The Kendalls

Few father-daughter pairings have existed throughout country music history, yet the Kendalls achieved the greatest commercial success of any such act by accumulating multiple hits across the late 1970s and early 1980s. Lead vocals on the majority of the group’s recordings came from daughter Jeannie, while father Royce generally overdubbed his harmony parts behind her and avoided center stage in most situations. Although their studio sound remained broadly accessible to radio formats, the Kendalls stayed closer to longstanding country roots than many peers by weaving threads of bluegrass, honky tonk, and country gospel into their arrangements.

Royce entered the world in St. Louis and, together with his brother Floyce, organized the Austin Brothers during the closing years of the 1950s. Jeannie was likewise born in St. Louis, where her father instructed her in singing during childhood. Royce relocated the household to Los Angeles while pursuing opportunities with the Austin Brothers, yet after two years he returned to St. Louis and established his own barber shop. He and Jeannie began performing together as a family unit once she reached age fifteen, initially marketing their demonstration recordings through mail order. Producer Pete Drake became their supporter, securing a contract with the independent Stop Records label and overseeing their debut chart entry—a 1970 interpretation of “Leaving on a Jet Plane” that fell just short of the country Top 50.

The Kendalls later relocated to Nashville seeking wider recognition, although additional sessions yielded limited immediate progress and several years passed before their breakthrough arrived. In 1977 they joined Ovation and issued the major success “Heaven’s Just a Sin Away,” which ascended to the top of the country charts and captured a Grammy for Best Country Vocal by a Duo or Group. Regular appearances inside the country Top Ten continued through the middle of the 1980s as the duo cultivated a preference for songs centered on infidelity; their strongest late-1970s releases encompassed “It Don’t Feel Like Sinnin’ to Me,” “Pittsburgh Stealers,” the chart-topping “Sweet Desire,” and “I Had a Lovely Time.” A move from Ovation to Mercury in 1981 produced further successes with titles such as “You’d Make an Angel Wanna Cheat,” “Teach Me to Cheat,” and a third number-one single, “Thank God for the Radio.”

Shifting preferences within country music brought an end to their final Top 40 entry in 1985, and although the Kendalls persisted in recording for assorted labels into the late 1980s, their period of hit singles had concluded. They maintained an active touring schedule and at one point established a performance residence in Branson, MO. A 1997 agreement with Rounder Records initiated work on a fresh album incorporating bluegrass elements, yet Royce suffered a fatal stroke on May 22, 1998, shortly before a scheduled appearance in La Crosse, WI. Several tracks had already been finished, allowing Jeannie to complete the project as her own solo debut; the resulting album Jeannie Kendall appeared in early 2003.