On This Day in 1963, Dottie West Stepped Into a Nashville Studio To Record the Song That Proved She Was “The Best Female Singer in Town”

Dottie West was just 58 years old when her life and country music career were tragically cut short due to a car accident on the way to the Grand Ole Opry. Today, she is still remembered as a trailblazing artist who paved the way for other women in the genre. West broke barriers in Nashville—but her success hardly arrived overnight. After years of commercial disappointments, she recorded “Let Me off at the Corner” on this day (May 27) in 1963. Several months later, it would become the first charting single of her career.

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Dottie West’s Early Releases Flopped

After rising to regional fame in Ohio, in the 1950s, Dottie West wanted more. She and her family made frequent trips to Nashville from their home in Cleveland, hoping to find a record label willing to take a chance on her.

After being rejected by nearly every label in town during one 1959 trip, a dejected West prepared to drive her husband, Bill, and their children back home to Ohio. That’s when they spotted the Starday Records office.

Dottie and Bill West auditioned for Starday’s Don Pierce, who offered them a contract on the spot. The country singer paid more than $500 of her own money to record and release a single called “Angel on Paper”. It went nowhere, and neither did her subsequent recordings.

Despite the lack of a promising start, the West family saved nearly $1,000 to move to Nashville in 1961. There, they fell in with a crowd of country music songwriters like Hank Cochran, Roger Miller, and Willie Nelson. The couple would invite them back to their Nashville home. Dottie would cook for them in exchange for learning to write songs.

Finally, Jim Reeves picked up her song “Is This Me?”, turning it into a commercial success. Reeves mentioned West to legendary producer Chet Akins, who signed her to his RCA Victor label shortly after.

“Dottie was the best female singer in town [Nashville] and everybody knew it,” Akins said.

Her First Taste of Commercial Success

On May 27, 1963, Dottie West recorded “Let Me Off at the Corner” at the RCA Victor Studio in Nashville.

Written by Lou Meredith and Larry Kronberg, the song’s narrator is a woman in an unhappy marriage who has spent the day with her lover. As their day wraps up, she instructs him to “let me off at the corner” to avoid a confrontation from her husband. If he should see me with you / He’d start an awful fight / And I don’t want to spoil / Our perfect day.

[RELATED: One of Dottie West’s Biggest Hits Was Inspired by Thinking About a Frying Pan]

Released in August 1963, “Let Me Off at the Corner” peaked at number 29 on the country songs chart later that year. Two years later, West’s breakthrough single “Here Comes My Baby” won her a Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance. She was the first woman ever to win a trophy from the Grammys.

Featured image by George Wilkes/Hulton Archive/Getty Images