Topic: Dottie West

Dottie West (born October 11, 1932 – September 4, 1991) was an American country music singer, and was one of Country music's most influential and groundbreaking female artists. Dottie West's career started in the early-60s, with her Top 10 hit, "Here Comes My Baby Back Again", which won her the first Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance in 1965. In the 1960s, West was one of the few female Country singers working in what was then a male-dominated industry, influencing other female Country singers to come to fame around that time, like Lynn Anderson, Crystal Gayle, Barbara Mandrell, Dolly Parton, and Tammy Wynette. Throughout the 60s, West had major Country hits within the Top 10 and 20.

In the early 1970s, West wrote a popular commercial for the Coca-Cola company, titled "Country Sunshine", which she nearly brought to the top of the charts in 1973. In the late-70s, she teamed up with Country-Pop superstar, Kenny Rogers for a series of duets, which brought her career in directions it had never gone before, earning Platinum selling albums and No. 1 records for the very first time. Her duet records with Rogers have now become Country music standards, like "Every Time Two Fools Collide", "All I Ever Need Is You", and "What Are We Doin' In Love". In the early-80s, West's image and music underwent a major metamorphosis, bringing West to the very peak of her popularity as a solo act, and even reaching No. 1 for the very first time on her own in 1980 with, "A Lesson in Leavin'".

Born Dorothy Marie Marsh outside McMinnville, Tennessee, she was the oldest of 10 children of Hollis and Pelina Marsh. The family soon moved to a bigger, better house. The family at the time was so poor, they made their own soap out of hog grease and lye. Like many rural families at the time, they also lacked electricity and indoor plumbing. Pelina eventually opened up her own restaurant.