Tanya Tucker

She was born in Seminole, Texas, the youngest of three children born to Alma Juanita (née Cunningham; 1927–2012) and Jesse Melvin "Beau" Tucker (1927–2006).

Prior to managing Tanya's career, Beau was a heavy equipment operator, so the family moved often as he sought better work.

Her early childhood was spent primarily in Willcox, Arizona, where the only radio station in town, KHIL, played country music.

The Tuckers attended concerts of country stars such as Ernest Tubb and Mel Tillis, and Tanya's sister LaCosta was praised in the family for her vocal abilities.

At the age of eight, Tanya told her father that she also wanted to be a country singer when she grew up.

When the Tuckers moved to St. George, Utah, Juanita took Tanya to audition for the film Jeremiah Johnson.

Tanya did not win the bigger role for which she tried out, but she was hired, as was her horse, as a bit player.

About this time, she also received one of her first musical breaks, when her father drove the family to Phoenix for the Arizona State Fair, on the chance that the featured performer, country singer Judy Lynn, could use Tanya in her show.

Tanya sang for the fair's entertainment managers, and she was engaged to sing at the fair itself.

Tucker made her debut with Mel Tillis, who was so impressed by her talent that he invited her onstage to perform.

Tanya Denise Tucker (born October 10, 1958) is an American country music singer and songwriter who had her first hit, "Delta Dawn", in 1972 at the age of 13.

During her career Tucker became one of the few child performers to mature into adulthood without losing her audience; she had a streak of top-10 and top-40 hits.

In 1969, the family moved to Henderson, Nevada, where Tucker regularly performed.

Eventually, she recorded a demonstration tape that gained the attention of songwriter Dolores Fuller, who sent it to producer Billy Sherrill, the head of artists and repertoire at CBS Records.

Sherrill was impressed with the demo tape and signed the teenage vocalist to Columbia Records.

Sherrill initially planned to have Tucker record "The Happiest Girl in the Whole USA", but she chose "Delta Dawn" – a song Billy Sherrill heard Bette Midler sing on The Tonight Show – instead as her first single while Donna Fargo, the writer of "The Happiest Girl in the Whole USA", released her own version as a single.

By the end of the 1970s, her sales were declining – in 1980 she only had two hits, one of them was "Can I See You Tonight?".

Released in May 1972, the song became a hit, peaking at number six on the country chart and scraping the bottom of the pop chart.

At first, Columbia Records tried to downplay Tucker's age, but soon word leaked out and she became a sensation.

A year later, Australian singer Helen Reddy scored a number-one U.S. pop hit with her version of "Delta Dawn".

Her second single, "Love's the Answer", also became a top-10 hit later in 1972.

In addition to recording, she also made her feature-film debut in Hard Country, although she did have small roles in Jeremiah Johnson (1972) and the television miniseries The Rebels (1979).

She has had several successful albums, several Country Music Association award nominations, and hit songs including 1973's "What's Your Mama's Name?" and "Blood Red and Goin' Down", 1975's "Lizzie and the Rainman", 1988's "Strong Enough to Bend", and 1992's "Two Sparrows in a Hurricane".

Tucker's third single, "What's Your Mama's Name", became her first number-one hit in the spring of 1973.

Two other number ones – "Blood Red and Goin' Down" and "Would You Lay with Me (In a Field of Stone)" followed, establishing Tucker as a major star.

In 1975, she signed with MCA Records, where she had a string of hit singles that ran into the late 1970s.

Among these hits was "Lizzie and the Rainman", which became a number-one country hit, and also became Tucker's only top-40 pop music hit, peaking at number 37.

It also peaked among the top 10 on the adult contemporary charts at the time.

Tucker has a string of top-10 country hits under MCA between 1975 and 1978, including "San Antonio Stroll", "Here's Some Love", and "It's a Cowboy Lovin' Night".

In 1977, she recorded "You Taught Me How to Cry," a duet with Hoyt Axton on his album Snowblind Friend.

In 1978, she decided to radically change her image and cross over to rock with her TNT album.

Despite the controversy over the record and its sexy cover, it went gold the following year.

The two hit singles from the album were "I'm a Singer, You're the Song", and "Texas (When I Die)".

The latter reached number five on the country charts, and its B-side, "Not Fade Away", a Buddy Holly cover, peaked at number 70 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Also in 1980, she recorded a few singles with Glen Campbell, with whom she was romantically linked.

"I thank the lucky stars and the Good Lord for that song," Tucker told Nine-O-One Network Magazine in 1988.

"If I cut it now for the first time I think it would be a hit. I was fortunate to have latched onto that one, and that was all Sherrill's doing. If it hadn't been for Sherrill, I probably would have been a rodeo queen or something."

Tucker's 2019 album While I'm Livin' won the Grammy Award for Best Country Album, and "Bring My Flowers Now" from that same album won Tucker a shared songwriting Grammy for Best Country Song.

Tucker’s latest album is a 2023 critically acclaimed collaboration with Brandi Carlile called Sweet Western Sound.

Tucker was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame on October 22, 2023.