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    Legends of Country Music: Reba McEntire
    Legends of Country Music: Reba McEntire
    Legends of Country Music: Reba McEntire
    Ebook108 pages3 hours

    Legends of Country Music: Reba McEntire

    By James Hoag

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    About this ebook

    Reba McEntire started out singing for the rodeos that came near her Oklahoma home. She had a dream of singing for everyone, one which she fulfilled beyond her wildest expectations.
    Once her talent was recognized, she moved quickly from a humble upbringing in Oklahoma to Nashville, Tennessee and the Grand Ole Opry.
    She was not an overnight success. It took a few albums and several singles to get her name in front on the country music public, but, eventually she was a headlining star.
    She progressed with album after album, gaining more and more of a following until she won the CMA for Female Vocalist of the Year, four years running.
    She is the only female artist to score at least one number one single in each of the decades from the 1980s until the present.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherJames Hoag
    Release dateJan 18, 2021
    ISBN9781005838546
    Legends of Country Music: Reba McEntire
    Author

    James Hoag

    James Hoag has always been a big fan of Rock & Roll. Most people graduate from high school and then proceed to "grow up" and go on to more adult types of music. James got stuck at about age 18 and has been an avid fan of popular music ever since. His favorite music is from the Fifties, the origin of Rock & Roll and which was the era in which James grew up. But he likes almost all types of popular music including country music.After working his entire life as a computer programmer, he is now retired and he decided to share his love of the music and of the performers by writing books that discuss the life and music of the various people who have meant so much to him over the years.He calls each book a "love letter" to the stars that have enriched our lives so much. These people are truly Legends.

    Read more from James Hoag

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      Book preview

      Legends of Country Music - James Hoag

      Introduction

      24 number ones: that’s how many number one songs Reba McEntire has had on the country chart, so far. That number would put her in the lead on the pop charts, even ahead of the Beatles. The Beatles had just 20 number ones in their career (not counting their solo works). Reba would beat them by four. In addition, Elvis is back at 18 number ones, so Reba beats them both.

      She is the only female artist to score at least one number one single in each of the decades from the 1980s until the present. She had thirteen in the Eighties, eight in the Nineties, two in the 2000s, and one in the 2010s (so far.)

      Some people call Reba McEntire The Queen of Country, and I believe them. She began recording in 1975 and released her first album in 1977. She has been on top ever since (at least, after a few years of struggling).

      In the late 1990s, my wife and I had the pleasure of seeing her in person when she toured with Brooks and Dunn. It was a treat we have always remembered. She and Brooks and Dunn recorded a song together, and it was a lot of fun to hear them sing it live. The song was If You See Him/If You See Her, a number one song in 1998 which I will talk about in more detail later.

      Reba has done it all. She’s an award-winning singer. She has acted in several movies and hosted several award shows. She even had her own television series for a while and spent a few months on Broadway. Is there anyone who enjoys country music who does not know the name Reba McEntire? I hope you will take this journey with me as I trace the life and music (especially the music) of Reba McEntire who is truly, The Queen of Country.

      Her Early Life

      Reba, like many other country singers, comes from Oklahoma. She was born Reba Nell McEntire on March 28, 1955 in McAlester, Oklahoma. Her father was Clark Vincent McEntire and her mother was Jacqueline (née Smith). Reba was the third of four children. She had an older sister, Alice Lynn, who was born in 1951 and an older brother, Del Stanley, who was born in 1953. She also had a younger sister, Martha Susan, who was born in 1957. The family called Del Stanley Pecos Pete but shortened it to Pake, and Martha was just called Susie.

      Reba was born into a rodeo family. Her mother, Jackie, came from a rodeo background, and Clark loved the rodeo, taking his family all over the country so he could compete. He was best in the calf-roping event and eventually became a three-time world champion steer roper. Clark got so good at his craft he earned the nickname, Ropeintire. When Reba was little, they still scraped by on what he could earn on the rodeo circuit. During Reba’s growing up years, mom, and dad, and the four kids would pile in the car and spend the summer going from one rodeo to another. Clark would compete for as much as he had money and time.

      The car they drove was old and didn’t have a functioning radio, so mother Jackie would have the kids sing while they were in the car. They learned four-part harmony in that car travelling the country. Jackie McEntire had a wonderful voice. Some said she sounded just like Patsy Cline. She never went into show business, but she always thought that if she had tried, she would have made it big. Having a good voice herself, she could recognize a good voice in another when she heard it and as they travelled, she could pick out which of the four children had the voice inherited from their mom and that child was Reba.

      Reba was five-years-old when, one day, she and the family were in a motel resting from a day of rodeo. The group was hanging out in the lobby of the motel, and Pake started singing for the crowd. Someone gave him a quarter for the song. Reba thought that was pretty cool so the next time Pake sang, she joined him. A cowboy gave her a nickel, and that sealed the deal. .

      She was amazed that someone would pay her for singing. Remember, she was just five. She remembered that day for the rest of her life.

      Growing Up in Oklahoma

      Reba grew up in a town called Kiowa, Oklahoma. As you approach the town from the north, there’s a big sign just beyond the city limits that says: Home of Reba McEntire. They are obviously proud of their hometown superstar. Reba grew up with the rodeo. She was a full-blooded tomboy right from the beginning and might have joined the rodeo herself if she had been a boy. She tried her hand at running barrels a time or two. Back then, running barrels was primarily a sport for girls. It was comprised of riding a horse through a cloverleaf pattern of barrels in the fastest time. It involved no animals other than the horse and was fairly safe.

      There was a fellow who showed up for most of the same rodeos Reba and her father attended. His name was Charlie Battles, and he was a bulldogger. That’s a man who rides a horse up alongside a steer, leans out and grabs the steer’s horns, and then wrestles him to the ground. It takes a great deal of strength to be a bulldogger, and Charlie was up to the task, being a giant of a man. He was also about 10 years older than Reba, but that didn’t stop him from talking to her whenever he got the chance. Reba thought Battles was cute and had a crush on him right from the beginning. But not only was Battles older than Reba, he had been married before and had two kids by that marriage. He was, however, on the lookout for wife number two, and Reba seemed to fit the bill. He became the first love of Reba’s life. But, for now, Reba’s mother had bigger ideas for Reba. Mama was determined that Reba be a singer.

      It wasn’t just Reba that did the singing. All four of the kids would get together and sing, each trying to outdo the others. Sometimes, just Reba and Pake would sing and Reba would do her best to sing louder and get more attention than Pake did. Reba says she always craved attention. The first time she sang in public (not just for company that came to the house) was in first grade, when she sang in Away in a Manger for the class Christmas play.

      During high school, three of the four McEntire kids (Alice didn’t want to join in) would get together every chance they got and sing. They were known as the Singing McEntires. As Reba got older, she continued to sing every chance she got. Mother Jackie wanted her to be involved in some music class in high school, but the town and the school were both too small to support a band, so Jackie created one. She sweet-talked the principle into providing enough money so they could put together a small country band to play at school functions. It was comprised of just a few students. Reba, Pake, and Suzie were a part of it, as well as some other students, and they enlisted the help of one teacher named Clark Rhyne.

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