E9561 - Barbara Lynn: The Left-Handed Trailblazer Behind You'll Lose a Good Thing

In the early 1960s, when women in rhythm and blues were expected to stand at the microphone and sing other people's songs, a left-handed teenager from Beaumont, Texas, took the stage with an electric guitar flipped upside down and a number-one hit she wrote herself. Barbara Lynn, born in 1942, grew up singing in a Catholic parish choir while absorbing Guitar Slim, Jimmy Reed, Elvis Presley, and Brenda Lee from the radio. She moved from piano to guitar, formed an all-female band called Bobbie Lynn and Her Idols, and won local talent shows until singer Joe Barry told producer Huey...