On October 12, 1987, Reba McEntire established a new Country Music Association record when she took home her fourth consecutive trophy for Female Vocalist of the Year. The following March 21st, she set the same mark with the Academy of Country Music. That week, the Gallup Youth Survey cited Reba among teens’ favorite female singers – even more popular than rock stars Pat Benatar, Stevie Nicks and Cyndi Lauper. Two weeks later, Reba earned her tenth number one single with “Love Will Find Its Way To You.”
The nucleus of the song’s melody was created by J. D. Martin, who hailed from Harrisonburg, Virginia. In the late ‘70s, Martin was playing music as a member of “Tanglefoot,” a band based out of Aspen, Colorado. After making an album with Paul Rothchild (who previously had produced albums by rock legends the Doors and Janis Joplin), the group relocated to Nashville in 1980, but it broke up shortly afterward. Martin stayed in Music City to earn his living as a songwriter and briefly recorded for Capitol Records, logging only two very minor chart placements in 1986.
