Loretta Lynn Morgan (born June 27, 1959) is an American Country Music singer from Nashville, Tennessee.
The fifth daughter of the late country singer George Morgan, she got her start at an early age touring with her father. After his 1975 death she continued to tour with members of his band, and then found a job as a receptionist at the publishing house Acuff-Rose Music.
She released two singles on Acuff-Rose's Hickory Records in 1979, but they were unsuccessful. Tours as an opening act and a gig as a backing vocalist for George Jones ensued. In 1984, she issued two failed singles for MCA.
Her first successful record contract was with RCA Records in 1989, which led to her debut album Leave the Light On. This featured multiple country music hits, including her first #1 "Five Minutes". After one more album with RCA, she transferred to sister label BNA Records. There, she had a multitude of hits throughout most of the 1990s, including two more #1 hits with "What Part of No" and "I Didn't Know My Own Strength". After a brief move back to RCA at the beginning of the 21st century, she has recorded independently.
Morgan's style is defined by her dramatic singing voice and frequent themes of "heartbreak and loss", as described by music critic Robert K. Oermann.
She is also known for her tumultuous personal life, including six separate marriages over the years. Four of her ex-husbands (Ron Gaddis, Keith Whitley, Jon Randall, and Sammy Kershaw) were fellow country singers; Whitley died of alcohol poisoning in 1989. In addition to these she has had romantic involvements with football player Troy Aikman and U.S. senator Fred Thompson.
Albums
- Leave the Light On (1989)
- Something in Red (1991)
- Watch Me (1992)
- Merry Christmas from London (featuring the New World Philharmonic) (1993)
- War Paint (1994)
- Reflections: Greatest Hits (1995)
- Greater Need (1996)
- Shakin' Things Up (1997)
- Secret Love (1998)
- My Heart (1999)
- I Finally Found Someone (with Sammy Kershaw) (2001)
- Show Me How (2004)
- A Moment in Time (2009)
- I Walk Alone (2010)
- Dos Divas (with Pam Tillis) (2013)
- Letting Go...Slow (2016)
- Come See Me and Come Lonely (with Pam Tillis) (2017)
Tropes present in her work:
- Age-Progression Song: Variant with "Something in Red", where each stage in a couple's life is represented by the color of the dress the woman is wearing: red (seduction of the man), green (envy of another woman), white (marriage), blue (maternity wear after they have a baby), and finally red again (rekindling their romance).
- Bowdlerise: The radio edit of "I Just Might Be" snipped "damn" out of the line "I just might be the best damn thing you ever threw away".
- Break Up Song: "I Didn't Know My Own Strength" has her realizing her ability to successfully recover from one.
- Christmas Songs: Merry Christmas from London featured the New World Philharmonic. Her renditions of "Sleigh Ride" and "My Favorite Things" both charted.
- "Days of the Week" Song: "Except for Monday":Except for Monday, which was never good anyway
Tuesday, I get a little sideways
Wednesday, I feel better just for spite
Thursday and Friday take too long
Before I know it, Saturday's gone
But it's Sunday now and you can bet that I'm all right - Dead Sparks:
- "Five Minutes" has her giving the man a five-minute countdown to start showing interest in the relationship again.
- "Maybe Not Tonight", her duet with Sammy Kershaw, features the two realizing that their relationship has faded and begging each other to fall back in love.
- Dress Hits Floor: "Out of Your Shoes" begins with "You borrowed my favorite dress" and ends with this.
- Grief Song: She wrote "If You Came Back from Heaven" as a tribute to her late husband, Keith Whitley.
- Hating on Monday: "Except for Monday" has the line "Except for Monday, which was never good anyway".
- Lady in Red: The title woman of "Something in Red" catches a man's eye this way.
- Posthumous Collaboration: With George Morgan on "I'm Completely Satisfied with You", and with Keith Whitley on "'Til a Tear Becomes a Rose".
- Was Just Leaving: "Good As I Was To You" is about a woman finding out that her middle-aged husband is seeing a younger woman on the side. In the music video, she then confronts him at the fine restaurant where the Ungrateful Bastard is dining with his mistress. The head waiter approaches them as they are making a ruckus but before he can say anything. the scorned wife announces that she's leaving and that the other woman "[the mistress] can have [the husband], [the wife] don't want [the husband] anymore".
