Before A Duo, “You Ain’t Woman Enough” by Loretta Lynn

Eleven long years before they built a professional partnership, Loretta Lynn started as a singer in local clubs. She wrote real-life songs that mostly spoke to other women. Lynn was among the very first female country superstars to transcribe fabric of real American culture melodies.

The superb Loretta Lynn has many nicknames. Naming some, “The Coal Miner’s Daughter”, “The Blue Kentucky Girl” and prominently, The First Lady of Country and The Queen of Country Music.  “The Decca Doll” is one of her nicknames I was most struck about. Until I listened to this rare footage of Loretta Lynn performing “You Ain’t Woman Enough (To Take My Man).  It was during one of Twitty and Lynn’s concerts in Norway before they were considered a duo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5FZpMF34A8

And Here’s Why

If there’s a song out there that verifies why Lynn deserves all these titles, particularly “The Decca Doll”, it’s this one. You Ain’t Woman Enough was released on September 12, 1966, by Decca Records. It was a single from her seventh studio album. The single went to number two on the Billboard  Hot Country Singles charts and became her eighth Top Ten single on the charts and her largest hit at that point in her career. It has since become one of her signature songs.

A 10-Minute Composition

In her American Master PBS special, she narrated that she composed “You Ain’t Woman Enough (To Take My Man)” for a woman she met backstage at one of her concerts. The woman whined of an enemy who was trying to steal her husband.  She then told the worried fan,

“Honey, she ain’t woman enough to take your man”!

When Lynn went back to her dressing room, she wrote what became a Number 2 Country chart hit, in just 10 minutes.

Lynn projected her boundless talent and seen as though she was having the time of her life up there. The lyrics are somewhat feisty, yet Lynn sang with beams of sweetness on her face. With that said, Lynn proved why she is as eminent as she is.