Biography
Felice Bryant teamed with her spouse Boudleaux to create one of country music’s most successful songwriting partnerships, responsible for numerous chart-topping compositions. Although she had performed and composed from childhood onward, her breakthrough occurred only after she met and wed Boudleaux in 1945. The couple promptly began sending material to Fred Rose, whose acquisition of “Country Boy” launched Acuff-Rose Publishing’s enduring relationship with the Bryants. Little Jimmy Dickens reached the country Top Ten with the song in June 1949. Carl Smith recorded the Bryants’ “Hey Joe” in 1953 and scored a hit, while Frankie Laine’s pop version that same year sold more than a million copies. By the later 1950s the pair had also entered rock & roll, supplying a song to Buddy Holly and nearly all the Everly Brothers’ major successes: “Bye Bye Love,” “Problems,” “All I Have to Do Is Dream,” “Wake Up Little Susie,” and “Bird Dog.”
Never abandoning country, the Bryants returned their primary attention to the genre in the 1960s, crafting hits for Jim Reeves, Sonny James, and additional artists. In 1967 they departed Acuff-Rose to launch their own House of Bryant publishing company. Fresh classics appeared throughout the 1970s, and in 1979 Boudleaux produced the Bryants’ debut album as performers, All I Have to Do Is Dream, issued in the U.S. as A Touch of Bryant.
By the late 1980s the Bryants’ catalog of 3,000 songs was estimated to have sold more than 300 million copies worldwide, earning them entry into both the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Country Music Hall of Fame—an uncommon achievement for dedicated songwriters. Although Boudleaux passed away in June 1987, Felice Bryant continued to write from time to time. She was 77 when she died at her Gatlinburg home in April 2003.
Never abandoning country, the Bryants returned their primary attention to the genre in the 1960s, crafting hits for Jim Reeves, Sonny James, and additional artists. In 1967 they departed Acuff-Rose to launch their own House of Bryant publishing company. Fresh classics appeared throughout the 1970s, and in 1979 Boudleaux produced the Bryants’ debut album as performers, All I Have to Do Is Dream, issued in the U.S. as A Touch of Bryant.
By the late 1980s the Bryants’ catalog of 3,000 songs was estimated to have sold more than 300 million copies worldwide, earning them entry into both the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Country Music Hall of Fame—an uncommon achievement for dedicated songwriters. Although Boudleaux passed away in June 1987, Felice Bryant continued to write from time to time. She was 77 when she died at her Gatlinburg home in April 2003.