Lynn Rene Anderson (September 26, 1947 – July 30, 2015) was
an American country music singer known for a string of hits throughout the late
1960s, 1970s and 1980s, most notably her 1970 worldwide megahit "(I Never
Promised You A) Rose Garden." Anderson's crossover appeal and regular
exposure on national television helped her to become one of the most popular
and successful country singers of the 1970s.
She was born in Grand Forks, North Dakota, but grew up in
California, where her family moved when she was four. Her father, Casey, was a
car salesman, and her mother, Liz, enjoyed some success as a country songwriter
in the 1960s. Liz Anderson composed Just Between the Two of Us, a hit for Merle
Haggard and Bonnie Owens in 1964, and Haggard’s 1966 solo hit, All My Friends
are Gonna Be Strangers.
The Haggard connection proved crucial to launching Lynn’s
own music career. On a trip to Nashville with her mother, she sang informally
with Haggard. Slim Williamson, owner of the small Chart Records, heard this
performance and promptly offered Anderson a recording deal. Between 1966 and
1969 she had several minor country hits on Chart, notably I’ve Been Everywhere,
Rocky Top and Too Much of You. At this time she was appearing regularly on
national television in the Lawrence Welk show and occasionally touring with the
Welk orchestra.
Anderson was best known for the worldwide crossover hit that
she had in 1971 with Rose Garden. The song’s lyrics, written by Joe South and
sung with unsentimental authority , dispensed hard-won wisdom about matters of
the heart: “I beg your pardon, I never promised you a rose garden/ Along with
the sunshine, there’s gotta be a little rain sometimes.” Lynn Anderson
attributed its wider success, however, to her fellow Americans looking for
something positive to take from the debacle of the Vietnam War.
“It was released just at the right time,” she said later.
“People were trying to recover from the Vietnam years. The message in the song
– that if you just take hold of life and go ahead, you can make something out
of nothing – people just took to that.”
The song reached No 3 on the US Billboard pop chart and
climbed to the same spot in the UK. This led to a memorable appearance by Lynn
Anderson – all back-combed hair and yellow maribou feathers – on Top of the
Pops. The single was No 1 in Germany and the LP of the same name from which it
was taken remained for a quarter of a century the biggest-selling by a female
country artist, until the advent of Shania Twain.
Although she went on to perform it for five US presidents,
the song made her most proud, she said, when she appeared at a concert in Texas
hosted by Bob Hope for soldiers returning from Vietnam. An operations base in
neighbouring Thailand was known as “Rose Garden” and as she sang the opening
notes of her signature tune, 5,000 Marines in dress uniform rose as one to
salute her.
In the 70s she received numerous awards, including a Grammy
in 1970 for Best Country Vocal Performance, and topped the country charts with
such songs as You’re My Man, How Can I Unlove you, Keep Me in Mind, What a Man,
My Man Is and Even Cowgirls Get the Blues.
Following the success of Rose Garden, she became, in 1974,
the first female country singer to sell out Madison Square Garden. Yet by the
end of the decade, her popularity was in decline and her last country hit of
note came in 1983.
She was especially popular with British country music
audiences, appearing several times at the annual international festival held at
the Empire Pool, Wembley, now Wembley Arena. Anderson also starred as a country
singer in Wreck on the Highway, a BBC Scotland television play in 1990.
Her parallel career as an equestrian began when she won the
California Horse Show Queen title in 1966. She competed in show horse and
cutting (separating a single animal from a cattle herd) events for many years
and raised horses at her ranch in Taos, New Mexico.
Her marriage to Sutton ended in divorce, as did her second marriage,
to the Texas oilman Harold Stream III. Her partner in recent years was the
songwriter Mentor Williams, whose best- known song, Drift Away, she recorded in
a new gospel version for her final album, Bridges, which was released in June
2015.
Anderson died on July 30, 2015 at the Vanderbilt University
Medical Centre in Nashville, Tennessee from a heart attack at the age of 67.
She had been briefly hospitalized due to pneumonia after vacationing in Italy.
(Compiled from Wikipedia, The Guardian & The Telegraph)
Here's Lynn at the Durango Music Spot, Nashville Music City Center, Nashville, Tennessee - Friday 7. June 2013.
Here's Lynn at the Durango Music Spot, Nashville Music City Center, Nashville, Tennessee - Friday 7. June 2013.
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For “Lynn Anderson - Anthology: The Columbia Years” go here:
https://www.mediafire.com/file/0sf1tgd30yg20tg/LYNN%20ANDERSON%20-%20Columbia%20Years.rar
1. Stay There 'Til I Get There
2. No Love At All
3. Rose Garden
4. You're My Man
5. How Can I Unlove You
6. Cry
7. Listen To A Country Song
8. Fool Me
9. Keep Me In Mind
10. Top Of The World
11. Smile For Me
12. Sing About Love
13. Talkin' To The Wall
14. What A Man, My Man Is
15. He Turns It Into Love Again
16. I've Never Loved Anyone More
17. All The King's Horses
18. Wrap Your Love All Around Your Man
19. He Ain't You
20. I Love How You Love Me
21. Isn't It Always Love
22. Sea Of Heartbreak
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