Jan Howard - Biography
By Eric Brightwell
Jan Howard is a country singer and songwriter from the Ozarks. During her '60s heyday, she was one of the biggest female singers in country music.
Jan Howard was born Lula Grace Johnson on Mar 13, 1930 in West Plains, Missouri, also the hometown of Porter Wagoner. Lula Grace was the eighth of eleven children born to a Cherokee mother and an immigrant Irish farmer. Johnson lived a life typical of hillbillies in the mountains, attending school in a one-room school house and often wearing clothing made from feed sacks. She left school after she married at fifteen. Before she turned twenty, she’d given birth to several children, three of whom had died in infancy.
By 1955, whilst still in her mid-20s, Johnson was already twice divorced. That year she moved to Los Angeles with her sons, where she found work both as a secretary and waitress. It was whilst washing dished that she was overheard singing by a songwriting patron of the restaurant, Harlan Howard. A month later they were married in Las Vegas. With Howard’s encouragement, Lula recorded a demo of his composition “Mommy for a Day,” which later ended up being a hit for Kitty Wells. In 1958, using the stage name “Jan Howard,” she released “Pick Me Up on Your Way Down” b/w “I Wish I Could Fall in Love Again” on Wrangler. The following year she moved to Jackpot and, using Wynn Stewart’s band, recorded and released “How The Other Half Lives” b/w Yankee Go Home, ”“Make An Honest Woman Out of Me” b/w “Weeping Willow” and “Girl From the Second Row” b/w “Ring the Bell for Johnny” – the latter featuring Ned Miller. None of them managed to chart. At this point, Jan Howard was still crippled by shyness on stage. At her live debut performance in Lubbock, Texas, Johnny Horton had to physically push her onto the stage to get her to perform.
After switching labels to Challenge, Howard released another single, “The One You Slip Around With” b/w “I Wish I Could Fall in Love Again” and it made the Top 20 in the country charts. The Howards next travelled to Nashville in 1960 where Jan appeared at The Grand Ole Opry. That year she appeared on ABC-TV's Jubilee USA and was also awarded Billboard’s “Most Promising Female Country Award.” Further singles, “If Your Conscience Can't Stop You” b/w “Many Dreams Ago” and “A World I Can't Live In” b/w “I've Got My Pride” followed, as did the following year’s “All Alone Again” b/w “Too Many Teardrops Too Late,” “Careless Hands” b/w “Let Me Know” and “My Baby's In Berlin” b/w “Bring It On Back To Me” but none came close to matching the success of her earlier hit.
Despite, at the time, only having had one hit, one of Howard’s old labels, Wrangler, compiled some of her early recordings and released them as Jan Howard (1962-Wrangler). It wasn’t until she signed with Capitol that she released her proper debut, Sweet and Sentimental (1962-Capitol). As with her latest singles, it too failed to chart. “Please Pass The Kisses b/w “Tomorrow You Won't Even Know My Name,” “What'cha Gonna Do For An Encore” b/w “The Real Me,” “Wind Me Up” b/w “You've Got Me Where You Want Me” and “I Can't Stop Crying” b/w “Dime A Dozen” all followed and with similar lack of success. It wasn’t until 1963’s “Make An Honest Woman Out Of Me” b/w “I Wish I Was Single Girl Again” that Howard returned to the charts, when the B-side reached #27.
The Howards ultimately settled in Nashville in 1963 and Howard recorded a duet with Stewart, “If Your Conscience Can't Stop You (How Can I)” b/w “Many Dreams Ago, which reached the Top 30. In Nashville, Howard was often utilized as a backup singer, singing on dozens of hits for Johnny Cash, Porter Wagoner, Connie Smith and Skeeter Davis. Various pressures mounted on Howard and after her weight dropped below 97 pounds, she was hospitalized by her husband and began therapy. After the commercial failure of 1964’s “I'm Just Here to Get My Baby out Of Jail” b/w “I Walked a Hundred Miles,” Howard once again parted ways with her label.
