Although Fricke never attained the kind of success that artists like Dolly Parton Shania Twain did, she built a loyal following of fans, especially below the Mason-Dixon line, during the early- and mid-1980s.
During this time, Janie Fricke was one of country music's biggest female stars. She had a long run of top-10 country hits during her association with producer Billy Sherrill and CBS/Sony Nashville's powerful Epic Records. Originally a vocalist for advertising jingles, Fricke was taken under Sherrill's wing in the late 1970s. He placed her with several established acts he was producing at the time, including Charlie Rich and Johnny Duncan. Her duets with these two male stars reached the top 20 and provided her with enough momentum to launch her own career.
Yearning to build a career of her own, she was finally given a shot to cut a solo album. The first two singles failed to climb into the Billboard Country Music Top 40, so Sherrill decided to switch gears, and moved Fricke in a direction that focused primarily on country ballads.
From there, her career took off; in 1983 alone she scored four number-one singles. But by the end of the 80s, Fricke was struggling to maintain her hit-making status. She continues to occasionally record and tour.