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Celebrating Women’s History Month: Trisha Yearwood

Published on March 19, 2021

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By many measures, Trisha Yearwood was the biggest female country star of the early ’90s, recording a string of Top Ten hits that ran from 1991 to 2001. She landed a number one hit right out of the gate with “She’s in Love with the Boy,” a breezy, sweet single that established her sweet spot: tuneful, mellow country-pop that could’ve crossed over into the adult contemporary charts. During the ’90s, Yearwood racked up five additional number one singles — “XXX’s and OOO’s (An American Girl),” “Thinkin’ About You,” “Believe Me Baby (I Lied),” and “Perfect Love” — with the last arriving in 1998, just as Shania Twain reworked the rules of pop-country the same way Garth Brooks refashioned neo-traditional country in the early ’90s. At the outset of her career, Yearwood was helped by her association with Brooks — he helped her land a contract at the dawn of the ’90s — and that connection deepened when the pair became romantically involved. Yearwood receded from the musical spotlight after their 2005 marriage, but she diversified in the 2010s. She developed and hosted the cooking show Trisha’s Southern Kitchen on the Food Network and before the decade was out resurfaced with a pair of albums that 2018′s Don Was-produced, Vince Mendoza-arranged Let’s Be Frank, a tribute to Frank Sinatra, and her first country album in more than a decade Every Girl in 2019.

Yearwood’s self-titled debut album was released in 1991, and the lead single, “She’s in Love with the Boy,” rocketed to the top of the country charts, making her an instant star. Three more singles from the record — “Like We Never Had a Broken Heart” (co-written by Brooks), “That’s What I Like About You,” and “The Woman Before Me” — all went Top Ten, and Yearwood toured as Brooks’ opening act, gaining immense exposure. As a result, she became the first female country singer ever to sell a million copies of her debut album — and, a little bit later on, two million. Her follow-up was the acclaimed Hearts in Armor, which appeared in 1992 during the aftermath of a divorce. Two of its singles, “Wrong Side of Memphis” and the Don Henley duet “Walkaway Joe,” reached the Top Five, and the record as a whole established Yearwood as an artist of creative ambition; like its predecessor, it also went platinum. The title track of 1993′s The Song Remembers When went to number two, and she followed it with a Christmas album, The Sweetest Gift, in 1994; that year, she also married Mavericks bassist Robert Reynolds.

In 1995, Yearwood released her fourth proper album, Thinkin’ About You, another hugely popular collection that featured her second and third number one hits in “XXX’s and OOO’s (An American Girl)” and the title track, plus another Top Ten in “I Wanna Go Too Far.” The record found her music hinting more at adult contemporary-style country-pop, a trend that continued on 1996′s Everybody Knows. “Believe Me Baby (I Lied)” was another chart-topping smash, and the title track also made the Top Five. In 1997, Yearwood issued her first compilation, Songbook: A Collection of Hits, which became her first album to top the country charts and which also reached the pop Top Five. She also recorded the Diane Warren-penned ballad “How Do I Live” for the soundtrack of the movie Con Air, and it was nominated for a Best Song Oscar; it also reached number two on the country charts and nearly made the pop Top 20 as well (though its performance was hurt by a competing version from LeAnn Rimes). Two new singles from Songbook were also hugely successful: “In Another’s Eyes,” a long-awaited duet with Brooks, hit number two, and “Perfect Love” went all the way to the top. Yearwood won Female Vocalist of the Year awards from the CMA and ACM in 1997 and 1998, respectively, and she also picked up her first solo Grammy for “How Do I Live,” giving her a sort of country equivalent of the Triple Crown.

Now settled into her role as a big-voiced, crossover-friendly diva, Yearwood released her next all-new album, Where Your Road Leads, in 1998, with Tony Brown producing in place of Fundis. “There Goes My Baby,” “Powerful Thing,” and “I’ll Still Love You More” all went Top Ten, and another duet with Brooks on the title cut made the Top 20. Also in 1998, Yearwood made her first real foray into acting, taking a recurring role on the CBS military drama JAG that would last for the next few seasons. Unfortunately, her marriage to Reynolds broke up, and 2000′s Real Live Woman — recorded with Fundis — was a more personal outing that reflected some of her heartbreak and turmoil. Perhaps as a result, it sold fairly well in spite of not producing any major hit singles. With new producer Mark Wright behind the boards, Yearwood returned in 2001 with Inside Out, which topped the country charts and produced the Top Five smash “I Would’ve Loved You Anyway.” Jasper County came out on MCA Nashville in 2005. After leaving MCA in early 2007, Yearwood released Heaven, Heartache and the Power of Love on Big Machine Records in November of the same year. MCA went on to release Yearwood’s Greatest Hits in September 2007 and the compilation album Love Songs in January 2008.

Here is the chart topper “She’s In Love With The Boy” from Trisha Yearwood:

Other talented ladies who paved the way to make country music what it is today 👇

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