28—Lancaster Farming, Saturday. June 26, 1976 - Donna Fargo: happiest girl in US In June of 1972, a Los Angeles high school English teacher named Donna Fargo, gave her students their finals a week ahead of schedule. The kids didn’t mind because they knew that a few days after exams their teacher was openirfg in Las Vegas. Donna tried to keep life normal by grading the test papers on the plane from California to Nevada. “It’s a good thing 1 was busy with exams or I would have been even more nervous than I was about the per* formance,” she admits now. When those last exams were corrected, Donna Fargo was on her way to stardom. Just recently, Country Music magazine’s Mel Shestack, named her “the next queen of country music.” Actually, Donna is difficult categorize because she has ac complished something that other female country vocalists have failed to do - Donna Fargo has reached a pop and country audience simultaneously. Last year her album “The Happiest Mike Innerst, Red Lion FFA student won the tractor driving contest at the school recently. He will now compete in county-wide competition at the York Fair in September. MYER’S LP gas SERVING FARMERS ... "WE MAKE IT OUR BUSINESS" Wherever you need heat, you’ll find LP-gas ready to serve you. It’s ideal for heating farm buildings, brooding, water heating, incinerators, as well as for regular home use. You’ll find LP-gas is both economical and practical. Let us show you the advantages ... CALL (717) 665-3588 FOR AUTOMATIC BULK DELIVERY SERVICE. Girl In the Whole U.S.A.” stayed on the pop charts 43 weeks and remained over a year, exactly 55 weeks, on the country charts. She also garnered two gold singles - one for “The Happiest Girl In the Whole U.S.A.” and the other for “Funny Face” - and those two hits on her first LP turned the album to gold, too. Donna has gone higher on the pop charts than either Tammy Wynette or Loretta Lynn. Those country music ladies never even reached pop’s top one-hundred with their records, while Donna’s first and second IP’s both placed within the top fifty. It seems that Donna Fargo, the tobacco farmer’s daughter from Mt. Airy, N.C., has the magic touch. Donna has a sophistication that is rare for country music performers, and her deviation from the norm started Jback in high school. “Everybody was going somewhere to work, or going to get married, and I didn’t want that,” she comments as she sits sipping tea in her $160,000 concert-touring bus MYER’S METERED GAS SERVICE, MANHEIM, PA 17545 P.O. BOX 71 (set up with quadrophonic sound and recording equipment). After high school her natural introspectiveness guided her toward further studies. She went to a college not far from Mt. Airy and, there, she delved into English, religion, and psychology. “I think my dream to be a singer was always back there, but it didn’t seem as possible as the teaching dream. When I got out of college my first goal was to get a teaching job to see if I really liked it. I did, but at the same time I never gave up the desire to sing.” Donna moved to California because of the progressive educational programs in the state system and recording opportunities there. She took a job teaching high school English and at the same time she began taking 30 graduate credits at USC and LASC. Donna went to an audition in Hollywood and met record producer Stan Silver, who _ was impressed by her talent and poise. He told her she was a country singer, taught her to play the guitar, and encouraged her to pursue a career in music. “I thought I would try to write a song so I started taking songs apart and tried to put something down on paper that pleased me. I analyzed all the hits on the radio and tried to figure out what made them good.” Four years later she wrote “The Happiest Girl In the Whole U.S.A.” and Stan Silver produced the master of the LP which included that bit. “I’m not very aggressive so I didn’t even tell my family about the music until I had a record out,” she smiles. In fact, she didn’t even tell her students when “Happiest Girl” was a hit. “I thought the kids would turn their noses up at it because it was country music. Then one day I was giving a test and walking around the room. I thought I heard a radio, but the sound was so faint that I couldn’t teU where it was coming from. All of a sudden, the volume was turned up loud INC. and it was my song. One girJ had a radio plugged into he ear and when the song vn played, she made sure we heard it. I ran “to turn it 01 Then they siad, ‘We’re pro! of you, and we’re glad y< didn’t have a hit last year you would have had to lea’ us.’ ” Stan Silver is also prow and now he iS/inore than hi producer, he is Donna manager and husband, too. In September, 1972, Stan ani Donna moved „ fro; California to NasHvilk. where they put the “All About a Feeling” album together with 11 of Donna’ original' composition! Meanwhile Donna Fargo ha; captured nearly every prize the country music kingdom has to offer. In 1972 CMA awarded her Single Record of The Year for “Happiest Girl.” The Academy of Country and Western Music honored the song with four awards. She won the NARM award for Best Selling Female Country Singer of the Year. In early 1973, Donna captured a Grammy for Best Country Vocal Performance By A Female. Donna writes tender songs that touch people, and she" will always be modest about herself. “I work for things, but I try not to get my hope up because I don’t want to be disappointed. 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