Jan Howard next appeared with Decca in 1965 and it was with them that she experienced her greatest success. First, “What Makes a Man Wander?” b/w “Slipping Back to You” reached the Top 25. Later in the year, after Harlan joined Bill Anderson’s band, Jan Howard and Bill Anderson had two hits, “I Know You’re Married (But I Love You Still)” b/w “Time Out” in 1966. As a solo act, she reached the Top 5 with “Evil on Your Mind” b/w “Crying for Love,” both which appeared on Jan Howard Sings Evil on Your Mind (1966-Decca). “Bad Seed” b/w “You Go Your Way” reached the Top 10 later in the year and appeared on November’s Bad Seed (1966-Decca). Harlan wasn’t the only songwriter in the Howard marriage and that year Jan wrote another hit for Kitty Wells, “It’s All Over but the Crying.”
Another duet with Anderson, “For Loving You” b/w “The Untouchables” produced the duo’s first number one and was followed by the full-length, For Loving You (1967-Decca), which resulted in their being nominated (but not winning) “Vocal Duo of the Year” at the CMA Awards. This is Jan Howard Country (1967-Decca), released toward the end of 1967, included the Top 40 hits, “Roll Over and Play Dead” b/w “You and Me and Tears and Roses” and “Your Ole Handy Man” b/w “Any Old Way You Do.” The following year, the title track from Count Your Blessings, Woman (1968-Decca) made the Top 20. In October, Howard dreamt that her middle son, Jimmy, was killed in Vietnam. When the dream became reality, she released “The Tip of My Fingers” b/w “My Son,” the B-side of which made the Top 15. “I Still Believe in Love” was another Top 40 hit which seemed to reflect her troubled marriage, which ended that year and appeared on Jan Howard (1969-Decca). “We Had All the Good Things Going” was another Top 20 hit and closed out the decade.
Howard released two solo albums in 1970, For God and Country (1970-Decca) and Rock Me Back to Little Rock (1970-Decca). She also penned “Love is a Sometimes Thing” which became a hit for Anderson, with whom she teamed up to release “If It's All the Same to You” b/w “I Thank God for You.” It reached number two and appeared on If it’s All the Same to You (1970-Decca). That year the duo were once again nominated “Vocal Duo of the Year” and once again didn’t win. The duo also co-penned “I Never Once Stopped Loving You” which became a hit for Connie Smith. Bill And Jan (Or Jan And Bill) (Decca-1971) included two more Top 10s for the duo, “Someday We’ll Be Together” b/w “Who Is The Biggest Fool?” and “Dis-Satisfied” b/w “Knowing You're Mine.”
In 1971, Howard both became a member of the Grand Ole Opry and was honored in her hometown when the US 63 bypass through West Plains was dedicated as the Jan Howard Expressway. In March of following year she released her final album with Bill Anderson, Singing His Praise (1972-Decca), as well as the solo work, Love is Spinning like a Wheel (1972-Decca). The title track of the latter only reached #36 and a follow-up single missed the Top 40. After its release, Decca dropped her from their roster.
After one 1973 single for MCA, “Too Many Ties That Bind” b/w “Everybody Knows I Love You,” Howard released her next album at GRT, Sincerely, Jan Howard (1975-GRT). After her youngest son, David, committed suicide, she retired for the most part from recording but soldiered on as a performer. In 1977, she joined The Johnny Cash show and released three minor hits on Con Brio, “I’ll Hold You in My Heart” b/w “I Thought I Had Him,”“Better Off Alone” b/w “My Coloring Book” and 1978’s “To Love a Rolling Stone” b/w “Tonight I Had Him” – her final charting effort. It wasn’t until 1984, nine years after her last album, that Howard released another, Tainted Love (1984-AVI). Her final album, Jan Howard (1985-Dot), was followed by the publication of her autobiography, Sunshine and Shadow in 1987.
Although she no longer records, Jan Howard still tours and remains busy and picks up honors and recognition for her long, important career and contributions. In 1990, she once again remarried. Two years later she received the Tennessee Adjutant General’s “Distinguished Patriot Medal.” In 2002, Howard made her acting debut in the film Changing Hearts. In 2005, she was inducted into the Missouri Country Music Hall of Fame. A 4-disc, limited edition box set, Through the Years with Jan Howard (year?-self-released?), was the first time many of her songs appeared on CD. Since 2004, her hometown of West Plains has annually observed Jan Howard Day. Most recently, in 2005, she traveled to Washington, D.C. and received a Veterans of Foreign Wars Gold Medal of Merit Award for “exceptional service rendered to country, community, and mankind.”