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Deborah Allen (born Deborah Lynn Thurmond on September 30, 1953[1]) is an American country music singer, songwriter, author, and actress.[2] Since 1976, Allen has issued 12 albums and charted 14 singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. She recorded the 1983 crossover hit “Baby I Lied“, which reached No. 4 on the country chart and No. 26 on the Billboard Hot 100. Allen has also written No. 1 singles for herself, Janie Fricke, and John Conlee; Top 5 hits for Patty Loveless and Tanya Tucker; and a Top 10 hit for The Whites.
Allen was born Deborah Lynn Thurmond in Memphis, Tennessee, United States.[2] She was a beauty queen when she was a teenager.[1]
Musically, she was influenced by Elvis Presley, Roy Orbison, Aretha Franklin, Al Green, Ray Charles, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin and the current music which was being played in Memphis on WHBQ and WDIA, as well as country musicians such as Brenda Lee, Patsy Cline, Tammy Wynette, Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash. At 19, Allen moved to Nashville to begin pursuing her career in music.[1] She worked a short stint as a waitress at the local Music Row IHOP restaurant. While there one day, Deborah met Roy Orbison and songwriter Joe Melson. Two weeks later, Orbison and Melson, who admired her spunk, decided to hire Allen to sing background on a couple of Orbison tracks.
Allen also auditioned for and landed a job at the Opryland USA theme park. She was soon chosen by Opryland as a featured soloist and dancer for a state department exchange tour of Russia starring Tennessee Ernie Ford.[3]
Upon her return from Russia, Allen gravitated to the Nashville offices of Waylon Jennings, the Tompall & the Glaser Brothers and John Hartford where her close friend, Marie Barrett, worked as a secretary. There she met her soon-to-be songwriting mentor, poet, playwright, artist and songwriter Shel Silverstein.[4] After watching her perform during a happy hour show at the Spence Manor on Nashville’s Music Row, Silverstein advised Allen to pursue songwriting as an extension of her creativity and career path.
Allen also began to pursue a singing career in her own right when she was chosen to be a regular on Jim Stafford‘s ABC summer replacement series. She went on to serve as an opening act for many of Stafford’s personal appearances. Jim and producer Phil Gernhard brought Allen back to Nashville to record a CB radio novelty record called “Do You Copy”. It was recorded live and was released as a single on Warner Bros. Records. Although she appreciated the opportunity to record with Stafford and Gernhard, Allen was disheartened that after waiting patiently for two years to record her first record, it was a novelty tune. She decided to move back to Nashville to follow her true musical direction.[3]
In 1979, while singing at a private party, she was discovered by producer Bud Logan, who invited her to sing on five unfinished duet tracks by the late Jim Reeves. Three of these songs were “Don’t Let Me Cross Over,” “Oh, How I Miss You Tonight” and “Take Me in Your Arms and Hold Me.”[2] All three duets were released as singles, and made the Top 10 on the country charts for Reeves’ longtime label, RCA Records. She was billed as “The Mystery Singer” on the first release, an innovative promotion by label head, Joe Galante.
In 1980, Allen signed with Capitol Records. Her debut album for the label was 1980’s Trouble in Paradise.[2] The album produced her initial solo hit “Nobody’s Fool” peaking at No. 24 on Billboard country chart. Subsequent chart singles included (although none never made it on to an album) “You (Make Me Wonder Why),” “You Look Like the One I Love” (a song she had co-written) and “After Tonight,” co-written by Troy Seals, each peaking at #20, #33 and #82 on Billboard Country Chart. At the same time, Allen had written a song called “Don’t Worry ‘Bout Me Baby” with Bruce Channel and Kieran Kane. Although she pleaded with her record label, Capitol, to let her record it and release it as a single, they refused. With the encouragement of music publisher Don Gant, Janie Fricke’s producer, Jim Ed Norman, heard “Don’t Worry ‘Bout Me Baby” and recorded it with Fricke. The single became Deborah’s first No. 1 single on the Billboard charts as a songwriter.
By 1982, she had begun collaborating with Rafe Van Hoy for songwriting. The couple married that year.[1]
In 1983, Deborah moved to RCA Records, where she achieved her greatest success, releasing the album Cheat the Night.[2] The first single from the album, “Baby I Lied”, became Allen’s signature song and only crossover hit. The song peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard country chart and crossed over to the Billboard Hot 100, reaching No. 26 in January 1984.[2] The song also climbed into the Top 10 of the Adult Contemporary chart. Allen followed the crossover hit with the country single “I’ve Been Wrong Before“, which went to No. 1 on the Cashbox country chart and #2 on Billboard Country Chart in the spring of 1984. It also earned her nominations for the Grammy Award for Best Country Song and Grammy Award for Best Country Vocal Performance, Female. Later that year, “I Hurt For You”, also from Allen’s breakthrough album, became a Top 10 country hit. In 1984, she recorded Let Me Be the First, the first album to be digitally recorded in, and released from, Nashville. In 1984, Allen made the charts once again with “Heartache and a Half” (written by Allen with her then-husband, Rafe Van Hoy and Muscle Shoals songwriter Eddie Struzick).
In 1987, Allen released a single called “Telepathy” written by Prince, under the alias “Joey Coco”.[5] An album of the same name was also issued and was considered more pop oriented. In 1987, Allen released her last single for RCA, “You’re the Kind of Trouble”.