When Patti Page sang about how someone stole her sweetheart “the night they were playing the beautiful ‘Tennessee Waltz,’” she captured the hearts of so many record buyers that the song remained No. 1 for 13 weeks. The demurely attractive blonde’s 1950 release was only one of 14 singles that would appeal to pop and country fans alike, and would sell more than a million copies each before the decade had passed—a phenomenal achievement which earned her the nickname “The Singing Rage.”
Page was born Clara Ann Fowler on November 8, 1927, in Claremont, Oklahoma, and grew up in nearby Tulsa. She sang from an early age, eventually performing with two of her seven sisters, Rema and Ruby, as the Fowler Sisters. At age 19 she passed up an art scholarship to sing with Al Klauser and His Oklahomans on the Tulsa radio station KTUL. The station soon offered her a show of her own, but the show’s sponsor, the Page Milk Company, insisted on keeping the programme’s name: “Meet Patti Page.” It was thus that Clara Ann Fowler became Patti Page.
In 1947 Page left the radio show to join the Jimmy Joy Band after its road manager, Jack Rael, assured his discovery that a six-week Chicago stint would bring her much more than just farmland fame. Rael became Page’s manager—a post he would hold for over 40 years—and in 1948 persuaded Mercury Records to sign the singer. That same year Page sang with Benny GOODMAN’S orchestra, appeared on the popular Chicago radio program Breakfast Club, and had her first Top 15 hit with the tune “Confess.” This was one of the first recordings to feature double-tracked lead vocals, a technique used on many of Page’s subsequent singles.
In 1950, in the U.S., the singer scored her first No. 1 hit, “All My Love.” This was followed by “Tennessee Waltz,” a version of the Pee Wee King-Redd Stewart song first released by country singer Cowboy Copas in 1948. Page’s rendering totally eclipsed this earlier cut, and went on to become one of the best-selling records of all time. It was also possibly the first “crossover” hit from country to pop. Les Paul and Mary Ford, also pioneers of multiple-track recording, immediately followed Page’s rendition with one of their own, and she returned the compliment by singing a version of their next single, “Mockin’ Bird Hill,” in 1951.
Over the following seven years Page reliably turned out hits in the U.S., notably the weeper “I Went to Your Wedding” (1952), “Let Me Go, Lover” (No. 1 in 1954), and the idyllic ballads “Allegheny Moon” (1956) and “Old Cape Cod” (1957). The novelty song “(How Much Is That) Doggie in the Window” (1953) reached No. 1 in the U.S. and No. 9 in the U.K. She made extensive TV appearances throughout the 1950s, hosting The Patti Page Show (1955–58) and The Big Record (1957–58), and also played in movies including Elmer Gantry (1960) and Dondi (1961). After 1958 there was only one more Top 10 release (“Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte,” No. 8 in 1965), but Page continued to record and perform into the 1990s—still managed by Rael.
Few things evoke more nostalgia for the early and mid-1950s than Patti Page’s warmly inviting hits. What usually distinguished her recordings from those of the period’s other top women singers—Jo Stafford, Rosemary Clooney, and Kay Starr—were her country elements. After the 1960s Page increasingly focused on country music, which had always been her first love. Indeed, the high point of her career may well have come in 1983 when she was chosen to co-host, along with country legend Roy ACUFF, the debut of cable TV’s The Nashville Network (TNN).
Terry Atkinson
SEE ALSO:
COUNTRY; POPULAR MUSIC; RADIO; RECORD PRODUCTION.
FURTHER READING
Bufwack, M. A., and R. K. Oermann. Finding Her Voice: The Illustrated History of Women in Country Music (New York: Henry Holt, 1995).
SUGGESTED LISTENING
16 Most Requested Songs; The Patti Page Collection, Vols. 1 and 2; Patti Page, A Golden Celebration.