Deborah Allen

Biography

Deborah Allen (born Deborah Lynn Thurmond on September 30, 1953) is an American country music singer and songwriter. Since 1976, she has released 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.

Early life and rise to fame

Allen was born Deborah Lynn Thurmond in Memphis, Tennessee. She was a beauty queen when she was a teenager. Her early musical influences included Elvis Presley, Roy Orbison, Aretha Franklin, Al Green, Ray Charles, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin and music played on Memphis stations WHBQ and WDIA; as well as Brenda Lee, Patsy Cline, Tammy Wynette, Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, and Johnny Cash, and other country musicians. At age 19, Allen moved to Nashville to begin pursuing a music career. She worked a short stint as a waitress at the IHOP on Music Row. While there one day, she met Orbison and songwriter Joe Melson. They admired her spunk and two weeks later, they decided to hire Allen to sing background vocals on a couple of Orbison tracks.
Allen 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.
After returning from Russia, Allen gravitated to the Nashville offices of Waylon Jennings, the Glaser Brothers, and John Hartford, where her close friend, Marie Barrett, was a secretary. There Allen met Shel Silverstein, her soon-to-be songwriting mentor, the poet, playwright, artist and songwriter. After watching her perform at a happy hour show at Spence Manor on Nashville's Music Row, Silverstein advised Allen to pursue a songwriting career.
Allen's singing career received a boost when she was chosen to be a regular on Jim Stafford's summer replacement series on ABC. She went on to be an opening act on many of the star's personal appearances. Stafford and producer Phil Gernhard brought Allen back to Nashville to record a CB radio novelty record, "Do You Copy", which was recorded live and 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 make her first record, it was a novelty tune. She decided to move back to Nashville following her true musical direction.
In 1979, producer Bud Logan saw Allen singing at a private party, and invited her to sing on five unfinished duet tracks by the late Jim Reeves. Three of the duets, "Don't Let Me Cross Over", "Oh, How I Miss You Tonight" and "Take Me in Your Arms and Hold Me," 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.

Career peak: 1980s

Allen signed with Capitol Records in 1980. Her debut album for the label in 1980, Trouble in Paradise×Trouble in Paradise1980 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 10 tracksA1Nobody's Fool3:39A2If I Had Known Then3:13A3Don't Stop Lovin' Me3:31A4It's Cold Inside3:29A5Bells3:45B1Trouble in Paradise3:59B2You Never Cross My Mind2:58B3Let Me Down3:15B4The Rest of the Way3:26B5Next to You3:21, produced her initial solo hit "Nobody's Fool", peaking at No. 24 on the Billboard Country chart. Her subsequent (non-album) country chart singles "You (Make Me Wonder Why)", "You Look Like the One I Love" and "After Tonight" (co-written by Troy Seals) peaked at No. 20, No. 33, and No.82 respectively. Allen had written a song at the time called "Don't Worry 'Bout Me Baby" with Bruce Channel and Kieran Kane. Although she pleaded with Capitol to let her record it and release it as a single, the label refused. With the assistance 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 Allen's first Billboard No. 1 single as a songwriter. By 1982, she had begun collaborating with songwriter Rafe Van Hoy and they married that year.
In 1983, Allen moved to RCA Records, finding success with her album Cheat the Night×Cheat the Night1983 · EPSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 6 tracksA1Baby I Lied4:03A2Cheat the Night3:54A3Fool's Paradise3:18B1I Hurt for You3:46B2What's the Matter With Me3:30B3I've Been Wrong Before3:00. The first single from the album, "Baby I Lied", became her signature song and her only crossover hit. It peaked at No. 4 on Billboard's Country chart and reached No. 26 on the Billboard Hot 100 in January 1984. 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 reached No. 1 on the Cashbox country chart and No. 2 on the Billboard Country chart in the spring of 1984. The song earned Grammy Award nominations for Best Country Song and Best Female Country Vocal Performance. "I Hurt for You", from Allen's breakthrough album, became a top 10 country hit in 1984. Her follow-up album in 1984, Let Me Be the First×Let Me Be the First1984 · Studio albumSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 10 tracks1I Can’t Stand It3:252Your Love3:393Please Don’t Fall in Love3:584Prove You Right5:075If I Didn’t Love You4:006Let Me Be the First4:107You Do It4:168Heartache and a Half4:419It’s a Good Thing4:0010It Makes Me Cry3:48, was the first album digitally recorded in and released in Nashville. Allen made the charts once again in 1984 with "Heartache and a Half" (co-written with Van Hoy and Muscle Shoals songwriter Eddie Struzick).
In 1987, Allen released the single "Telepathy×Telepathy1987 · Studio albumSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 9 tracksA1Telepathy5:06A2You Can't Say No5:21A3You're the Kind of Trouble4:35A4One Step Closer3:52B1Don't You Think I Don't Love You4:06B2What's Right Tonight4:58B3Take a Picture3:06B4You Can Tell Me Anything4:34B5Somebody for Everybody4:12", written by Prince under the alias "Joey Coco". A more pop-oriented album of the same name was issued in the same year, and Allen released her last single for RCA, "You're the Kind of Trouble".

