Billie Joe Spears

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Billie Jo Spears (born Billie Joe Moore; January 14, 1937 – December 14, 2011) was an American country music performer.

She appeared in the top ten of the country music chart five times between 1969 and 1977, with her most popular being "Blanket on the Ground," a 1975 number one hit.

With two of her singles making the pop top ten, she also had a large fanbase in the United Kingdom.

Early life and rise to fame

Spears was born in Beaumont, Texas, to Myrtie Smith, a shipyard welder during World War II, and Carl Wilson Moore, a truck driver. She made her professional debut at age 13 at a country-music festival in Houston, Texas. "Too Old For Toys, Too Young For Boys," she released her first song, "Too Old For Toys, Too Young For Boys," when she was a teenager. It was released by Abbot Records, a self-released record label, under the name Billie Jo Moore. She appeared on the Louisiana Hayride at 13 years old. After graduating from high school, she performed in nightclubs and tried to land a permanent job. Billie Jo Spears was born after her parents' divorce; Spears was the surname of her older half-siblings whose father (also named Carl) died in 1935, leaving their mother Myrtie a widow.

Jack Rhodes, a country/rockabilly songwriter, orchestrated her early career. Rhodes took it upon himself to provide Spears with information and clout in her early years while working out of a makeshift recording studio. In 1964, Spears went from Texas to Nashville, Tennessee. Kelso Herston, a singer, gained her first recording deal with United Artists Records and worked with producer Kelso Herston. Her first singles were met with little success. She followed Capitol Records soon after; the label placed her under control in 1968.

Early success

"Harper Valley PTA," one of Spears' first singles, was rejected by Jeannie C. Riley's version, which became a huge crossover hit; Spears' didn't chart. "Mr. Walker It's All Over" was her first appearance on the country chart in 1969, when she first appeared on Capitol Records' "Mr. Walker It's All Over" debuts at number one. It also landed at number 80 in the pop charts. The song told of a secretary who resigned from a job where she was unappreciated for her skills and experienced sexual abuse. During the next two years, she saw four more top-performing countries in the country, but she was still in Alexandria, 1972, and had two years without a charting service.

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Later career and life

Spears' albums were still available in the United States into the 1980s. Her general popularity had tapered off by the 1980s. However, she maintained a following in the United Kingdom and continued to be a popular live performer there. Spears released a number of albums for the British market that had little or no availability in the United States. This level of success in the United Kingdom was summed up by Country Music People magazine in the 1990s, when their paper described Spears as "the Queen Mother of country music."

Broadland Records released an ill-fated experimental album on which 'wannabe performers' would perform the second part of the duet for a small charge. Spencer Leigh, a BBC Radio Merseyside presenter, told her, "The album never got finished, and I't know what happened to the money." It's sad, and I'm really sad."

She recovered from triple bypass surgery in 1993 and went on tour for more than 16 years.

Spears released the album I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry In 2005, she performed with Irish country singer Philomena Begley, who also appeared in 2011. Begley performed an original song in honor of Billie Jo and her career after Spears' passing away.

She stayed in Vidor, Texas, near her hometown of Beaumont, where she died of cancer on December 14, 2011.

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