Patti Page
Clara Ann Fowler, better known by her stage name Patti Page, was an American singer. Primarily known for pop and country music, she was the top-charting female vocalist and best-selling female artist of the 1950s, selling over 100 million records during a six-decade-long career. She was often introduced as "the Singin' Rage, Miss Patti Page". New York WNEW disc-jockey William B. Williams introduced her as "A Page in my life called Patti".
Page signed with Mercury Records in 1947, and became their first successful female artist, starting with 1948's "Confess". In 1950, she had her first million-selling single "With My Eyes Wide Open, I'm Dreaming", and eventually had 14 additional million-selling singles between 1950 and 1965.
Page's signature song, "Tennessee Waltz", is the best selling song of the 1950s by a female artist, one of the biggest-selling singles of the 20th century, and is recognized today as one of the official songs of the state of Tennessee. It spent 13 weeks atop the Billboards best-sellers list in 1950/51. Page had three additional number-one hit singles between 1950 and 1953, "All My Love ", "I Went to Your Wedding", and " That Doggie in the Window?".
Unlike most other pop singers, Page blended country music styles into many of her songs. As a result of this crossover appeal, many of Page's singles appeared on the Billboard Country Chart. In the 1970s, she shifted her style more toward country music and began having even more success on the country charts, ending up as one of the few vocalists to have charted in five separate decades.
With the rise of rock and roll in the 1950s, mainstream popular music record sales began to decline. Page was among the few pop singers who were able to maintain popularity, continuing to have hits well into the 1960s, with "Old Cape Cod", "Allegheny Moon", "A Poor Man's Roses ", and "Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte".
In 1997, Patti Page was inducted into the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame. She was posthumously honored with the Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award in 2013.
Early life
Clara Ann Fowler was born on November 8, 1927, in Claremore, Oklahoma into a large and poor family of 11 children. Her father, B.A. Fowler, worked on the MKT railroad, while her mother, Margaret, and older sisters picked cotton. As she recalled on television many years later, the family lived without electricity, so she could not read after dark. She was raised in Foraker, Hardy, Muskogee, and Avant, Oklahoma, before attending Daniel Webster High School in Tulsa, from which she graduated in 1945.Fowler started her career as a singer with Al Clauser and his Oklahoma Outlaws at radio station KTUL in Tulsa, Oklahoma. At age 18, she became a featured performer on the station for a 15-minute radio program sponsored by the Page Milk Company. As a nod to the show's sponsor, Fowler was referred to on the air as "Patti Page". In 1946, Jack Rael, a saxophone player and manager of the Jimmy Joy Band, came to Tulsa for a one-night stand. Rael heard Page on the radio, liked her voice, and asked her to join the band. After leaving the band, Rael became Page's personal manager.
Page toured the United States with the Jimmy Joy Band in 1946. The following year the band traveled to Chicago, where she sang with a small group led by popular orchestra leader Benny Goodman. This led to Page getting picked up by Mercury Records. She became Mercury's "girl singer".
Career
Pop success: 1946–1949
Page cut her first two discs with the Eddie Getz and George Barnes Orchestras but they failed to chart.She found success with her third single. The arrangement of "Confess" was meant to use a backing chorus, but Mercury would not pay for one since Page had not yet produced a charting single, so if she wanted additional singers she would have to hire them at her own expense. Instead, her manager Jack Rael decided to try an experiment. Bill Putnam, an engineer for Mercury Records, was able to overdub Page's voice by syncing the two master discs together—tape recording was not in use yet and this technique was difficult to pull off. Thus, Page became the first pop artist to harmonize her own vocals on a recording. This gimmick got "Confess" to No. 12 on the Billboard. This technique later was used on Page's biggest hit singles in the 1950s. Page had four more singles chart in 1948–49, with two " became her first No. 1 on the Billboard spending five weeks there. That same year, she also had her first top-10 hit with "I Don't Care if the Sun Don't Shine", as well as the top-25 single "Back in Your Own Backyard". With this success, Page earned the privilege of releasing her first LP, the self-titled "Patti Page" which opened with "Confess" and included other of her singles from this period. She also released a Christmas album in 1951; this was reissued five years later with updated cover art on a 12" LP with a few new tracks to fill the run time out.
"Tennessee Waltz": 1950
The success of "Bolero" however was quickly eclipsed by what soon became Page's signature song. "Tennessee Waltz" was written in 1946 by Pee Wee King and Redd Stewart, and was recorded in 1947 by Pee Wee King and His Golden West Cowboys. Their original version made the country charts in 1948. The song was also a hit for Cowboy Copas around the same time. Page was introduced to the song by record producer Jerry Wexler, who suggested that she cover a recent R&B version by the Erskine Hawkins Orchestra. Page liked the song, and she recorded and released it as a single."Tennessee Waltz" became a blockbuster hit by complete accident—it was the B-side to "Boogie Woogie Santa Claus" which Mercury had intended to promote during the 1950 holiday season. The label intentionally put "Tennessee Waltz" on the disc to avoid drawing attention away from a planned Christmas hit, as they considered the song a throwaway with no hitmaking potential. To everyone's complete surprise, it went on to spend nine weeks at No. 1 during December 1950-January 1951, while "Boogie Woogie Santa Claus" failed to chart at all and was quickly forgotten. "Tennessee Waltz" also became Page's second single to appear on the country charts, becoming her biggest hit there, reaching number two. The song later became one of the best-selling records of its era, selling 7 million copies in the early 1950s. "Tennessee Waltz" remains the biggest commercial success for the overdubbing technique, pioneered by producer Mitch Miller, which enabled Page to harmonize with herself. "Tennessee Waltz" was the last song to sell one million copies of sheet music. The song was covered by several other singers during the next few months including Jo Stafford and Les Paul and Mary Ford.
