Recently, we lost a true legend in the music business. Why was she a legend? Well, she was the top selling artist of the 1950s. She recorded over 1,000 songs and sold over 100 million records, four of them number one hits. She was known as "the singing rage."
I'm talking about Patti Page.
Page was born Clara Ann Fowler in Claremore, Oklahoma. She began her singing career at 18 by appearing on a 15 minute radio show produced by KTUL in Tulsa. The program was sponsored by The Page Milk Company, so the resident singer was known as “Patti Page.” Fowler adopted the name when the previous "Patti Page" left, and the name stuck.
She toured with a few big bands throughout the mid 40s, including a small group led by bandleader Benny Goodman. Eventually, she got a contract with Mercury Records. Her first hit, "Confess" (1947), was also the first song to feature a recording technique known as multi-tracking, mostly because there wasn’t enough money available to hire back up singers. Page overdubbed her vocals four times, enabling her to sing four part harmony with herself. The label even credited the vocal to Patti Page, Patti Page, Patti Page, and Patti Page. “Confess” was the first of many hits to follow.
Her biggest-selling single was actually a country song written by western star Pee Wee King, Tennessee Waltz. The song made Page the first artist to bring country music into the mainstream and met with success on the pop, country and R and B charts. Tennessee Waltz became so famous, it ended up becoming the fourth official state song for Tennessee and it would be identified with Page for the rest of her career.
In 1953, she recorded "(How Much Is That) Doggy in the Window, a song which met with mixed reviews and even caused listeners to call in death threats to disk jockeys so they would stop playing it. In spite of being hated by some, "Doggy in the Window" has become a favourite of many children, and you'd be hard pressed to find an adult who doesn't know the words to the chorus.
Beginning in the mid 60s, Page enjoyed a second career as a country artist. She had always enjoyed country music and many of her recordings had country arrangements. For the first time, she scored hits with cover versions of country songs—like Glen Campbell’s Gentle On My mind and Tammy Wynette’s Stand By Your Man. Throughout the 70s, she had a string of hits that were exclusive to the country charts, such as 1970’s I Wish I Had A Mommy Like You (her first exclusively country hit) and 1975’s “Less Than The Song.” She also recorded duets with legends such as Tom T. Hall and George Jones, and continued to have success on the country genre until the early 80s.
During the 80s and 90s, Page began to tour again. She also founded her own record label in the 90s, C.A.F. Records, on which she released some new studio albums, including a children’s CD in 2003. In 1998, Page recorded her first live album called Live at Carnegie Hall: The 50th Anniversary Concert. She won a Grammy for the album, which was the first of her career, despite the large number of hit songs she had recorded.
Page continued to tour on a regular basis until 2011. Last September, she published a letter to her fans on her official website. The letter talked about how much she had enjoyed performing for over 60 years, and said she was continually amazed at how much joy people seemed to find in her music, even though she was doing something that just came naturally to her.
Page said she still felt she had the voice God gave her, but because of health reasons, she no longer had the physical ability to get up on stage and perform. She said how sorry she was that she could no longer do what she loved.
Page passed away on New Year’s Day, 2013. Her letter is a true testament to the kind of performer she was, someone who cared about her music and the people who loved it. That is what keeps a performer relevant and successful for over 60 years.
