Barbara Pittman (April 6, 1938 – October 29, 2005) was an American singer, one of the few female singers to record at

Sun Studio Sun Studio is a recording studio opened by rock-and-roll pioneer Sam Phillips at 706 Union Avenue in Memphis, Tennessee, on January 3, 1950. It was originally called Memphis Recording Service, sharing the same building with the Sun Records label ...

. As a young teenager, she recorded some demos of songs for others. Pittman's most popular recordings include "I Need A Man" on the Sun label and "Two Young Fools in Love", released on

Sam Phillips Samuel Cornelius Phillips (January 5, 1923 – July 30, 2003) was an American record producer. He was the founder of Sun Records and Sun Studio in Memphis, Tennessee, where he produced recordings by Elvis Presley, Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis, ...

' International label.

Biography

Barbara Pittman was born and grew up in

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...

, United States. As a child, she was friends and neighbors with

Elvis Presley Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), or simply Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one ...

. She recalled to an interviewer, "I sang with him, I knew him, I lived down the street from him when we were kids in North Memphis. His mom and mine used to get together to have what they called Stanley parties. They call them Tupperware parties now. I practically lived out at Graceland in the 1950s before Elvis went into the service. He was going to take me on the road with him, and then he got drafted." It was Presley who first brought Pittman to Sun Studios. Pittman spent time working in

Lash LaRue Alfred "Lash" LaRue (June 15, 1917 – May 21, 1996) was a popular western motion picture star of the 1940s and 1950s. Biography Early life and education Born Alfred LaRue in Gretna, Louisiana in 1917, he was reared in various towns th ...

's western shows in 1955–1956. When she returned, she began recording at Sun Records. Between 1956 and 1960, she would cut four different singles there as well as a host of material that was never released, including demo records. Her records did not achieve much commercial success; Pittman stated in interviews that this was due to a lack of promotion on the part of the label. After her time at Sun, she moved to California in the 1960s, and she sang on the soundtracks of several motorcycle films, including ''Wild Angels'', ''Wild on Wheels'', and ''Hells Angels''. This was under the name of Barbara and the Visitors. Pittman also recorded for

Del-Fi Records Del-Fi Records was an American record label based in Hollywood, California and owned by Bob Keane. The label's first single released was "Caravan" by Henri Rose released in 1958, but the label was most famous for signing Ritchie Valens. Valens' fi ...

, although no material was released by them. Pittman died at her home in Memphis on October 29, 2005 of heart failure. She was 67.

Discography

Singles

* "I Need A Man" / "No Matter Who's To Blame",

Sun The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radi ...

, 1956 * "I'm Getting Better All The Time" / "Two Young Fools in Love", Phillips, 1957 * "Everlasting Love" / "Cold Cold Heart", Phillips, 1958 * "Handsome Man" / "The Eleventh Commandment", Phillips, 1960

Compilation albums

* ''The Original Sun Sides'', Rockhouse, 1983 * ''I Need A Man'', Bear Family, 1989 * ''Getting Better All The Time'',

Charly ''Charly'' (marketed and stylized as ''CHAЯLY'') is a 1968 American drama film directed and produced by Ralph Nelson and written by Stirling Silliphant. It is based on ''Flowers for Algernon'', a science-fiction short story (1958) and subseque ...

, 1997

Live albums

* ''Texas Boogie – Recorded Live in Houston'', Magnum, 1984

References

External links

Rockabilly Hall of Fame
*

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...

Partial discography

Barbara Pittman & Elvis
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pittman, Barbara Sun Records artists Phillips International Records artists 1938 births 2005 deaths 20th-century American singers 20th-century American women singers American rockabilly musicians Women rock singers 21st-century American women