Marilyn Sellars (born December 31, 1938) is an American

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

and

gospel Gospel originally meant the Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words an ...

singer who had several hits during the mid-1970s on

Mega Records Mega Records was a Nashville, Tennessee-based music label founded in 1970 by former RCA Records executive Brad McCuen along with Harry E. Pratt. Its most successful recording artist was Sammi Smith who also recorded the label's very first single. ...

, most notably the original version of " One Day at a Time" in 1974.

Early career

Sellars was born in

Northfield Northfield may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Northfield, Aberdeen, Scotland * Northfield, Edinburgh, Scotland * Northfield, Birmingham, England * Northfield (Kettering BC Ward), Northamptonshire, England United States * Northfield, Connec ...

, Minnesota in 1938. She started singing in

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * C ...

at the age of three singing "Oh, What A Beautiful Morning". Sellars began singing at functions and clubs around Minnesota as a teenager and after high school graduation in 1956, sang a variety of music with country and Gospel music being her favorites. Many of her family and friends enjoyed her singing and suggested Sellars moved to

Nashville Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and the ...

, Tennessee in 1973.

Breakthrough

Sellars signed with

in 1973 and success began quite rapidly with a song written by

Marijohn Wilkin Marijohn Wilkin ( Melson; July 14, 1920 – October 28, 2006) was an American songwriter, famous in country music for writing a number of hits. Wilkin won numerous awards over the years and was referred to as "The Den Mother of Music Row," a ...

and

Kris Kristofferson Kristoffer Kristofferson (born June 22, 1936) is a retired American singer, songwriter and actor. Among his songwriting credits are "Me and Bobby McGee", " For the Good Times", "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down", and "Help Me Make It Through the Nig ...

called "One Day at a Time". This would become a hit for Sellars in 1974 and reached No. 19 on the country charts and No. 37 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100

charts A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can represent tabul ...

. The album of the same name went to No. 1 on the country charts. The song would become an even bigger hit for

Cristy Lane Cristy Lane (born Eleanor Johnston; January 8, 1940) is an American Christian and country music singer. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, she had a series of hits on the North American country charts with songs like " Let Me Down Easy", " I Just ...

in 1980 going to number No. 1 on the country charts. Sellars had another

Top 40 In the music industry, the Top 40 is the current, 40 most-popular songs in a particular genre. It is the best-selling or most frequently broadcast popular music. Record charts have traditionally consisted of a total of 40 songs. "Top 40" or " con ...

country hit in early 1975 with her

cover version In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song release ...

Sammi Smith Jewel Fay Smith (August 5, 1943 – February 12, 2005), known professionally as Sammi Smith, was an American country music singer and songwriter. She is best known for her 1971 country-pop crossover hit "Help Me Make It Through the Night", whi ...

's "He's Everywhere" and released two more albums that year with ''Gather Me'' and ''The Door I Used To Close.'' Sellars had two minor hits in both 1975 and 1976 with the title tracks of both albums. After that, Mega Records closed its doors and Sellars faded quietly from view and decided to raise her family and moved back to Minnesota.

Life today

Sellars continues to perform to this day and has released several albums of country and gospel music, the most recent of these being the 2006 release of ''One Day at a Time: My Faith, My Country''. In 2004, she was inducted into the Minnesota Country and Rock Hall of Fame.

Discography

Albums

Singles

Marilyn's First Album

One Day at a Time was Marilyn's first 1974 album. It peaked at #10 at the

Top Country Albums Top Country Albums is a chart published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine in the United States. The 50-position chart lists the most popular country music albums in the country, calculated weekly by Broadcast Data Systems based on physical sales a ...

of that year. Side one #" One Day at a Time" – 3:31 #"How Is He" – 2:27 #"The Rain's Got to Make a Living Too" – 2:45 #"When I Said Goodbye" – 3:01 #"California" - 2:44 Side two #"When He Loved Me" – 3:29 #"Good Love (I Knew I'd Find You)" – 2:10 #"Sing Me a Song (To Make Me Happy)" – 2:54 #"Burden of Freedom" – 3:36 #"Friendship" – 2:46

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sellars, Marilyn Living people 1944 births American women country singers American country singer-songwriters American gospel singers People from Northfield, Minnesota Singer-songwriters from Minnesota 21st-century American women