Parents usually want what is best for their children, but that can conflict with what a person wants to do and what they have the talent and skills to do. Janie Fricke may have been raised to love and perform music, but she was pushed to work toward a teaching career. In the end, singing won out.
South Whitley, Indiana, is a small town of less than 2000 people today, but when Fricke was born on December 19, 1947, the community contained less than 1400 people. Her parents, Phyllis Kyler Fricke and Waldemar Fricke, owned 400 acres of farmland. Fricke learned to play guitar from her father and piano from her mother, who taught that instrument and played as a church organist. The family loved all types of music from religious to country to pop chart toppers, so Fricke learned to play and sing a wide range of styles.
At the urging of her family, Fricke went to Indiana University in Bloomington, earning a bachelor’s degree in elementary education in 1972. While attending school, she continued enjoying music in two ways. She joined the Singing Hoosiers, a select group of student singers who perform worldwide, and she started singing commercial jingles for extra money for such companies as 7-Up, Coca-Cola, Red Lobster, and United Airlines. Fricke has maintained her ties to IUB by returning to sing at various events over the decades but also by establishing the Janie Fricke Scholarship Fund for Aspiring Musicians in 1985 to help other Singing Hoosiers continue their studies while pursing their passion for music.
After graduation, Fricke moved to Los Angeles, California to look for work as a studio singer. After three years of difficulty, she moved to Nashville, Tennessee, and joined the Lea Jane Singers, women and men who specialized in background vocals for popular and country music. Fricke was also able to find work as a solo studio singer as well as with commercial jingles. Within a few years, she was one of the most sought-after studio singers and worked with Elvis Presley, Crystal Gayle, and Al Green, to name just a few. After she received equal label billing on the Johnny Duncan hit “Stranger” in 1977, Fricke began a duet career for the next few years, working with such country stars as Merle Haggard and Charlie Rich.
On the advice of producer Billy Sherrill, who had matched her with Duncan, Fricke focused on one style: the country ballad. By the 1980s, Fricke was topping the country charts as a solo singer with others such as Ricky Skaggs backing her up. In both 1982 and 1983, she won the Country Music Association’s “Female Vocalist of the Year” award. Fricke continued to do duets as well as solo work into the 1990s. She performed for three United States Presidents: Gerald Ford (the White House), Ronald Reagan (Camp David), and George Bush (Ford Theater).
When the mainstream record labels stopped supporting her, Fricke founded her own recording label, JMF Records, and turned to the new Internet to connect directly with fans. Fricke has had a total of 38 charting songs and nine industry awards so far in her career. She continues to make music, and you can find where she is performing and links to her albums on her website. She is married and lives with her family on a ranch in Texas when not recording or touring.