Sunday, July 21, 1996

13-year-old Garland girl's country album debuts at No. 1

By Associated Press

DALLAS (AP) - The youngest female artist to hit the country charts since Tanya Tucker and Marie Osmond is a 13-year-old Garland girl, whose first album is set to debut next week at No. 1.

Some have described LeAnn Rimes' vocal talents as incredible, her range mature. She says she still can't believe her success.

"It's really cool," she said. "I still can't believe it's happening."

Rimes' album, "Blue," a retro country song written for Patsy Cline by a Dallas-area disc jockey, also will debut on Billboard's pop chart at No. 4, having sold more than 124,000 copies in its first week in stores.

Rimes sales figures make her album the largest debut by a new artist during the SoundScan sales monitoring era, which began in May 1991. Billy Ray Cyrus' first album, 1992's "Some Gave All," held the previous record by selling more than 90,000 copies in one week.

The teen-ager also bested her idol Wynonna's 1992 self-titled solo debut, which moved 121,000 copies its first week.

"There's nothing typical about this 13-year-old," said Wade Jessen, country chart manager for Billboard magazine.

"The country format needed a water-cooler type artist, someone people can talk about. I suspect people who bought the record strictly based on curiosity will be satisfied once they hear the remainder of the album," he said.

Rimes is currently touring as a headliner in smaller venues but will play four dates as the 32-year-old Wynonna's opening act next month.

Garland is a suburb in northeastern Dallas County.