The Folk Song Sissy Spacek Wrote and Recorded as Rainbo a Decade Before Starring in ‘Coal Miner’s Daughter’

After the release of John Lennon and Yoko Ono‘s 1968 debut album together, Unfinished Music No. 1: Two Virgins, a then-19-year-old actress, Sissy Spacek, performing under the pseudonym Rainbo, released a song in response to the album and its cover, featuring the former Beatle and his wife completely nude. “John, You Went Too Far This Time” revealed Spacek’s mixed emotions about the Lennon photograph.

I love the things you showed me up til now, John / But since that picture, I don’t think my love will be the same, sings young Spacek, referencing the controversial cover. Though Spacek didn’t write the Lennon song, which was credited to J. Marshall and R. Dulka, she did co-write the B-side track “C’mon Teach Me to Live.”

Cowritten with B. Blalock, “C’mon Teach Me to Live” is the story of a girl eager to experience more in life and love.

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Before ‘Coal Miner’s Daughter’

Several years after releasing songs as Rainbo, Spacek’s career shifted more to the screen with her breakout role in Terrence Malick’s Badlands in 1973, then again as a murderous high school outcast in the 1976 Brian De Palma horror Carrie, forcing her to put her musical ambitions to the side.

“When I was 20, my acting career took off, and I willingly let go of the idea of becoming a singer,” said Spacek. “Even though acting wasn’t what I’d originally set out to do, something told me to pursue it. I’m glad I did, because it became what I love the most.”

Years into her acting career, Spacek was able to combine her two loves when she was cast as Loretta Lynn in Michael Apted’s 1980 musical bio Coal Miner’s Daughter, which earned her an Academy Award for Best Actress.

[RELATED: The Song ‘Coal Miner’s Daughter’ Star Sissy Spacek Wrote with Loretta Lynn]

‘Hangin’ Up My Heart’

In 1983, three years after singing on the soundtrack for Coal Miner’s Daughter, Spacek also released her debut album Hangin’ Up My Heart.

Produced by Rodney Crowell, the album featured Vince Gill as a session musician and Roseanne Cash on backing vocals, and two songs written and co-written by Spacek, including “He Don’t Know Me” and “Smooth Talkin’ Daddy”—the latter co-written with Lynn.

Hangin’ Up My Heart went to No. 17 on the Country chart with three singles, including “Lonely but Only for You,” which was written by K.T. Oslin, Charlie Black, and Rory Michael Bourke and became a a Top 20 hit at No. 15, along with “If You Could Only See Me Now,” and “If I Can Just Get Through the Night,” and a cover of Hank Williams‘ “Honky Tonkin’.”

“If I hadn’t pursued acting, I could still be pounding the pavement as a musician,” added Spacek. “But at these key moments, I listened to that voice inside me—the same one that told me, when I was a little girl sitting in the audience watching the Cokettes, that I wanted to become a performer.”

Spacek continued, “Everyone has an inner voice; you just have to listen to it and trust it in order to be led by it. I did that, and it gave me the ability to live a life that’s true to who I am and what I really wanted.”

Photo: ABC via Getty Images