Melba Montgomery

Melba Montgomery
Melba Montgomery in 1967
Background information
Birth name	Melba Montgomery
Born	(1938-10-14) October 14, 1938 (age 78)
Origin	Florence, Alabama, United States
Genres	Country, Pop
Occupation(s)	Singer, Songwriter
Years active	1963 – present
Labels	United Artists Records Starday Records Musicor Records Capitol Records Elektra Records Phonorama Records Playback Records
Associated acts	George Jones, Charlie Louvin, Gene Pitney
Website	Official site

Melba Montgomery (born October 14, 1938) is an American country music singer. She is best known for duet hit recordings in the 1960s with country music singer George Jones.

In the 1970s, Montgomery was a successful solo artist in her own right. Her best-known solo hit is the No. 1 hit, "No Charge".

Born October 14, 1938, in Iron City, Tennessee, and raised in Florence, Alabama, Montgomery gained her first exposure to music through her father, a fiddler and guitarist who taught vocal lessons at the town's Methodist church. She started playing guitar at the age of ten. Music became a very important part of Montgomery's life and she soon had serious dreams about achieving success in the country music industry.

At age 20, she and her brother won an amateur talent contest held at Nashville radio station WSM's Studio C, which then housed the Grand Ole Opry.

With the help of Acuff, Montgomery gained a recording contract with United Artists Records by 1962.

Montgomery went solo in 1962. She wrote "We Must Have Been Out of Our Minds", which she sang with George Jones. The song spent over thirty weeks on the Billboard Country chart, and peaked at No. 3 by 1963. It became the duo's best-known song together. The single's success brought a successful duet album with Jones as well (What's in Our Hearts), which released two other Top 20 hit singles, "Let's Invite Them Over" and "What's in Our Hearts".

After finding success as a duet artist, Montgomery found the time to release a solo album in between. In 1964, Montgomery's first-ever solo debut, America's No. 1 Country and Western Girl Singer. The album brought about a top 25 hit for Montgomery, "The Greatest One of All", which peaked at No. 22 on the Billboard Country Chart. For the rest of the decade, Montgomery had a few other minor solo hits, none of which made the country top 40.

Jones continued to duet with Montgomery. However, in 1966, Montgomery was partnered with Gene Pitney for a duet album, Being Together, which spawned a top 15 hit, "Baby, Ain't That Fine".

Although they parted ways, singles continued to be released from the duo, including "Did You Ever," which reached the top 30, followed by the minor hits "Baby, What's Wrong With Us" and "A Man Likes Things Like That", which were released only as singles in 1972.