Cristy Lane: One Day at a Time

Born Eleanor Johnston but eventually adopting Cristy Lane as her professional name. her life has certainly had plenty of ups and downs. This book, written in 1982/3 by her husband Lee Stoller with Pete Chaney, deals only briefly with her childhood but does explain three major disappointments that Cristy suffered before Lee became a part of her life. One of these concerned a doll that Cristy wanted to buy, but couldn't because she was a cent short. This doll was the inspiration for one of Cristy's songs, Shake me I rattle. One of the other disappointments involved Cristy being sent home because she wasn't wearing an all-white dress that was a condition for being part of a choir. The trauma of this episode killed off Cristy's dream of becoming a singer, a dream that was only revived after Lee discovered just how brilliant Cristy is. His persistence, determination and salesmanship combined with Cristy's talent eventually made the dream come true. Lee's efforts to establish Cristy's musical career at one point involved both of them embarking on a three-month tour of Vietnam during 1969. It should have earned them a lot of money but circumstances conspired against them and they ended up cutting the tour short. Instead of making plenty of money, they end up losing money on the tour. Also, they found that touring Vietnam didn't present them with new opportunities for Cristy in her homeland. The soldiers never forgot Cristy Lane, who risked her life on more than occasion in Vietnam, doing gigs that other entertainers refused to do One piece of trivia that has me scratching my head is where we are told that a soldier asked if Cristy knew a particular song and if so (she did), could she sing it? Fair enough, but the book says the song was Rose garden. That song was around in 1969 but only as an album track on a Joe South album. It didn't become famous until 1971. I think maybe the incident happened but that the soldier requested a different song. Still, with all that was happening in Vietnam and elsewhere, it is understandable that some small details have been misremembered. Eventually, Lee and Cristy set up home in Nashville. After realizing that major labels would never be interested, Lee set up his own independent label, which eventually brought success. Cristy had some hit records and won an award for best new female vocalist. In retrospect, her only serious rival among the other four nominees would seem to have been Charly McClain, who consistently hit the country charts for a decade or so. Zella Lehr only had one big hit (Two doors down, a cover of a Dolly Parton song). Susie Allanson had a few but not many hits. Bonnie Tyler had a top ten country hit with It's a heartache, but that was by accident as Bonnie regarded herself as a pop/rock singer, although as a huge fan of Bonnie`s music, I wonder what she might have been able to achieve in country music if she had decided to commit herself to it, Whatever the merits of Cristy`s rivals, nobody knew