February 25, 1972

Country singer Rita Coolidge—the “Delta Lady” in Joe Cocker’s 1969 song—performed in the Vassar Chapel. Writing in The Miscellany News, Wendy F. Lawrance ’74 and Mark McKenna ’75 said Coolidge’s “black leather pants, black body sweater and…silver and turquois jewelry” made her “the picture of southern Rock & Roll sensuality.” “The majority of the audience,” they said, “came to see Rita…expecting the mellowness of Carol King or the raucousness of the late Joplin, but they were treated instead to an evening with Rita Coolidge, a solid southern rhythm and blues performer.

The singer and her husband, Kris Kristofferson, won a Grammy Award for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group in 1974 for “From the Bottle to the Bottom.”