Mary Ford  

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Mary Ford (aka Iris Colleen Hatfield, July 7, 1924, El Monte, California – September 30, 1977, Arcadia, California) was an American vocalist and guitarist, comprising half of the husband-and-wife musical team, Les Paul and Mary Ford. Between 1950 and 1954, the couple had 16 top-ten hits; in 1951 alone, they sold six million records.

Born Iris Colleen Summers, she came from a musical family. Her father was a Nazarene minister, and her parents left Missouri, traveling cross-country while singing gospel music and preaching at revival meetings across America. They eventually settled in Southern California, where they were heard over Pasadena's first Christian radio station. Her sisters and brothers were all musicians: Esther, Carol, Eva, Fletcher, jazz organist Bruce and film composer Bob Summers.

In the early 1940s she found work as a country music performer with Gene Autry and Jimmy Wakely. She appeared with Wakely in the PRC film I'm from Arkansas (1944) as a member of the Sunshine Girls trio. In 1945, Autry introduced her to guitarist Les Paul, and the two teamed in 1946. For billing purposes, Paul selected "Mary Ford" from a telephone directory so her name would be almost as short as his. With Paul, she became one of the early practitioners of multi-tracking. Patti Page and Jane Turzy were other 1950s vocalists who used multi-tracking.

Discography

Hit singles

Albums

  • Hawaiian Paradise
  • The Hit Makers!
  • The New Sound
  • Les Paul's New Sound with Mary Ford, Vol. 2 - Capitol Records SM-286 (originally released 1951), A Capitol Monophonic Re-issue
A01 In The Good Old Summer Time [2:06]
A02 I'm Confessin' (That I Love You)[2:45]
A03 Three Little Words [1:53]
A04 The Lonesome Road [2:50]
A05 Carioca [2:20]
B01 I Can't Give You Anything But Love [1:54]
B02 Just One More Chance [1:50]
B03 Don'Cha Hear Them Bells [1:55]
B04 The Moon Of Manakoora [2:45]
B05 Chicken Reel [2:05]
  • Bye Bye Blues!
  • Les and Mary
  • Time to Dream
  • Lover's Luau
  • Warm and Wonderful
  • Bouquet of Roses
  • Swingin' South
  • Fabulous Les Paul & Mary Ford




Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Mary Ford" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

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