Patti Page, 1927–2013

The 1950s singing sensation who ruled the radio

For her detractors, honey-voiced Patti Page summed up everything that was wrong with the sentimental pop music of the early 1950s. “A couple of critics back then said my voice was like milquetoast,” she said in 2003. “My music was called plastic, antiseptic, placid.” American record buyers didn’t share those opinions. Her 1950 single “Tennessee Waltz” sold more than 10 million copies—at the time, only Bing Crosby’s “White Christmas” had sold more—while her 1952 novelty hit “(How Much Is That) Doggie in the Window” spent more than two months at No. 1. Her records were played so frequently on the radio, Time said in 1951, that “only the deaf and the dead have escaped the big, plain, healthy voice of Patti Page.”

Page was born Clara Ann Fowler in the small town of Claremore, Okla., “one of 11 children of a railroad laborer,” said The New York Times. As a teenager, she took a job in the art department of the Tulsa radio station KTUL. When an executive there heard her sing, he asked her to take over a country music show called Meet Patti Page, sponsored by the Page Milk Co. She adopted the fictional radio host’s name for what soon became a full-time singing career.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
Explore More