Both bona fide country music celebrities in their own right by the early 1970s, Loretta Lynn and Conway Twitty decided to combine their star power and form one of the most powerful duos that the genre has ever seen. As Conway & Loretta, the pair fired off five straight number-one hits from 1971 to 1975. On this day (August 18) in 1973, they scored their third chart-topper when “Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man” displaced Freddie Hart’s “Trip to Heaven” at number one on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart.
Loretta Lynn and Conway Twitty Owe This Song’s Success to One Person
Written by Becki Bluefield and Jim Owen, “Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man” spins a tale of love stronger than any geographical boundary.
Well, the Mississippi River, Lord, it’s one mile wide / And I’m gonna get me to the other side / Mississippi man, I’m losin’ my mind / Gotta have your lovin’ one more time.
Loretta Lynn and Conway Twitty released the song in May 1973 as the lead single and title track from their collaborative album of the same name.
It spent a total of 13 weeks on the chart—and the star-studded duo had Lynn’s husband, Doolittle “Mooney” Lynn, to thank.
When the songwriter, Jim Owen, dropped the demo off at Doolittle’s office, he immediately saw stars for his wife and Twitty.
“Doo loved Conway,” Lynn told International Musician (according to Songfacts). “We’d been out on tour a couple weeks and we’d come home. We walked in and my husband was sitting at the desk. He didn’t usually come into the office. He says, ‘I’ve got a hit for you.’ And Conway says, ‘Oh, my god, he’s got a song for us?!’”
“It was called ‘Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man’ and it was a number-one hit,” continued the former Entertainer of the Year. “We kind of listened to Doo from then on.”
Proving Critics Wrong
Loretta Lynn and Conway Twitty first crossed paths at producer Owen Bradley’s Nashville studio.
A huge fan of Twitty’s rock n roll hit “It’s Only Make Believe,” Lynn had been wanting to meet the singer. So when Twitty snuck into one of Lynn’s sessions, the chemistry was instant.
Apparently, their decision to form a professional partnership raised more than a few eyebrows. “It made sense to us and Mooney, but not to anybody else,” Twitty explained in his book “The Conway Twitty Story.”
Everyone would soon see their vision. The pair released 11 albums from 1971 to 1988—four of which reached number one.
[RELATED: 3 Country Music AMA Winners From 1975 We Still Dance Along To]
They took home the Vocal Duo of the Year award four straight years from the Country Music Association.
Featured image by Paul W. Bailey/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images
The post 53 Years Ago Today, Loretta Lynn and Conway Twitty Hit No. 1 Thanks to Lynn’s Husband appeared first on American Songwriter.
Go To Source | Author: Erinn Callahan
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