Career
Coolidge is a graduate of Florida State University. She became known as "The Delta Lady" and inspired Leon Russell to write a song of the same name for her. In November 1970, she met Kris Kristofferson at the Los Angeles airport when they were both catching the same flight to Tennessee and he got off in Memphis with her rather than go on to his originally intended stop in Nashville; the two married in 1973. With him, she recorded several duet albums which sold well, and earned the duo a Grammy Award for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal in 1974 for "From the Bottle to the Bottom", and in 1976 for "Lover Please". Willie Nelson references her in Devil in a Sleepin' Bag on Shotgun Willie thus:
- Just got back from New York City
- Kris (Kristofferson) and Rita (Coolidge) done it all
- Bought perfection there for all the world to see
- Lord, I heard an angel singing in that Philharmonic Hall
- Rita Coolidge, Rita Coolidge, cleft for me
Coolidge's greatest success on the pop charts came during 1977-1978 with four consecutive top 25 hits. The list consisted of covers of Jackie Wilson's "(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher", Boz Scaggs' "We're All Alone", and The Temptations' "The Way You Do The Things You Do", followed by "You".
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