Singer–songwriter Jack Rhodes discovered her early music and helped her secure a professional partnership with producer Kelso Herston.

[6] Her mother spent some of her free time performing as a guitarist in a western swing band called the Light Crust Doughboys.

[7] Moore's sister Betty first had aspirations of becoming a country artist and even signed a recording contract, but she chose a domestic life over a professional career.

She was discovered by songwriter Jack Rhodes, who helped her land an appearance on the Louisiana Hayride television program.

[8][12] The song told the story of a New York City secretary who confronts her boss after facing sexual harassment in the work place.

[19] The disc featured several new recordings that followed similar storylines to her top ten single and included a cover of Tammy Wynette's "Stand by Your Man".

[15] Another follow-up single was 1970's "Marty Gray", a song that told the story of a teenage girl who becomes unexpectedly pregnant following a sexual encounter with a high school football player.

[19] With her new success, Spears toured in the United Kingdom for the first time as part of the "Capitol Country Caravan".

Alan Cackett of Country Music People called her "a fine singer" with "emotional styling".

[12] In reviewing her second album, AllMusic's Richie Unterberger praised Spears's assertive vocal style and song choices: "It's a quite strong set of material, hewing to the gutsier side of late-'60s country-pop, with Spears proving herself as one of the tougher, harder-edged, commercial country singers of the era.

[12] Butler brought Spears to the attention of a new song penned by Roger Bowling called "Blanket on the Ground".

[31] The comeback brought Spears the Top New Female Vocalist accolade from the Academy of Country Music Awards during this time.

[32] To conclude 1975, Spears had two top 20 North American country singles with "Stay Away from the Apple Tree" and "Silver Wings and Golden Rings".

Greg Adams of AllMusic gave the disc a four-star rating and called it "a typically fine effort".

[15][18] Her 1981 cover of Tammy Wynette's "Your Good Girl's Gonna Go Bad" was her final top 20 country single.

It featured new recordings, along with covers of Rosanne Cash's "Ain't No Money" and Don Gibson's "Sweet Dreams".

[41] Spears's final chart appearance in the United States was a cover of "Midnight Blue", which reached the Billboard country songs top 40 in 1984.

[43] Its only single was the track "One Smokey Rose", which originally reached the top ten on the Canadian country chart for Anita Perras.

[4] Author Kurt Wolff disagreed in his book Country Music: The Rough Guide: "Though Billie Jo Spears had her biggest hits during the 1970s, she was far more earthy and grounded than most singers passing for 'country' during the decade.

"[29] Bufwack and Oermann found that her late seventies music was "some of the most distinctive pop-country fusion discs of the day.

"With the familiar piano opening by Hargus "Pig" Robbins and backing vocals from the Jordanaires, the Grammy-nominated country-meets-western-meets-Studio 54 concoction remains deliciously odd and totally irresistible," he concluded.

[11] In an AllMusic review of a compilation album, Stephen Cook called Spears's vocals "smoky and sensual".

"[16] Kurt Wolff commented, "Her voice was strong and confident sort of a combination of Loretta Lynn twang and the swampy soul of Bobbie Gentry.

Following her death, Bill Friskics-Warren of The New York Times wrote, "Ms. Spears rose to prominence in the late 1960s with a string of up-tempo, socially conscious songs portraying plucky survivors.

According to producer Kelso Herston, Wynette studied her singing style by listening to Spears's records in his Nashville office.

[52] Morgan also performed many of Spears's popular songs in her concerts, including "Silver Wings and Golden Rings".

The Insider's Country Music Handbook reported that Spears was briefly married and divorced from both Terry Bethel and Doug Walton.

[54] The book Grassroots Music in the Upper Cumberland reported a brief marriage to Mike Edlin, another fellow musician.

[55] Finding Her Voice: This History of Women in Country Music explained that Spears married her third husband in 1975, who was fifteen years younger than she.

In her autobiography, singer and friend Philomena Begley spoke of how Spears became increasingly weaker and frail shortly before her death.