“Anderson’s television background and her ability to bring show-business dynamism to recordings and concert performances helped her achieve crossover success,” said Kyle Young, The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum CEO. “With talent and tenacity, the country music star brought increased visibility to the genre in the 1960s and ’70s, and we are privileged to share her story with our guests.”
Born in North Dakota and raised in northern California, Lynn Anderson started performing at age six. By her teens, she was appearing regularly on television. Her parents, Casey and Liz Anderson, were successful songwriters. Together, they wrote “The Fugitive,” a hit for Merle Haggard. Lynn’s talent and hard work led to her signing with Chart Records at age nineteen, in 1966.
By the late 1960s, Anderson was a regular on television’s Lawrence Welk Show. From 1966 to early 1970 she notched five Top Ten country singles in Billboard rankings. By then, she was also an award-winning equestrian, taking home trophies and ribbons for riding show horses and cutting horses. In fact, Anderson competed in equestrian events throughout most of her life. She won sixteen national and eight world championships, as well as the top trophies at several celebrity competitions.
Anderson’s countrified achievements
Anderson charted 12 No. 1, 18 Top 10, and more than 50 Top 40 hits. In addition to being named “Top Female Vocalist” by the Academy of Country Music twice and “Female Vocalist of the Year” by the Country Music Association. Anderson won a Grammy Award (earning seven nominations) and People’s Choice Award and an American Music Award (AMA). She was named Billboard’s Female Artist of the Decade (1970–1980).
She was the first female country artist to win the American Music Award (in 1974), as well as the first to headline and sellout Madison Square Garden that same year.
“Keep Me in Mind”
“Keep Me in Mind” was a No. 1 country hit for vocalist and entertainer Lynn Anderson in 1973.
Anderson considered “Keep Me In Mind” the most difficult song of her career. It had a tremendous range. Lynn laughingly used to say that there seemed to be some notes in it that rivaled the range of a dog-whistle!
Much of the work on “Keep Me In Mind” was already done by the time she even knew the song existed. Sutton and George Richey wrote it – along with a Joe Stampley single, “I’m Still Loving You” – at Columbia Studio A. Glenn remembers that he came in and Richey was just sitting at the piano playing a little melody. There was nothing in particular. Sutton said, “Let’s try something with that.” Within an hour-and-a-half, they had “Keep Me In Mind.”
Anderson was home sick that night and didn’t make it to the session. Glenn worked up four tracks including one for “Keep Me In Mind,” and had background singer Janie Fricke do the vocal on it. In retrospect, this song would have been a monster hit for Janie, but at the time she was still concentrating her efforts on background singing.
Sutton took the demo home and played it for Lynn. She loved it and as soon as she felt better, she was right there in Studio A recording “Keep Me In Mind.” Her record debuted on Billboard’s Hot Country Singles chart January 13, 1973, and reached #1 on March 31st, marking Anderson’s fourth of her five chart-toppers.
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