Remember When Reba McEntire Signed Her First Record Deal?

Reba McEntire was only a 20-year-old newcomer with huge goals when she signed her first document deal on Nov. 11, 1975.

The flame-haired Oklahoma native wasn’t fully a stranger to the music scene previous to signing with Mercury Information. She was singing in a gaggle together with her brother, Pake, and her sister, Susie, billing themselves because the Singing McEntires. Based on the Boot, that group carried out at rodeos and launched one single, “The Ballad of John McEntire.” Reba was undecided she wished to pursue music full-time, nevertheless, so she enrolled at Southeastern Oklahoma State College, planning to comply with in her mom’s footsteps and turn into an elementary faculty trainer.

McEntire landed a solo gig singing the nationwide anthem on the Nationwide Finals Rodeo in Oklahoma Metropolis whereas she was nonetheless in school, and nation singer Crimson Stegall occurred to be in attendance. He supplied to assist McEntire safe a deal in Nashville, and after she recorded a solo demo tape, he made the rounds on Music Row, ultimately touchdown her a contract with Mercury.

McEntire recorded her first music for the label, “I Do not Wish to Be a One-Evening Stand,” Jan. 22, 1976. Launched as the primary single from her self-titled debut album, it failed, as did a number of subsequent singles. McEntire would rating a couple of High 10 hits over the following few years, together with “(You Carry Me) As much as Heaven,” “Immediately All Over Once more” and “I am Not That Lonely But,” however extremely, it could take the decided aspiring star till 1983 to attain her true breakthrough single. McEntire nabbed her first No. 1 hit together with her 14th single, “Cannot Even Get the Blues,” launching her on a trajectory to turn into one of the crucial influential feminine nation artists of all time.