Jeanne Pruett "Love Me" (Decca Records, 1972) (LP)
(Produced by Walter Haynes, Bobby Bradley & Joe Mills)
Jeanne Pruett "Satin Sheets" (MCA Records, 1973) (LP)
(Produced by Walter Haynes, Bobby Bradley & Joe Mills)
Jeanne Pruett "Jeanne Pruett" (MCA Records, 1974) (LP)
(Produced by Walter Haynes)
A fine mix of slick countrypolitan (oceanic string arrangements in the background) and real country roots (the mournful pedal steel, and Pruett's gritty voice). This is a consistently engaging record, largely due to the solidity of her performance -- she was really a flawless singer, and even when the Nashville-icious arrangements verge on getting tacky or torpid, Pruett anchors this album with soulfulness and emotional depth. There's only one song on here I'd consider a dud, "I'm Your Woman," which was -- of course -- a really big hit, one of her strongest follow-ups to "Satin Sheets."
Jeanne Pruett "Honey On His Hands" (MCA Records, 1974) (LP)
(Produced by Walter Haynes, Bobby Bradley & Joe Mills)
Jeanne Pruett "Encore!" (IBC Records, 1979) (LP)
(Produced by Walter Haynes & Marshall Morgan)
Her career had pretty much stalled out mid-decade, and after a five-year absence Pruett reappeared on this indie-label offering, released on the Nashville-based IBC label, which I think was a sort of private-press custom label. Five of these songs, including the self-referential novelty number, "Please Sing Satin Sheets For Me," were recycled a few years later on a split LP shared with a gal named Jebry Lee Briley (below.)
Jeanne Pruett "Audiograph Alive" (Audiograph Records, 1982) (LP)
Jeanne Pruett "Star Studded Nights" (Audiograph Records, 1982)
(Produced by Walter Haynes)
Jeanne Pruett/Jebry Lee Riley "Country Duo" (Sagittarius/Out Of Town Records, 1982) (LP)
A real oddity. This split LP was a cheapo/custom offering with Jeanne Pruett singing five songs on Side One, randomly paired with the curiously-named Jebry Lee Briley on Side Two, though this album's title, Country Duo, which suggests they perform together, is pretty misleading. All five of Pruett's tracks were previously released on her 1979 album, Encore, while Briley's material seems to have been newer material. It turns out "Jebry" was actually Florida-based Judy Branch (1944-2024) a former big band singer who had formed a lounge act with a guy named Pat Briley way back around 1971. As Briley & Branch, they released a slightly country-flavored album together in 1978, and seem to have been trying to crack into the country market using her new country nom-du-twang, which was apparently a portmanteau of her first name and, um, Briley(?) At any rate, she also had five tracks on this album, including novelty numbers such as "My Weakness Is Cowboys" and "T-E-X-A-S Spells Heaven." One song, the Pat Briley-penned "Let Your Fingers Do The Walking," also came out as a single on the PaID custom label, though the flipside, a song called "Riders And Drivers," was not included on this disc.
Jeanne Pruett "Jeanne Pruett" (Dot Records, 1985)
This disc found Pruett returning to a major label after about a decade in the wilderness. She reprises "Satin Sheets," but also gives tunes like "Rented Room," "Let's Fall To Pieces Together" and "The Best Kept Secret In Town" a spin. As far as I know, this was her last album
Jeanne Pruett "Satin Sheets: Jeanne Pruett's Greatest Hits" (Varese Sarabande, 1998)
This disc collects the best material from her Decca and MCA singles... and is, sadly, long out of print...
Jeanne Pruett "Greatest Hits" (King Records)
I'm not totally sure what's happening with this disc... There are live versions of some of "Satin Sheets" and some of her other hits, but it's not really clear when any of this material was recorded... Hmmm. I yam skeptical.
Jeanne Pruett "Satin Sheets - Live!" (Starday Records, 2006)
I'm just guessing here, but this is probably the same material as on the King Records collection above... Maybe these tracks come from the early 1980s Audiograph concert albums listed above? Anyone know for sure?
An Alabama native who made a big splash in 1973 with the erotically-tinged #1 single, "Satin Sheets," Jeanne Pruett was a fine country singer who retained her rural edge even at the height of the countrypolitan sound. Pruett had been kicking around Nashville for about a decade before this career-making breakthrough: her husband, guitar picker Jack Pruett, landed a job with Marty Robbins, and it was Robbins who helped her get a contract with RCA Victor, back in 1963. She recorded only a handful of singles over the next few years, all of which failed to chart, including a few for Decca Records, which released her first album in 1972. Though Pruett was perceived as a second-stringer, she scored a huge hit with "Satin Sheets," and was elevated to the top ranks of country stardom for a brief period in the early 'Seventies. Here's a quick look at her career...
