Many set out to become successful musicians. Some never do. Others bask in the spotlight for a few years before it fades. And some ascend to a level of stardom that transcends the need for last names, with examples including Prince and Madonna. By the late 1980s, Reba McEntire was beginning to establish herself among the country music pantheon of greats, scoring her first number-one album with 1986’s Whoever’s in New England. Two years later—on this day (June 11) in 1988—she was back atop the country albums chart for a third time with her 14th studio album, simply titled Reba.
Reba McEntire Leaned Into Pop On This Album
The 1980s saw Reba McEntire seize the creative reins to her career. This move paid dividends, as she won her first Country Music Association Female Vocalist of the Year award in 1984, joined the Grand Ole Opry cast in 1986, and performed before a sold-out crowd at New York City’s Carnegie Hall in 1987.
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Released in April 1988, Reba also marked a divergence from the back-to-basics traditional country sounds of My Kind of Country (1984) and Have I Got a Deal For You (1985).
Instead, the “Fancy” singer teamed up once again with former rockabilly artist and iconic music producer Jimmy Bowen to create a sleeker, more orchestrated sound that wouldn’t have been out of place among the hit parade of the late 1940s and early 1950s. Reba even covered “Sunday Kind of Love”—an old jazz standard popularized by Ella Fitzgerald—and “Respect”, made famous by the great Aretha Franklin.
Climbing to number one on June 11, 1988, Reba spent the next six weeks in the top spot. Two of the album’s singles, “”I Know How He Feels” and “New Fool at an Old Game,” also reached number one on the country singles chart.
Is Reba Retiring?
Reba McEntire’s career was slow to get off the ground. Now, at 71 years old, the Oklahoma-born artist has 16 number-one albums, 25 chart-topping singles, and more accolades than you could count—and she isn’t done.
“I think I’ll know when it’s the time [to retire],” McEntire told People magazine last October. “Dolly [Parton] and I talked about that an awful lot when she did the Reba show, and I said, ‘Are you going to retire?’ She said, ‘Why would I? What in the world could I do and have as much fun as what I’m doing in this job right now?’”
[RELATED: Reba McEntire Explains Why She Thinks Her Career Took off So Slowly at First]
The Happy’s Place star continued, “I agree with her a hundred percent. Slow down, maybe, but no plans of retiring.”
Featured image by Beth Gwinn/Getty Images
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