Pop success: 1946–1949 Page cut her first two discs ("Every So Often/What Every Woman Knows" and "There's A Man In My Life/The First Time I Kissed You") with the Eddie Getz and George Barnes Orchestras but they failed to chart. She found success with her third single ("Confess" b/w "Twelve O'Clock Flight"). The arrangement of "Confess" was meant to use a backing chorus, but Mercury would not pay for one since Page had not yet produced a charting single, so if she wanted additional singers she would have to hire them at her own expense. Instead, her manager Jack Rael decided to try an experiment.
Bill Putnam, an engineer for Mercury Records, was able to overdub Page's voice by syncing the two master discs together—tape recording was not in use yet and this technique was difficult to pull off. Thus, Page became the first pop artist to harmonize her own vocals on a recording. This gimmick got "Confess" to No. 12 on the
Billboard. another song where she harmonized her vocals. Because she was overdubbing her vocals, Page's name had to be listed on the recording credits as a group. According to one early 1950s chart, Page was credited as the Patti Page Quartet. In mid-1950, Page's single "
All My Love (Bolero)" became her first No. 1 on the Billboard
Breakthrough: 1951–1965 , c. 1950s In 1951, Page covered "
Would I Love You (Love You, Love You)", which had been a hit for
Doris Day. Page's version was a top-five hit that sold 1 million copies. The next single, "
Mockin' Bird Hill", (a cover of the original by
Les Paul and
Mary Ford) was her fourth million seller. Page had three more top 10 hits on
Billboard in 1951, starting with "
Mister and Mississippi", which peaked at number eight; "
And So to Sleep Again"; and "
Detour", which had been recorded and made famous by
Spade Cooley,
Foy Willing, and
Elton Britt. Page's version was the most popular and became her seventh million-selling single. She had a series of top-20 hits that year. "
Changing Partners", a final single, reached the top five, peaking at number three, and staying on the charts for five months. The song was also a country melody, like many of Page's hits at the time. in 1955,
The Patti Page Show. However, this show only lasted one season, as did
The Big Record (1957–58) and
The Patti Page Olds Show, sponsored by Oldsmobile (1958–59). Page also began an acting career at this time, beginning with a role on
Playhouse 90. Page made her movie debut in 1960 in
Elmer Gantry. In 1959, Page recorded
the title song from the musical
The Sound of Music for
Mercury Records on the same day that the musical opened on Broadway. The song on her TV show
The Patti Page Olds Show helped to promote the Broadway show. The pop world was becoming less favorable to pre-rock singers by 1960 and it was also a weak time for the "established" ASCAP affiliate record labels such as Columbia, RCA, and Mercury, with indie and regional labels dominating pop during this era, so Page's chart hits dried up. She also recorded the song in Italian, Spanish, and German for foreign markets.
Adult contemporary and country music: 1966–1982 Before releasing "Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte", Page signed with
Columbia Records, where she remained until the end of the decade. She released a few studio albums for Columbia in the 1960s. In 1961, her singles began to chart on the
Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks chart. Many of these singles became hits, peaking in the top 20, including cover versions of "
You Can't Be True, Dear", "
Gentle on My Mind", and "
Little Green Apples" (the last being her final appearance on the Billboard). Page, who as an Oklahoma native was well-acquainted with country music, recorded many country songs over the years. Some of these were recorded for Columbia and were released as adult contemporary singles, including
David Houston's "
Almost Persuaded" and
Tammy Wynette's "
Stand by Your Man". With Page's viability on the pop charts diminishing as she got older and with a radically changed cultural climate in America during the late 1960s, she decided to focus solely on country recordings. In 1970 she left Columbia and came back to Mercury. In 1973, she returned to working with her former record producer
Shelby Singleton. In 1998, the album
Live at Carnegie Hall: The 50th Anniversary Concert was released. The album won Page a Grammy Award the following year for
Best Traditional Pop Vocal Performance, which, despite her prolific career, was her first Grammy. On October 4, 2001, Bob Baines, the mayor of Manchester, New Hampshire, declared the day "Patti Page Day" in the town. Miss Page was in Manchester to perform a sold-out concert at the Palace Theater to benefit Merrimack Valley Assistance Program. In 2004, she appeared on the PBS Special
Magic Moments: The Best of 50s Pop and sang "Tennessee Waltz" and "Old Cape Cod". The DVD includes a backstage interview with Page. In 2005, she performed a series of engagements at a theatre in Branson, Missouri, starting on September 12. Until shortly before her death, Page was the host of a weekly Sunday program on the
Music of Your Life radio network.
Jack White of
the White Stripes and she were interviewed in January 2008 after the White Stripes had recorded Page's early 1950s hit "
Conquest" on their 2007 studio album
Icky Thump. Page and White were put together on the phone during the interview, talking to each other about their views on "Conquest". Page sang "Summer Me, Winter Me" for
Michel Legrand's 50th-anniversary concert at the MGM Grand, and on the recording, it is evident she had forgotten the words. Page continued to tour actively until September 2012, when she announced on her web page her retirement from performing for health reasons. ==Style==