Song:(If Loving You Is Wrong) I Don't Want To Be Right
Album:The Best Of
Barbara Mandrell had a very successful run in the late 70s and early 80s because she had a successful TV variety show. Her 1979 cover of (If Loving You Is Wrong) I Don't Want To Be Right was one of her six number one country hits but it was her most successful pop crossover. It all came to screeching halt when Barbara was seriously injured in a 1984 car crash. She was born Dec. 25, 1948 in Houston. She became so adept at playing steel guitar that her father took 11 year old Barbara to a music industry trade show in Chicago. Joe Maphis featured her in his Las Vegas show and she went on tour with others. Eventually the Mandrell Family Band was formed with her parents, sisters Louise and Irlene and Barbara's high school sweetheart Ken Dudney on drums. They married on May 28, 1967. While Dudney was in the US Navy, Barbara moved to Nashville and signed with Columbia Records in 1969. She worked with legendary producer Billy Sherrill and had some success. But it wasn't enough and she moved to ABC/Dot Records in 1975 and producer Tom Collins. Collins also produced Ronnie Milsap. Barbara had her first top five country hit with Standing Room Only in 1975. MCA Records bought ABC in 1978. Then she had her first number one country hit with Sleeping Single In A Double Bed in 1978. (If Loving You Is Wrong) I Don't Want To Be Right was the next single. It also topped the country chart and crossed over to reach #31 on the Billboard Hot 100. Of course most fans are familiar with the 1972 recording of the song by Luther Ingram. It was written by Stax Records songwriters Homer Banks, Carl Hampton and Raymond Jackson. Barbara won several awards and this led to the NBC variety show Barbara Mandrell and The Mandrell Sisters. Her other number one country hits were Years in 1979, I Was Country When Country Wasn't Cool in 1981, Till You're Gone in 1982 and One Of A Kind Pair Of Fools in 1983. So she had a good run and you can get all her hits on this budget comp from the British label Spectrum. On Sept. 11, 1984 Barbara Mandrell suffered a concussion and multiple leg fractures in a car accident. She returned in 1985 and had a few lesser hits. But country music had changed and Barbara fell out of favour. She left MCA for EMI in 1987. It didn't help much and by the 90s, she quit recording and concentrated on live shows. She retired in 1997 though she does appear occasionally. She was inducted into the Country Music Hall Of Fame in 2009. Barbara has done some acting on TV including the 1984 film Burning Rage. Her daughter Jamie Dudney is an actress and appeared on the daytime soap As The World Turns. Her son Matthew Dudney is a chef and is married to Christian singer Christy Sutherland. Here's Barbara Mandrell performing (If Loving You Is Wrong) I Don't Want To Be Right on the 1979 CMA Awards broadcast.
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