MELBA MONTGOMERY
While a successful
singer in her own right, Melba Montgomery is perhaps best remembered in tandem
with her string of duet recordings with the likes of George Jones, Charlie
Louvin, and Gene Pitney. In 1962, Montgomery released a self-titled LP and then
teamed for a series of duets with Jones. Their first joint effort, a rendition
of Montgomery's self-penned "We Must Have Been Out of Our Minds," reached the
Top Three in 1963, and the follow-up, "What's in Our Heart"/"Let's Invite Them
Over," was a two-sided Top 20 hit. Between 1963 and 1967, the Jones-Montgomery
team generated a total of five Top 40 hits and two LPs (1966's Close Together
and 1967's Let's Get Together), and while Montgomery maintained a successful
solo career during the same period, she remained best known as a duet singer and
so recorded an album of collaborations with Pitney titled Being Together in
1966.
After a few minor solo hits in the late '60s, in 1970 Montgomery found new
partners in Louvin and producer Pete Drake. The duo's first hit, "Something to
Brag About," was also their biggest, and after a string of singles and a 1971
album — also titled Something to Brag About — she and Louvin parted ways,
although Montgomery did continue on with Drake. In 1974, he produced her only
number one hit, a rendition of Harlan Howard's "No Charge".