On This Day in 1968, Loretta Lynn Started a Long Line of Hit Records with ‘Fist City’

On this day (April 15) in 1968, Loretta Lynn released her 12^th studio album, Fist City. It topped the country albums chart and started a string of top 10 hit records that spanned nearly 10 years and 20 albums. Additionally, the title track brought Lynn her second No. 1 single and became one of her signature songs.

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By 1968, Lynn was no stranger to hit albums. Her 1963 debut, Loretta Lynn Sings, peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart. Her next few releases landed comfortably within the top 20. Then, she found her first No. 1 with the classic You Ain’t Woman Enough in 1966. She followed that with his second chart-topping album, Don’t Come Home a-Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ on Your Mind) the next year. The album’s title track brought Lynn her first No. 1 on the Hot Country Songs chart.

[RELATED: 4 Loretta Lynn Tracks That Challenged Country Music Norms]

Fist City kicked off a long line of hit albums for Lynn. She released 17 more solo albums between 1968 and 1977, all of which landed within the top 10 on the Top Country Albums chart with three of them going all the way to the top.

Loretta Lynn Turns a True Story into Country Gold

Many fans know that Loretta Lynn wrote several autobiographical songs that became hits. “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” “The Pill,” “Don’t Come Home a-Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ on Your Mind),” and many other songs came straight from her life. She found inspiration for most of them in her long, loving, and tumultuous marriage. The same is true for “Fist City.”

According to Songfacts, the song is about one of Lynn’s husband’s many affair partners. She heard about the affair while recording in Nashville and wrote the song while driving back to Hurricane Mills and stewing in the anger and betrayal. Her husband, Doolittle, didn’t hear the song until she sang it at the Opry. After the performance, he told her it would never be a hit. However, he was wrong.

The Coal Miner’s Daughter reportedly made good on the promise she made in the song. As the story goes, she went to the woman’s house and turned her front porch into Fist City.

Lynn reasoned that women who had to deal with cheating husbands resonated with the song. Those who couldn’t take their husbands’ paramours to Fist City could live vicariously through Lynn. “Think my story sounded familiar,” she said of the song’s appeal.

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