Donna Fargo

Country singer Donna Fargo (1978)

Donna Fargo (* 10. November 1945 in Mount Airy , North Carolina as Yvonne Vaughan ) is an American country singer.

Career

Yvonne Vaughan worked as a teacher in the suburbs of Los Angeles during the day and as a singer in the evening under the stage name Donna Fargo . She married the record producer Stan Silver and recorded the first singles in 1969. The success came when she started to write her own songs.

In 1972 she had an extraordinary hit with The Happiest Girl In The Whole USA . The single reached number one on the country charts, was at number 11 in the pop charts and was awarded gold . The album of the same name stayed in the charts for 43 weeks. It also went gold and in 1973 a Grammy for best country singer . The next single, Funny Face , also became a number 1 hit, reaching number five on the pop hit parade and gold. She made four more number 1 hits and several top 10 placements in the country charts. In April 1973 she occupied the top spot in the country charts for a week with the song Superman , in July you Were Always There followed , in July 1974 You Can't Be A Beacon (If Your Light Don't Shine) , both of which held top spot one week each. After moving to Warner Brothers, she achieved another number 1 hit with the track That Was Yesterday in July 1977. Do I Love You (Yes in Every Way) was also very successful in 1978 , followed by their last top 10 hits in the same year, Another Goodbye and Somebody Special . After that, Fargo only got medium to smaller hits. But she was able to stay in the country charts until 1991.

In 1979 Fargo fell ill with multiple sclerosis and had to cut back on work. But she continued to perform and released new albums. In 1997 she published the guide Trust In Yourself and six years later the poetry book To The Love Of My Life . Her last single released to date was We Can Do Better In America , released in 2008 .

Fargo owed her success mainly to her cheerful and carefree manner. Their songs often had an optimistic charisma and catchy melodies and made them known beyond the country scene.

In December 2017, Fargo suffered a stroke.

Discography

Albums

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)		Remarks
		US	Country
1972	The Happiest Girl in the Whole USA	US47 gold (43 weeks)US	Country1 (55 weeks) Country
1973	My second album	US104 (11 weeks) US	Country1 (25 weeks) Country
	All about a feeling	-	Country5 (16 weeks) Country
1974	Miss Donna Fargo	-	Country4 (15 weeks) Country
1975	Whatever I Say Means I Love You	-	Country28 (9 weeks) Country
1976	On the move	-	Country31 (9 weeks) Country
1977	Fargo Country	-	Country11 (28 weeks) Country
	Shame on Me	-	Country18 (30 weeks) Country
1978	Dark-Eyed Lady	-	Country20 (16 weeks) Country
1986	Winners	-	Country50 (36 weeks) Country

More albums

• 1979: Just for You
• 1980: Fargo
• 1981: Brotherly Love
• 1983: Donna
• 1984: Encore

Compilations

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)		Remarks
		US	Country
1977	The Best of Donna Fargo	-	Country9 (25 weeks) Country

More compilations

• 1995: The Best of Donna Fargo
• 1997: Best of Donna Fargo
• 2002: 20th Century Masters: The Millennium Collection
• 2016: That Was Yesterday

