In 1996, LeAnn Rimes burst out of nowhere with her debut single, “Blue,” which immediately captured the focus of country fans across America. It wasn’t just the fact that her rich, powerful vocals were remarkably similar to Patsy Cline — it was the fact that Rimes was only 13 years old. Like Tanya Tucker and Brenda Lee before her, she had a hit with her debut single and was barely a teenager at the time. It was quite an auspicious way to begin a career. Born in Jackson, MS, but raised in Garland, TX, Rimes (born August 28, 1982) started singing as a child, performing at local talent contests. At the age of 11, she put forth her first album on an independent album label called Nor Va Jak. That same year, Bill Mack, a Dallas disc jockey and album promoter, met Rimes, and impressed by her talents, he took her under his wing and began cultivating a plan to break her into the mainstream. The cornerstone of Mack’s plan was a song called “Blue,” which he had written in the ’60s. Mack claimed that he had written the tune for Cline, but she had died before she was able to album the song.
Throughout 1995, Rimes’ career continued to gain momentum, as she performed more than 100 concerts and appeared on tv concerts across Texas. After Mack arranged a record contract for Rimes with Curb Records, the label sent out a release with the single of “Blue” that claimed the DJ had been waiting over 30 years to find the right singer to sing “Blue.” The story was an exaggeration: “Blue” had been recorded by no less than three different artists, which included Bill Mack and Kenny Roberts, who both gave us versions on Starday in the ’60s, and in 1993, Kathryn Pitt gave us the record as a single in her native Australia. Nevertheless, the story was repeated throughout the country and mainstream material press, adding to the growing myth that Rimes was the successor to Cline’s tradition. “Blue” and its accompanying album of the same name became major smashes in the summer of 1996.
Blue debuted at number three on the pop charts, selling over 123,000 albums within its first week of release — the largest figure to date in the history of the SoundScan tracking system. Rimes was nominated for the Country songs Association Horizon award and the CMA Best Country Singer, becoming the youngest singer in the history of the CMA awards to receive a nomination; she won neither award. After two quickie 1997 releases — Unchained Melody: The Early Years and You Light Up My Life: Inspirational music — she released her second proper LP, Sittin’ on Top of the World, in 1998. Her self-titled third album came a year later and I Need You appeared in early 2001. The next year, Rimes came on the scene with a sexy flair for the pop-oriented Twisted Angel, but came back to contemporary country in 2005 with This Woman. Her 2006 effort Whatever We Wanna found her going back to pop and was issued exclusively in Europe. In 2007 she kicked off the Evan Almighty soundtrack with the gospel rave-up “Ready for a Miracle,” appeared on Hal Ketchum’s single “In Front of the Alamo,” and began preaching her next album, Family, with the single “Nothing Better to Do.”
