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Susan Raye (born October 8, 1944 in Eugene, Oregon, United States) is an American country music singer. She enjoyed great popularity during the early and mid 1970's and chalked up seven top 10 and nineteen top 40 country hits Susan Raye discography, most notably the song "L.A. International Airport" , an international crossover pop hit in 1971.
Raye was a protegee of country music singer Buck Owens. Owens and Raye recorded a number of hit albums and singles together, and were one of the most successful country duet acts of the era, in addition to their solo careers.
Raye was born in 1944 in Eugene, Oregon. She first began singing with a high-school rock group, but after the band called it quits, she auditioned for a local country station. Not only did she begin performing on the radio, she also landed work as a disc jockey, eventually becoming the host of a Portland TV program called Hoedown. It was at one of Raye's performances at an area nightclub where she met Jack McFadden, Owens' manager. McFadden was so impressed with her vocal talents that he persuaded Owens to fly her to his home in Bakersfield, California, for an audition.
She moved to Bakersfield and began singing with Owens in 1968, and soon after she cut her first recordings. One of these songs, "Put a Little Love in Your Heart," made the Top 30 in 1970. At about the same time, she began a nine-year stint as a featured performer on the program Hee Haw.
Susan Raye's first sessions as Buck Owens's duet partner were released in 1970. The albums We're Gonna Get Together and The Great White Horse were Top 20 hits that year, as were the title tracks to each album and a third single, "Togetherness". The song "The Great White Horse" peaked at #8 and was the most successful Owens-Raye duet.
Raye's biggest year as a solo artist came in 1971, when she issued three consecutive Top Ten hits: "L.A. International Airport", "Pitty, Pitty, Patter", and "(I've Got A) Happy Heart". The title track of 1972's My Heart Has a Mind of Its Own also reached the Top Ten.
Although not her biggest country hit, "L.A. International Airport" became Raye's signature song, peaking at #9 on the Billboard Country Chart and a minor hit on the Billboard Pop Top 100, peaking at #54. The record was a major international pop hit in several countries, however, enjoying its greatest success in New Zealand where it hit #1 for two weeks, and in Australia where it hit #2 and ranked as the #5 best-selling pop record of the year, outselling not only Lynn Anderson's country crossover international smash "Rose Garden" but the first chart-topping hits of Australian natives Olivia Newton-John and Helen Reddy. Raye earned gold records from both countries.
Susan Raye became the first woman to become a major country artist without recording in Nashville, a feat previously accomplished only by male stars like Owens and Merle Haggard. Raye was nominated for five Academy of Country Musicawards, three times as "Top Female Vocalist".
Raye married Owens' drummer Jerry Wiggins in 1972. They have been married for over 30 years and are the parents of six children.
Raye had an additional two Top 20 Country hits in 1972 from separate albums, "Wheel of Fortune" and "Love Sure Feels Good in My Heart". In 1973 Raye's next album, Cheating Game, spawned two singles, one of which (the title track) reached #18 on the Billboard Country Chart that year. The second single, "When You Get Back from Nashville", was not as successful and peaked outside Country's Top 40. That same year, Raye and Owens reunited for an album, The Good Old Days (Are Again), and together they had a Top 40 hit from the album. In 1974, Raye's album Singing Susan Raye also released a Top 20 hit, a remake of "Stop the World (And Let Me Off)".
Raye's 1975 release "Whatcha Gonna Do With a Dog Like That", became her seventh Top 10 on the Billboard Country Chart and a duet single with Buck Owens, "Love is Strange", placed in the Top 20 that year. In 1976 however, Owens severed his ties with Capitol Records and closed down his Bakersfield unit for the label. Susan Raye released her final album on Capitol in 1976, Honey Toast and Sunshine, her first recording session in Nashville.
Raye signed with United Artists Records at the end of 1976 and released one album on the label produced by George Richey which spawned four charting singles, the most successful of which peaked at #51. It was Raye's last studio album issued from a major record label. In the late 70s, Raye dropped out of the music business, citing family and religion as her reasons.
Returning to the recording studio for the first time in eight years, Susan Raye released the album There and Back in 1985, which produced two more chart singles on Billboard. 1986 saw an additional album, Then and Now. The A-side of the album featured updated rerecordings of Raye's biggest hits. The songs on the B-side were gospel/contemporary Christian songs. This album is Raye's last recording to date.
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