Emmylou Harris was still an aspiring folk singer when she discovered the Louvin Brothers, but their 1958 song “If I Could Only Win Your Love” would help change the course of her career. After recording her own version in 1975, Harris scored her first Top 10 country hit and began her rise to stardom.
Harris originally dreamed of becoming an actress after graduating as her high school’s valedictorian in 1965. She studied drama at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro on a scholarship before dropping out to focus on music.
Harris headed to New York City’s Greenwich Village, where she performed at venues like The Bitter End. She signed with Jubilee Records in 1969 and put out her debut album, Gliding Bird, in 1970. But when the label went bankrupt, her budding music career stalled.
After moving to Nashville with her first husband, Harris worked as a waitress while trying to support herself and her daughter. She returned to the Washington, D.C., area and continued performing at local clubs, though she wasn’t convinced music was still in her future. “At that point, I’d retired forever from the music business,” Harris later recalled.
Things started to turn around in 1971 when Chris Hillman of the Flying Burrito Brothers helped get Harris on Gram Parsons’ radar. Parsons was looking for a harmony singer and eventually recruited Harris, bringing her into his musical circle and setting her career on a new path.
In 1972, Parsons brought Harris out to Los Angeles to work on music together. Before she went, he gave her a cassette of songs he wanted her to hear, including one from the Louvin Brothers.
As Harris recalled to The Guardian, “I had no idea who these people were; in fact I thought one of them was a girl! I went to Gram and he laughed and said: ‘That’s Charlie and Ira Louvin.'”
She was immediately drawn to the duo’s sound. “Well, I just could not get enough of that sound,” she continued. “I’d always loved the Everly Brothers, but there was something scary and washed in the blood about the sound of the Louvin Brothers … I became an instant fan.”
After getting hooked on their music, Harris came across “If I Could Only Win Your Love.” The duo recorded it in 1958, and she later included her own version on Pieces of the Sky in 1975. “In 1975 I recorded the Louvin Brothers’ ‘If I Could Only Win Your Love,’ which another friend turned me on to, and it became very successful for me,” she recalled.
The song climbed to No. 4 on the Billboard country chart, earning Harris her first Top 10 country hit and helping establish her as a major new voice in country music.
Harris later performed the song at a Country Music Association awards show with Charlie himself. “For me it was a no-brainer, and he aced it! I was so thrilled to sing with him,” she told The Guardian.
When Harris was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2008, she asked Charlie to do the honors. “When I was inducted … I asked Charlie to officially induct me, because really that song was what started it all for me as far as the mainstream was concerned,” she said.
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