Sweethearts of the Rodeo

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Sweethearts of the Rodeo 1986-1996 | 2010-

Sweethearts of the Rodeo is an American country music duo composed of sisters Janis Oliver (guitar, vocals) and Kristine Arnold (née Oliver) (vocals). The duo recorded for Columbia Records between 1986 and 1991, releasing four albums and twelve singles for the label. During the 1990s, they also recorded two albums for Sugar Hill Records. The duo reached Top Ten on the Hot Country Songs chart seven times in the late 1980s, with their highest-charting singles being the No. 4 hits "Midnight Girl/Sunset Town" and "Chains of Gold", both in 1987.

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Biography

Janis Oliver was born March 1, 1954 (age 63) and her sister Kristine Arnold was born November 28, 1956 (age 60) in the South Bay region of Los Angeles, California. They were raised in Manhattan Beach, California, where they began singing while in elementary school and performed bluegrass music as the Oliver Sisters during their teenage years.

The duo later became Sweethearts of the Rodeo, taking the name from The Byrds' album "Sweetheart of the Rodeo". After being discovered by Emmylou Harris, they secured slots as opening acts and backing vocalists for other artists. In 1977, the Sweethearts opened a Redondo Beach, California, show for Sundance, a group which included a then-19-year-old Vince Gill. In 1980, Janis married Gill, who by then was a member of Pure Prairie League, and Kristine married Leonard Arnold of the band Blue Steel. In 1983 the Gills moved to Nashville, Tennessee, followed soon after by the Arnolds, and the sisters began singing together again.

1986-1992: Columbia Records

In 1985, Sweethearts of the Rodeo won the Wrangler Country Showdown talent contest and soon afterward signed with Columbia Records. Sweethearts of the Rodeo's first single, "Hey Doll Baby", debuted in April 1986, followed by the release their self-titled debut album. After it came the duo's first Top Ten hit at No. 7, "Since I Found You". The song was written by Radney Foster and Bill Lloyd, and its success helped Foster & Lloyd secure a record deal of their own. Four more singles from the album followed, including the No. 4 hits "Midnight Girl/Sunset Town" and "Chains of Gold", which would be their highest-charting singles.

A second album, "One Time, One Night", accounted for three more Top Ten hits: "Satisfy You", "Blue to the Bone", and a cover of The Beatles' "I Feel Fine", but their next single, "If I Never See Midnight Again", peaked at No. 39. [8] Two more albums for Columbia followed (1990's "Buffalo Zone" and 1992's "Sisters"), but neither produced any major hits, and Columbia dropped the duo in 1992.

1993-present

Sweethearts of the Rodeo continued to tour in the 1990s, later releasing two albums of bluegrass music on the Sugar Hill label: "Rodeo Waltz" in 1993 and "Beautiful Lies" in 1996. Janis and Kristine owned a clothing store in Franklin, Tennessee called "Gill & Arnold" for a time in the late 1990s that has since closed. Janis and Vince Gill were divorced in 1997 and she married Roy Cummins in 2000.