Charlie Rich
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Charlie Rich (December 14, 1932 - July 25, 1995) was an American musician, songwriter, and pianist. A multi-Grammy Award winner, his eclectic-style of music was often hard to classify in a single genre, playing in the rockabilly, jazz, blues, country, and gospel genres. In the latter part of his life, Rich acquired the nickname The Silver Fox in reference to his full head of silver-gray hair. Charlie Rich's pioneering contribution to early rock n' roll has been recognized by the Rockabilly Hall of Fame. Rich's son, Charlie Rich, Jr., is also a musician.
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[edit] Early life
Rich was born in Colt, Arkansas to rural cotton farmers, beginning a professional musical career while in the U.S. Air Force in the early 1950s. His first musical group, called the Velvetones, played jazz and blues and featured his fiancée, Margaret Ann, on lead vocals. Rich left the military in 1956 and tried to farm five acres in Tennessee. He began performing clubs around the Memphis area, playing both jazz and R&B. It was during these hard times he began writing his own material.
[edit] Early Recording Career
Rich was a session musician for Judd Records, which was owned by Judd Phillips, the brother of Sun Records founder Sam Phillips. After recording some demos for Sam Phillips at Sun Records that were considered too uncommercial and jazzy, legend has it that he was given a stack of Jerry Lee Lewis records and told: "come back when you get that bad." In 1958 Rich became a regular session musician for Sun Records playing on records by Lewis, Johnny Cash, Bill Justis, Warren Smith, Billy Lee Riley, Carl Mann, and Ray Smith. He also penned songs for Lewis, Cash, and others.
His third single for the Sun subsidiary Phillips International Records was the 1960 Top 30 hit "Lonely Weekends," noted for its Elvis-like vocals. None of his seven follow-up singles were a success, though several of the songs became staples in his live set, including "Who Will the Next Fool Be," "Sittin' and Thinkin'," and "No Headstone on My Grave." These songs were often recorded by others to varying degrees of success, such as the Bobby Bland version of "Who Will the Next Fool Be."
Rich's career stalled, he left the struggling Sun label in 1964, signing with a subsidiary of RCA. His first single for RCA, "Big Boss Man," was a minor hit, but again his Chet Atkins-produced follow-ups all stiffed. Rich moved to Smash Records early in 1965. Rich's new producer, Jerry Kennedy, encouraged the pianist to emphasize his country and rock & roll leanings, although Rich considered himself a jazz pianist and had not paid much attention to country music since his childhood. The first single for Smash was "Mohair Sam," an R&B-inflected novelty-rock number, and it became a Top 30 pop hit. Unfortunately again for Rich, none of his follow-up singles were successful. Rich was forced to change labels, moving over to Hi Records, where he recorded straight country, but none of his singles made a dent on the country charts.
[edit] Country superstardom
Despite Rich's lack of consistent commercial success, Epic Records signed Rich in 1967, mainly on the recommendation of producer Billy Sherrill. Sherrill helped Rich refashion himself as a Nashville Sound balladeer during an era when old rock n' rollers like Jerry Lee Lewis and Conway Twitty were finding a new musical home in the country and western format. This new "Countrypolitan" Rich sound paid off in the summer of 1972, when "I Take It on Home" went to number six in the country charts. The title track from his 1973 album, Behind Closed Doors, became a number one hit early in 1973, crossing over into the Top 20 on the pop charts. This time his follow-up did not fizzle as "The Most Beautiful Girl" spent three weeks at the top of the country charts and two weeks at the top of the pop charts. Now established as a country music star, Behind Closed Doors won three awards from the Country Music Association that year: Best Male Vocalist, Album of the Year, and Single of the Year. The album was also certified gold, Rich won a Grammy for Best Country Vocal Performance, Male, and he also took home four ACM awards.
After "The Most Beautiful Girl," number one hits came quickly as five songs topped the country charts in 1974 and crossed over to the pop charts. The songs were "There Won't Be Anymore," "A Very Special Love Song," "I Don't See Me In Your Eyes Anymore," "I Love My Friend," and "She Called Me Baby." Both RCA and Mercury (Smash was a subsidiary of Mercury which was absorbed into the main company in 1970) re-released his previously recorded material from the mid 1960s as well. All of this success led the CMA to name him Entertainer of the Year in 1974. Rich had three more top five hits in 1975, but even though he was at the peak of his popularity, Rich began to drink heavily, causing considerable problems off-stage. His destructive personal behavior famously culminated at the CMA awards ceremony for 1975, when he presented the award for Entertainer of the Year, while visibly drunk. Instead of reading the name of the winner, who happened to be John Denver, he set fire to the envelope with a cigarette lighter before announcing the award had gone to "My good buddy, John Denver." Some considered it an act of rebellion against the Music Row-controlled Nashville Sound. But many speculated that Rich's behavior was a protest against the award going to Denver, whose music Rich had considered too "pop," and not enough "country." Others, including industry insiders, were outraged and Rich had trouble having hits throughout 1976 and only had one top ten with "Since I Fell For You."
The slump in his career was exacerbated by the fact that his records began to sound increasingly similar: pop-inflected country ballads with overdubbed strings and little of the jazz or blues Rich had performed his entire life. He did not have a top ten hit again until "Rollin' With the Flow" in 1977 went to number one. Early in 1978, he signed with United Artists and throughout that year had hits on both Epic and UA. His hits in 1978 included the top ten hits "Beautiful Woman," "Puttin' In Overtime At Home," and his last number one with "On My Knees," a duet with Janie Fricke.
[edit] Reclusive era and death
Rich struggled throughout 1979 having hits with United Artists and Epic with his singles becoming moderate hits, the biggest of his hits that year on either UA and Epic was a version of "Spanish Eyes" which became a top 20 country hit. Rich appeared as himself in the 1979 Clint Eastwood movie Every Which Way But Loose where he performed the song "I'll Wake You Up When I Get Home." This song hit number three on the charts in 1979 and was his last top ten single. In 1980, he switched labels again to Elektra Records, and released a number twelve single "A Man Just Don't Know What a Woman Goes Through" in the fall of that year. One more Top 40 hit followed — the Gary Stewart penned "Are We Dreamin' the Same Dream" early in 1981 — but Rich decided to remove himself from the spotlight. For over a decade, Rich was silent, living off his investments in semi-retirement and only playing the occasional concert.
In 1992 Rich released Pictures and Paintings, a jazzy record produced by journalist Peter Guralnick and released on Sire Records. Pictures and Paintings received positive critical reviews and restored Rich's reputation as a musician, but it would be his last record. One of his opening acts in these years was Tom Waits, who mentioned him in the song "Putnam County" from his album Nighthawks at the Diner with the lyric: "The radio's spitting out Charlie Rich... He sure can sing, that son of a bitch." Charlie Rich died in Hammond, Louisiana on July 25, 1995 at the age of 62 from a blood clot in his lung. He was interred in the Memorial Park Cemetery in Memphis, Tennessee.
[edit] Awards
- 1973 CMA Male Vocalist of the Year
- 1973 CMA Album of the Year, Behind Closed Doors
- 1973 Grammy Award - Best Country Vocal Performance
- 1974 CMA Entertainer of the Year
