The Height of Her Career
Unhappy with the production of her first album, Gail Davies switched to Warner Bros. Records in 1979 and became the first female record producer in the history of Country music. Her landmark album The Game was even more successful than her previous record had been. It featured a Top 10 single entitled "Blue Heartache", as well as two Top 20 hits, "Like Strangers" and "Good Lovin' Man". Gail produced I'll Be There in 1980, which spawned three more Top 10 singles. The title track went to No. 4 in Billboard followed by "It's a Lovely, Lovely World" - a duet with Emmylou Harris - and Gail's own composition, "Grandma's Song". Gail was nominated for a CMA and ACMA Award in 1981 and honored by the DJs of America, who voted her Country music's "Best New Female Vocalist."
The year 1982 showed that Davies was not slowing down. She released her third self-produced album Giving Herself Away. This record brought a new female perspective to Country Music with another Top 10 hit, written by Rory Bourke and K.T. Oslin, entitled "Round the Clock Lovin'". Gail's career took a short hiatus in the winter of 1982, when she gave birth to her son, Chris Scruggs, who is also the son of songwriter Gary Scruggs.
Warner Bros. released Gail's last album for the label What Can I Say in 1983. Although there were some sizable hits from this record, including two Top 20 singles - "You're a Hard Dog (To Keep Under the Porch)" and a self-penned song entitled "Boys Like You," - Gail's chart success was beginning to wane. The last single from this album, a duet with Ricky Skaggs entitled "It's You Alone," was released as Gail was preparing to leave the label. With no support from her record company it stalled at No. 55 on the Billboard charts. Gail signed with RCA Records in 1984 and released Where Is a Woman to Go. Produced by Gail and James Taylor's bass player, Leland Sklar, this album featured two hit singles - "Breakaway", which went to No. 15 on the charts and "Jagged Edge of a Broken Heart," climbing to No. 20. Inspired by a trip to London in 1985, Gail formed the band Wild Choir. They released one self-titled album on RCA. Although there were no hits from this album, the band has been cited as one of the incunabula of the "alt-country" genre, also known as Americana Music. In 1989, Gail signed with MCA Records and produced Pretty Words, featuring her last charted record, a self-penned song entitled "Hearts in the Wind". Undaunted by the lack of label support, Gail continued to produce great music. She moved on to Capitol Records in 1989 and released two albums - "The Other Side of Love" and "The Best Of Gail Davies".
Read more about this topic: Gail Davies
Famous quotes containing the words height and/or career:
“The Woodrovian style, at the height of the Wilson hallucination, was much praised by cornfed connoisseurs.”
—H.L. (Henry Lewis)
““Never hug and kiss your children! Mother love may make your children’s infancy unhappy and prevent them from pursuing a career or getting married!” That’s total hogwash, of course. But it shows on extreme example of what state-of-the-art “scientific” parenting was supposed to be in early twentieth-century America. After all, that was the heyday of efficiency experts, time-and-motion studies, and the like.”
—Lawrence Kutner (20th century)