(born
December 21, 1956) is an American country
music artist. Active
since 1990, he has recorded eight studio albums, and has charted more
than twenty singles on the Billboard Hot
Country Singles & Tracks (nowHot
Country Songs) charts. His highest-charting hits are "What Kind of
Fool Do You Think I Am" (1992), "Tender Moment" (1993), and "A Little
Bit of You" (1995), all of which peaked at #2. Four more of his singles
have charted in the Top Ten as well. Besides his own work, Parnell has
played slide
guitar and National
guitar on several other
country recordings.
Biography
Parnell was born in Abilene, Texas,
in 1956. His parents were
friends of country superstar Bob
Wills, and Parnell began his music career on Wills's local radio
show at the age of six. During
his teens, he played drums and guitar in some local bands, and he played
in Kinky
Friedman's Texas Jewboys band during the early 1970s. He
continued to play in local clubs throughout Texas until 1987, when he
moved to Nashville and
became a regular performer at the Bluebird Café.
Career
Lee Roy Parnell
Parnell released his self-titled debut album for Arista
Records in 1990. This
album produced three chart singles in "Crocodile Tears", "Oughta Be a
Law" and "Family Tree", none of which charted in the Top 40 on the Billboard country
charts. A video for "Mexican Money" was created and released, but the
song was not released to radio.
Love Without Mercy
Following this album was his breakthrough release, 1992's Love
Without Mercy. Although its lead-off single "The Rock" also fell
short of Top 40, its next three singles all reached Top Ten: "What
Kind of Fool Do You Think I Am" at #2, the title track at #8, and
finally "Tender Moment" also at #2. These three songs were all Top Ten
hits on the RPM charts
in Canada.
On the Road
1993's On
the Road, his third album and final release for Arista proper
also produced two top-10 hits: the title
track and "I'm Holding My
Own", at #6 and #3 respectively. The album also contained a #17-peaking
rendition of the Hank
Williams song "Take These
Chains from My Heart", which Parnell recorded as a duet with Ronnie
Dunn of Brooks
& Dunn, although Dunn was not credited on the charts. The final
single from On the Road,
"The Power of Love", peaked at #51.
We All Get
Lucky Sometimes
His fourth album, 1995's We
All Get Lucky Sometimes, was also his first for Career Records,
then a newly-formed subsidiary of Arista
Nashville. This album's lead-off single "A Little Bit of You" was
the third single of his career to reach #2. Following it were the #12
"When a Woman Loves a Man" (featuring background vocals from Trisha
Yearwood), the #3 "Heart's Desire" and another #12 in "Giving Water
to a Drowning Man". The album's title track, which was its fifth single,
peaked at #46.
Every Night's a Saturday Nightand Hits
and Highways Ahead
Every Night's a Saturday Night
was
his final release for Career Records. This was the first album of his
career not to produce a Top Ten hit, and only three singles were
released from it: "Lucky Me, Lucky You" at #35, "You Can't Get There
From Here" at #39 (his final Top 40 hit), and "All That Matters Anymore"
at #50. After Career Records was merged back into Arista Nashville,
Parnell released his final album for the Arista label, 1999's Hits
and Highways Ahead. This album's only single, "She Won't Be
Lonely Long", peaked at #57, and by the year's end, he exited Arista's
roster.
Tell the Truthand Back
to the Well
Parnell signed to Vanguard
Records in 2000, releasing
the album Tell the Truth that
year. This album's only single, "South by Southwest", failed to chart,
and he soon left the label as well. His final album, Back
to the Well, came in 2006 on Universal
South Records, although it also produced only one non-charting
single in "Daddies and Daughters."
