Dottie West

Dottie West (October 11, 1932 – September 4, 1991) was an American country music singer and songwriter. Along with her friends and co-recording artists Patsy Cline and Loretta Lynn, she is considered one of the genre's most influential and groundbreaking female artists. Dottie West's career started in the early 1960s, with her Top 10 hit, "Here Comes My Baby Back Again," which won her the first Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance in 1965. In the 1960s, West was one of the few female country singers working in what was then a male-dominated industry, influencing other female country singers like Lynn Anderson, Crystal Gayle, Barbara Mandrell, Dolly Parton, and Tammy Wynette. Throughout the 1960s, West had country hits within the Top 10 and 20.

In the early 1970s, West wrote a popular commercial for the Coca-Cola company, titled "Country Sunshine", which she nearly brought to the top of the charts in 1973. In the late-70s, she teamed up with country-pop superstar, Kenny Rogers for a series of duets, which brought her career in directions it had never gone before, earning Platinum selling albums and No. 1 records for the very first time. Her duet recordings with Rogers, like "Every Time Two Fools Collide," "All I Ever Need Is You," and "What Are We Doin' In Love," eventually became country-music standards. In the mid-1970s, her image and music underwent a major metamorphosis, bringing her to the very peak of her popularity as a solo act, and reaching No. 1 for the very first time on her own in 1980 with "A Lesson in Leavin'".