In the repressive early fifties, amidst a culture intimidated by McCarthyism and fears of infiltration and nuclear attack by the “Red Menace”, it seems extraordinary that a song with this title was released commercially at all. And country music was, as it remains today, more conservative in some ways than pop, theater music, and jazz (there were far fewer genres of popular music then). But it was a huge success which made her a country star.
“In 1952, Paul Cohen, then A&R for Decca Records, was looking for a female singer to record the answer to Hank Thompson’s number one hit, “The Wild Side Of Life”. He asked if Kitty would be interested in recording, “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels”. Even though the Grand Ole Opry banned the song and she was not allowed to perform it on the air at the time, the song became a million seller. Kitty Wells became the very first woman to top the US country charts.”–video and quoted info provided at youtube by Gatorrock786.
The picture is good, apparently colorized, but the sound is distorted at normal volume (unless my speakers are shot). I’ll try to find one with better sound. The backing band of seven includes 1 piano, 1 pedal steel guitar, 1 drummer and 4 more guitars! Wells is also playing guitar bringing the total to 6 gits for this soft, light number. The band is joined by other folks just sort of lounging among and behind them.
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