In 1996,
LeAnn Rimes burst out of nowhere with her debut single, "Blue," which immediately captured the attention of
country fans across America. It wasn't just the fact that her rich, powerful vocals were remarkably similar to
Patsy Cline -- it was the fact that
Rimes was only 13 years old. Like
Tanya Tucker and
Brenda Lee before her, she had a hit with her debut single and was barely a teenager at the time. It was quite an auspicious way to begin a career. Born in Jackson, MS, but raised in Garland, TX,
Rimes (born August 28, 1982) began singing as a child, performing at local talent contests. At the age of 11, she released her first album on an independent record label called Nor Va Jak.
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In 1996,
LeAnn Rimes burst out of nowhere with her debut single, "Blue," which immediately captured the attention of
country fans across America. It wasn't just the fact that her rich, powerful vocals were remarkably similar to
Patsy Cline -- it was the fact that
Rimes was only 13 years old. Like
Tanya Tucker and
Brenda Lee before her, she had a hit with her debut single and was barely a teenager at the time.
It was quite an auspicious way to begin a career. Born in Jackson, MS, but raised in Garland, TX,
Rimes (born August 28, 1982) began singing as a child, performing at local talent contests. At the age of 11, she released her first album on an independent record label called Nor Va Jak. That same year,
Bill Mack, a Dallas disc jockey and record promoter, met
Rimes, and impressed by her talents, he took her under his wing and began cultivating a plan to break her into the mainstream. The cornerstone of
Mack's plan was a song called "Blue," which he had written in the '60s.
Mack claimed that he had written the tune for
Cline, but she had died before she was able to record the song.
Throughout 1995,
Rimes' career continued to gain momentum, as she performed more than 100 concerts and appeared on television shows across Texas. After
Mack arranged a record contract for
Rimes with Curb Records, the label sent out a release with the single of "Blue" that claimed the DJ had been waiting over 30 years to find the right vocalist to sing "Blue." The story was an exaggeration: "Blue" had been recorded by no less than three different artists, including
Bill Mack and
Kenny Roberts, who both released versions on Starday in the '60s, and in 1993, Kathryn Pitt released the record as a single in her native Australia. Nevertheless, the story was repeated throughout the country and mainstream music press, adding to the growing myth that
Rimes was the successor to
Cline's tradition. "Blue" and its accompanying album of the same name became major hits in the summer of 1996.
Blue debuted at number three on the pop charts, selling over 123,000 copies within its first week of release -- the largest figure to date in the history of the SoundScan tracking system.
Rimes was nominated for the Country Music Association Horizon award and the CMA Best Country Singer, becoming the youngest singer in the history of the CMA awards to receive a nomination; she won neither award. After two quickie 1997 releases --
Unchained Melody: The Early Years and
You Light Up My Life: Inspirational Songs -- she issued her second proper LP,
Sittin' on Top of the World, in 1998. Her self-titled third album followed a year later and
I Need You appeared in early 2001. The next year,
Rimes emerged with a sexy flair for the pop-oriented
Twisted Angel, but returned to
contemporary country in 2005 with
This Woman. Her 2006 effort Whatever We Wanna found her going back to pop and was released exclusively in Europe. In 2007 she kicked off the Evan Almighty
soundtrack with the
gospel rave-up "Ready for a Miracle," appeared on
Hal Ketchum's single "In Front of the Alamo," and began promoting her next album,
Family, with the single "Nothing Better to Do." ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
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