The song was featured in the 1970 film Zabriskie Point and in the 1983 film The Right Stuff.
Breakthrough: 1951–1965
In 1951, Page covered "Would I Love You ", which had been a hit for Doris Day. Page's version was a top-five hit that sold 1 million copies. The next single, "Mockin' Bird Hill", was her fourth million seller. Page had three more top 10 hits on Billboard in 1951, starting with "Mister and Mississippi", which peaked at number eight; "And So to Sleep Again"; and "Detour", which had been recorded and made famous by Spade Cooley, Foy Willing, and Elton Britt. Page's version was the most popular and became her seventh million-selling single. She also released her first studio album in 1951 titled Folk Song Favorites.In 1952, Page had a third number-one hit with "I Went to Your Wedding", which spent two months at number one. Recorded in a country ballad style, the song was the B-side of "You Belong to Me", also a top-10 hit. "I Went to Your Wedding" was Page's eighth million-selling single in the United States. It displaced Jo Stafford's version of "You Belong to Me" at number one on Billboard's Best Seller chart. She had continued success that year, with three more songs in the top 10, "Come What May", "Once in a While", and "Why Don't You Believe Me".
In 1953, the novelty tune " Doggie in the Window?" became Page's fourth number-one hit, selling over 1 million copies and staying on the chart for five months. The song included the sound of a dog barking, which made it popular with a younger audience. It became one of her best-loved songs, but in later years would often be lampooned by rock critics and used to ridicule the state of popular music in the 1950s just prior to rock-and-roll. The song was written by novelty-tune specialist Bob Merrill. It was recorded by Page for the children's album Arfie Goes to School. It was also a UK hit and British singer Lita Roza performed a cover version that made the top 10 there. She had a series of top-20 hits that year. "Changing Partners", a final single, reached the top five, peaking at number three, and staying on the charts for five months. The song was also a country melody, like many of Page's hits at the time.
In 1954, Page had more chart hits, including "Cross Over the Bridge", which again overdubbed Page's vocals and peaked at number two. Other top-10 hits by Page that year included "Steam Heat" and "Let Me Go, Lover!".
In 1955, Page had one chart single: "Croce di Oro".
Unlike most other pop singers of her time, Page was able to maintain success into the rock-and-roll era. She had three hits in 1956, including the number-two "Allegheny Moon". In 1957, she had major hits with "A Poor Man's Roses " and the top-five hit "Old Cape Cod".
In 1956, Vic Schoen became Patti Page's musical director, producing her on a long string of hits that included "Mama from the Train", "Allegheny Moon", "Old Cape Cod", "Belonging to Someone", and "Left Right Out of Your Heart". Page and Schoen's most challenging project was a recording of Gordon Jenkins narrative-tone poem as Manhattan Tower. The album was a success both artistically and commercially, reaching number 18 on the Billboard LP chart, the highest ranking of any of her albums. Schoen's arrangements were more lively and jazzy than the original Jenkins arrangements. Schoen recalled, "Patti was an alto, but I pushed her to reach notes higher than she had sung before for this album. We always enjoyed working together." Page and Schoen continued their collaboration for many years, working together until 1999.
During the 1950s, Page made regular TV appearances, including The Ed Sullivan Show, The Bob Hope Specials, The Steve Allen Show, and The Dean Martin Show. This eventually led to Page having television specials of her own. She later had her own series, beginning with Scott Music Hall in the 1952–53 season and a syndicated series for Oldsmobile in 1955, The Patti Page Show. However, this show only lasted one season, as did The Big Record and The Patti Page Olds Show, sponsored by Oldsmobile. Page also began an acting career at this time, beginning with a role on Playhouse 90. Page made her movie debut in 1960 in Elmer Gantry. She also recorded the theme song for Boys Night Out, in which she played the part of Joanne McIllenny. In 1959, Page recorded the title song from the musical The Sound of Music for Mercury Records on the same day that the musical opened on Broadway. The song on her TV show The Patti Page Olds Show helped to promote the Broadway show.
The pop world was becoming less favorable to pre-rock singers by 1960 and it was also a weak time for the "established" ASCAP affiliate record labels such as Columbia, RCA, and Mercury, with indie and regional labels dominating pop during this era, so Page's chart hits dried up. She did not chart again until 1961 with "You'll Answer to Me" and "Mom and Dad's Waltz". Page's last major chart hit was "Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte" from the film of the same name starring Bette Davis and Olivia de Havilland. It peaked at number eight. It was her last top-10 hit and was nominated for a "Best Song" Oscar. She performed it at the 1965 Academy Awards. She also recorded the song in Italian, Spanish, and German for foreign markets.