Singles

year	Title album	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes)		Remarks
		US	Country
1972	The Happiest Girl in the Whole USA The Happiest Girl in the Whole USA	US11 gold (16 weeks)US	Country1 (23 weeks) Country
	Funny Face The Happiest Girl in the Whole USA	US5 gold (20 weeks)US	Country1 (16 weeks) Country
	Superman My Second Album	US41 (9 weeks) US	Country1 (14 weeks) Country
1973	You Were Always There My Second Album	US93 (7 weeks) US	Country1 (14 weeks) Country
	Little Girl Gone All About Feeling	US57 (10 weeks) US	Country2 (14 weeks) Country
1974	I'll Try a Little Bit Harder All About Feeling	-	Country6 (12 weeks) Country
	You Can't Be a Beacon If Your Light Don't Shine Miss Donna Fargo	US57 (13 weeks) US	Country1 (15 weeks) Country
	US of A Miss Donna Fargo	US86 (5 weeks) US	Country9 (15 weeks) Country
1975	It Do Feel Good Miss Donna Fargo	US98 (12 weeks) US	Country7 (12 weeks) Country
	It Do Feel Good Whatever I Say Means I Love You	-	Country14 (14 weeks) Country
	Whatever I Say (Means I Love You) Whatever I Say Means I Love You	-	Country38 (11 weeks) Country
	What Will the New Year Bring Whatever I Say Means I Love You	-	Country58 (7 weeks) Country
1976	You're Not Charlie Brown Whatever I Say Means I Love You	-	Country60 (6 weeks) Country
	Mr. Doodles On the Move	-	Country20 (10 weeks) Country
	I've Loved You All of the Way On the Move	-	Country15 (13 weeks) Country
	Don't Be Angry The Best of Donna Fargo	-	Country3 (19 weeks) Country
	Mockingbird Hill Fargo Country	-	Country9 (13 weeks) Country
1977	That Was Yesterday Fargo Country	-	Country1 (14 weeks) Country
	Shame on Me Shame on Me	-	Country8 (15 weeks) Country
	Do I Love You (Yes in Every Way) Shame on Me	-	Country2 (15 weeks) Country
1978	Raga Muffin Man Shame on Me	-	Country19 (11 weeks) Country
	Another goodbye dark-eyed lady	-	Country10 (13 weeks) Country
	Somebody Special Dark-Eyed Lady	-	Country6 (15 weeks) Country
1979	Daddy just for you	-	Country14 (13 weeks) Country	Original version appeared in 1968
	Preacher Berry Just for You	-	Country45 (7 weeks) Country
1980	Walk on By Just for You	-	Country43 (7 weeks) Country
	Land of Cotton Fargo	-	Country63 (7 weeks) Country
	Seeing Is Believing Fargo	-	Country55 (6 weeks) Country
1981	Lone Star Cowboy	-	Country73 (6 weeks) Country
	Jacamo	-	Country72 (4 weeks) Country
1982	It's Hard to Be the Dreamer (When I Used to Be the Dream) Donna	-	Country40 (9 weeks) Country
	Did We Have to Go This Far Donna	-	Country80 (3 weeks) Country
1983	The Sign of the Times	-	Country72 (4 weeks) Country
1984	My Heart Will Always Belong to You	-	Country80 (4 weeks) Country
1986	Woman of the 80’s winners	-	Country58 (8 weeks) Country
	Me and You Winners	-	Country29 (17 weeks) Country
1987	Members Only Winners	-	Country58 (15 weeks) Country	with Billy Joe Royal
1991	Soldier boy	-	Country71 (2 weeks) Country

More singles

• 1967: Would You Believe a Lifetime
• 1967: You Reach for the Bottle
• 1967: Kinda Glad I'm Me
• 1968: Daddy
• 1969: Wishful Thinkin '
• 1977: I'd Love You to Want Me
• 1981: The Baptism of Jesse Taylor
• 1981: Say I Do
• 2008: We Can Do Better in America

Awards

year	Org.	Award	title
1969	ACM	Top New Female Vocalist
1972	ACM	Album of the Year	The Happiest Girl in the Whole USA
1972	ACM	Single of the year	The Happiest Girl in the Whole USA
1972	ACM	Song of the Year	The Happiest Girl in the Whole USA
1972	ACM	Top female vocalist
1972	CMA	Single of the year	The Happiest Girl in the Whole USA
1972	TNN	New female vocalist
1973	grammy	Best Female Country Vocal Performance

Remarks

1. ^ Roland, Tom: The Billboard Book Of Number One Country Hits . New York, NY: Billboard Books, 1991, p. 68
2. ^ Whitburn, Joel: Top Pop Singles 1955-1993 . Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin: Record Research Ltd., 1994, p. 204
3. ^ Whitburn, Joel: Top Pop Albums 1955-1996 . Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin: Record Research Ltd., 1996, p. 258
4. ^ Whitburn, Joel: The Billboard Book Of Top 40 Hits . 7th revised and expanded edition, New York City, New York: Billboard Books, 2005, p. 227
5. ↑ For the individual songs see Roland, Tom: The Billboard Book Of Number One Country Hits . New York, NY: Billboard Books, 1991, pp. 86f, p. 94, pp. 117f, p. 196
6. ↑ http://www.musicvf.com/Donna+Fargo.art
7. ↑ http://www.mtairynews.com/news/57040/donna-fargo-recovering-from-stroke
8. ↑ ^{a b c} Chart sources: US
9. ↑ ^{a b} Awards for Music Sales: US

Web links

• Official website (English)
• Donna Fargo at Allmusic (English)
• Donna Fargo at Discogs (English)
• Donna Fargo in the Internet Movie Database (English)