Moving to MCA on her 16th birthday, she was determined to make records that were in keeping with the sophisticated country rock of the Eagles, and she topped the country charts with "Lizzie and the Rainman," "San Antonio Stroll" and "Here's Some Love." In 1978, she wrote and recorded "Save Me," an ecologically inspired single about seal culls on Canada's Magdalen Islands.

The provocative cover picture of 1978's TNT album caused controversy because it certainly represented a different approach for a country star. She was booed on the Grand Ole Opry for performing raucous rock 'n' roll. Tear Me Apart was made with the producer-of-the-moment, Mike Chapman, and included a hoarse segue of "San Francisco" with "I Left My Heart In San Francisco." Neither album sold as well as expected, but Tucker found herself in gossip columns as a result of her stormy relationship with Glen Campbell. She commented: "Men are supposed to slow down after 40, but it's the opposite with Glen." Their duets included a low-charting revival of Bobby Darin's "Dream Lover," but the dream was over amidst allegations of physical abuse.

As fate would have it, Tucker and Campbell were to find themselves on the same label, Capitol Records, and Tucker's career was revitalized with 1986's Girls Like Me, an album that spawned four Top 10 country singles. In 1988, she had three No. 1 country singles: "I Won't Take Less Than Your Love" (with Paul Davis and Paul Overstreet), "If It Don't Come Easy" and "Strong Enough to Bend." It was also the year in which she entered the Betty Ford clinic for cocaine and alcohol addiction.

After many years in country music, her contributions were finally rewarded when the Country Music Association voted her the female vocalist in 1991, though she missed the event, having just given birth to her second child. Eight consecutive singles reached the Top 10 in the early 1990s, including "Down to My Last Teardrop," "(Without You) What Do I Do With Me" and "Two Sparrows in a Hurricane." She published the autobiography Nickel Dreams in 1996 and released the album Complicated in 1997. After parting with Capitol Records, she issued the album Tanya on her own label in 2002.