."
"It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels" was an answer song to Hank Thompson's "The Wild Side of Life" and its lyrical treatment of seductive, wayward women. Wells' single retorted, "It's a shame that all the blame is on us women."
The record's message was controversial at the time and was banned by many radio stations. NBC, in particular, was troubled by the lyric, "It brings back memories of when I was a trustful wife". Wells' slight alteration of "trustful" to "trusting" lifted the network ban on the song. It was temporarily banned from the Grand Ole Opry. Nevertheless, audiences were greatly enamored of the song. The single took off during the summer of 1952, and sold more than 800,000 copies in its initial release. It was the first single by a female singer to peak at number one in the eight-year history of the Billboard Country Chart, where it remained for six weeks. (Certain female country songs, notably Patsy Montana's million-selling "I Want to Be a Cowboy's Sweetheart", antedate the creation of Billboard's country chart in 1944.) "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels" also crossed over to Billboard's pop charts, hitting number 27. Thanks to her breakthrough, Wells received a membership to the Grand Ole Opry, which had originally banned the single.
Writer Bill Friskics-Warren has argued that part of the song's appeal came from its combination of a modern message with a familiar tune, a melody drawn from the Carter Family's "I'm Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes" (as were "The Wild Side of Life" and Roy Acuff's "The Great Speckled Bird"). Practically anyone could hum along with "Angels" the first time they heard it.
"It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels" was followed by "Paying for that Back Street Affair", a response to Webb Pierce's "Back Street Affair". The single reached number six in the spring of 1953, helping to establish a lasting place at the top of the charts for Wells. Between 1953 and 1955, Wells was popular on the country charts, and was the only female solo artist at the time to be able to maintain her success. In 1953, Wells had two top-10 hits with "Hey Joe" and "Cheatin's a Sin".
The next year, Wells partnered with country star Red Foley for the duet "One by One", which peaked at number one on the Billboard Country Chart, and became her second chart-topper. The song led to a string of hit singles from the duo within the next two decades, including 1954's "As Long as I Live", which peaked at number three. As a solo artist in 1954, Wells had two major hits with the number-eight "Release Me" and the top-15 hit "Thou Shalt Not Steal" (written by Don Everly of the Everly Brothers).
Record companies were reluctant to issue albums by country's female artists until Wells proved that women could sell. She became the first female country singer to issue an LP, starting with 1956's Kitty Wells' Country Hit Parade, which consisted of her biggest hits. Wells released her first studio album in 1957 with Winner of Your Heart. Soon, other female country singers released LPs in the late 1950s and early 1960s. "Making Believe" and "Lonely Side of Town" were also released as singles. Wells' later 1950s releases included "Searching (For Someone Like You)" written by Murphy "Pee Wee" Maddux, and "I Can't Stop Loving You" and "Amigo's Guitar", which she wrote with John D. Loudermilk.
In 1957, Wells issued Winner of Your Heart. This was followed by a string of LPs released by Decca Records between 1957 and 1973. She also partnered with Webb Pierce the same year for two duet singles, including the top-10 hit "Oh So Many Years". The duo did not record together again until 1964 with the top-10 hit "Finally". In 1959, Wells had two top-five hits with "Amigo's Guitar" and "Mommy for a Day". Wells was later awarded a BMI award for writing "Amigo's Guitar". Although not known much for her songwriting, Wells has won two BMI awards, including one for "Amigo's Guitar". She has published more than 60 songs.
Wells continued to put much of herself into her songs throughout her career, inspiring other female country singers to record risky material, as well. Loretta Lynn was one of her followers in this sense when she recorded "Don't Come Home a Drinkin' (With Lovin' on Your Mind)" in 1967. Dolly Parton's 1968 recording "Just Because I'm a Woman", like "Honky Tonk Angels", questioned the male-female double standard.
Wells entered the 1960s on top with the songs "Heartbreak U.S.A." and "Day into Night".