A.D. Amorosi Forever defined by the ethos of “Coal Miner’s Daughter” — the No. 1 country hit of 1970 that lent its title to her bestselling autobiography and the 1980 film that gave Sissy Spacek an Oscar — Loretta Lynn’s voice and music could never be confined.
Lynn could be sweetly naturalistic and dewy on a song such as 1965’s “Blue Kentucky Girl,” then turn around and be curt and forceful on politicized tracks such as 1966’s Vietnam-themed “Dear Uncle Sam” and 1975’s birth-control anthem “The Pill.” She saved some self-assured cockiness for any track she rollickingly recorded with the words “honky tonk” in its name – including the seminal “I’m a Honky Tonk Girl,” which she re-recorded for her final 2021 album.
Here are 15 of Loretta Lynn’s most shining moments and hidden gems. “I’m a Honky Tonk Girl” (1960)When Loretta Lynn sang the words “Ever since you left me, I’ve done nothing but wrong,” in a heavenly warble against the backdrop of Bakersfield Sound guitars and a yawning pedal steel, she all but foreshadowed the entirety of her career in one swoop.
It was here the world first got a glimmer of how she would be telling the stories of women – her own tales, or those overheard in bars and barns.
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