Donna Fargo

March 06, 2012

Donna Fargo

Given Name: Yvonne VaughnDate of Birth: November 10, 1945Place of Birth: Mt. Airy, North Carolina Married: Stan Silver (m. 1969) Donna Fargo attended High Point Teachers College, then headed west to study at the University of Southern California. After getting her degree, she became a high school teacher in Covina, California, progressing to head of the English Department.

She met Stan Silver, who taught her how to play guitar and encouraged her to write songs. She soon started to appear around L.A. while teaching. She went to Phoenix in 1966, adopted the name Donna Fargo, and recorded her first single. Her first major show was with Ray Price and she began playing in Southern California.

In 1969, she and Stan married, and her first single for Dot Records became a major hit. The self-penned Happiest Girl in the Whole U.S.A. was No. 1 on the Country chart for nearly six months and went to Top 15 on the Pop chart. She received a Gold Record for the single and a Platinum for the album of the same name. In 1972, she won the ACM "Top Female Vocalist," "Single of the Year" and "Song of the Year" awards. She also won the CMA "Single of the Year" and a Grammy for "Best Country Vocal Performance, Female."

Her follow-up single in 1972 went to No. 1 Country and Top 5 on the Pop chart and over the next two years she had a string of successes. Dot Records was acquired by ABC and the was a noticeable drop-off in chart placings and in 1976, she moved to Warner Brothers Records. A new wave of recording successes began and continued through 1978, when she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. She was down for a while, but with medical advice and Stan’s support, Donna made it back, returning to a limited schedule in 1979 and another Top 10 hit. For the next few years the successes came at a lower level. She recorded a well-received Gospel album in 1981 for MCA/Songbird and in 1982 she moved to RCA. After several other label changes, Donna signed with Mercury and began another upswing.

Donna is popular not only in the U.S., having had gold records in Australia and Canada and she was very successfully received at the Wembley Festival in Britain. She is underrated as a songwriter and she and Stan run a successful publishing company for Donna’s songs. In 1992, she began work on her autobiography.

Recordings include:

Funny Face You Were Always There Don’t Be Angry Winners (album)