1990s–2000s

Allen co-wrote her No. 1 hit "Don't Worry 'Bout Me Baby" and wrote the Tanya Tucker hit "Can I See You Tonight", and earned further No. 1s for Janie Fricke ("Let's Stop Talking About It") and John Conlee ("I'm Only in It for the Love"), the latter a co-write with Kix Brooks and Van Hoy. After she co-produced and financed her album Delta Dreamland×Delta Dreamland1993 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 11 tracks1Delta Dreamland4:212Long Time Lovin' You3:103All the Loving and the Hurting Too3:544Emotional Moon2:435Two Shades of Blue2:596Rock Me (in the Cradle of Love)4:087Chain Lightning3:288If You're Not Gonna Love Me4:419Undeniable4:2310Into My Life4:1411Rock Me (dance mix)4:25, Allen signed a contract with Giant Records to release the album in 1993. The first single, "Rock Me (In the Cradle of Love)", charted at No. 29 on the Billboard Country chart. The video for "Rock Me" was filmed on Allen's own 16 mm Arriflex SR camera and edited on her Sony editing machine, and won Allen the Music City Summit Award for co-producing and co-directing. Allen had one other charting single from Delta Dreamland, "If You're Not Gonna Love Me". Allen's 1994 album All That I Am×All That I AmJuly 1994 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 12 tracks1Break These Chains (acappella intro)0:432Break These Chains2:503Wrong Side of Love3:034Thinkin' Again3:335My Baby2:506Give It to Me3:237Talkin' to My Heart4:088Blame It on the Heat3:309Hurt Me2:5810Leave My Heart Alone3:5111Boys on the Wrong Side of Town3:2512All That I Am3:41, which she co-produced with Giant label head James Stroud, featured the single "Break These Chains".
Allen appeared as herself in the 1993 Peter Bogdanovich film The Thing Called Love, and performed "Blame It on Your Heart" and the Don Schlitz ballad "Ready and Waiting" on the film's soundtrack. Allen also signed a co-publishing deal and record deal with Curb music publishing and Curb Records in the 1990s. Her one album with Curb in 2000, The Best Of, included a new version of her 1983 hit "Baby I Lied".
Five of Allen's songs were recorded by LeAnn Rimes – two appear on the multi-platinum album Blue and three on Sittin' on Top of the World. Mary Griffin's version of Allen's song "We Can Get There" appears in the film Coyote Ugly.

2010s–present

Allen's album Hear Me Now×Hear Me Now31 January 2011 · Studio albumSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 12 tracks1Amazing Graceland4:572It Better Be Big3:143Anything Other Than Love2:354Deeper Waters3:565Hands On3:386All Because of You3:087Never Gonna Run Out of Love3:598What Makes a Woman4:119Last Time for Everything4:0910All That I Want4:0411I Want You4:4812Tellin’ You From the Heart6:09 was released through Delta Rock Records and GMV Nashville on August 16, 2011. The first single was "Anything Other Than Love", co-written by Gary Burr. The album also contains Allen's song "Amazing Graceland", a tribute to Elvis Presley.
In 2013, she released her first holiday album, Rockin' Little Christmas×Rockin' Little Christmas2013 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 14 tracks1Please Come Home For Christmas2Moody Bluesy Christmas3White Christmas4Merry Christmas5Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree/Jingle Bell Rock6Run Rudolph Run7Blue Christmas8Santa Claus Is Back In Town9Silver Bells10The Christmas Song11Walk All The Way To Memphis12Rockin' Little Christmas13Silent Night14Birthday Party For Jesus, through Weblast Records, and played Christmas shows at the Fontanel Mansion in Nashville. On March 22, 2019, Bill Lee, the Governor of Tennessee, officially designated June 5, 2019, as a Day of Recognition to honor Allen. In 2021, Allen signed with a new record label, Audium/BFD Nashville. The first single, "Blue Collar Baby", was released in January 2022, followed by her first album for the label, The Art of Dreaming×The Art Of Dreaming18 March 2022 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 12 tracks1Run Baby Run4:272Memphis Rendezvous4:123A Girl Like That4:044It's Only Goodbye4:345Patsy Cline Crazy3:496All or Nothing at All3:067Lyin' Lips2:508Blue Collar Baby2:489Someone Like You3:3610Shameless Love3:4711Last Time for Everything5:0612The Art of Dreaming5:26, on March 18, 2022.
Allen's publishing companies, Delta Queen Music and Delta Rose Music, are partnered with Delta Rock Music. She is represented by Raymond Hicks, her husband, of Rolling Thunder Management.

Personal life

In a 2019 interview in Guitar Girl, Allen shared that she was physically abused by her first husband. She lives in Franklin, Tennessee. She and Raymond Hicks, a promoter and music producer are married. Allen is a Christian.

Album discography

Trouble in Paradise (1980)
Cheat the Night (EP) (1983)
Let Me Be the First (1984)
Telepathy (1987)
Delta Dreamland (1993)
All That I Am (1994)
Anthology (compilation) (1998)
The Best of Deborah Allen (2000)
Hands On (2000)
Deb In the Raw (2000)
Memphis Princess (2006)
Hear Me Now (2011)
Rockin' Little Christmas (2013)
The Art of Dreaming (2022)