Charley Pride

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Charley Pride

Background information
Birth name Charley Frank Pride
Born March 18, 1938
Origin Sledge, Mississippi, USA
Genre(s) Country Music
Occupation(s) country music singer
former baseball player
Instrument(s) Guitar
Years active 1966 – Present
Label(s) RCA Records
(1966 – 1986)
Music City Records
(2001 – Present)
Website www.charleypride.com
Members
Country Music Hall of Fame
Grand Ole Opry
Notable instrument(s)
Guitar

Charley Frank Pride (born March 18, 1938) is among the most successful country music singers of all time. During his career, he has had 36 number-one hits.

Contents

[edit] Early Life & Career As a Baseball Player

Pride was born in Sledge Mississippi, one of eleven children of poor sharecroppers. His father named him "Charl Frank Pride", but because of a typing error on his birth certificate, he was legally born as Charley Frank Pride.[1]As a teenager, he began to play the guitar.

Though he also loved music, one of Pride's life-long dreams was to become a professional baseball player. In 1953, at age 15, he briefly played for the Memphis Red Sox of the Negro American League as a pitcher. The following season he played for the Birmingham Black Barons.

Pride appeared to be on his way to a career in baseball but the U.S. Army had other plans for him. After serving two years in the military he tried to return to baseball. Though hindered by an injury to his throwing arm, Pride briefly played for the Missoula Timberjacks of the Pioneer League (a Cincinnati Reds farm club) in 1960 and had tryouts with the New York Mets and California Angels organizations. When it became apparent that he was not destined for greatness on the baseball diamond, Pride turned his attentions to pursuing a music career.

Charley Pride's lifelong passion for baseball continues: he has an annual tradition of joining the Texas Rangers for workouts during Spring Training. A big Rangers fan, (Dallas has been his home for many years), Pride is often seen at games.

[edit] Rise to Music Fame

After knowing he would not be able to make a career in baseball, Pride decided to turn his attention to country music. When playing baseball, he had heard much encouragement to join the music business from country music singers like Red Sovine and Red Foley. Soon he was working towards this career. In 1958, in Memphis, Tennessee, Pride visited Sun Studios and recorded some songs.[citation needed] One song has survived on tape, and has been released in England as part of an LP-box. The song is a slow stroll in walking tempo called "Walkin (the Stroll)"

After struggling to get a contract with a record company, he finally caught the eye of producer Chet Atkins. Atkins was the longtime producer of RCA Records, and made stars out of country singers like Skeeter Davis and others. Pride was signed to RCA in 1966.

In 1966, he released his first single with RCA, "Snakes Crawl at Night". The song is about a man who shoots his wife because she was cheating on him with another man. When the song was promoted to radio stations, the label called Pride "Country Charley Pride". They purposely failed to send a photograph of Pride because they wanted disc jockeys and station managers to think that he was white.[citation needed] It is important to remember that during this time, country music was a white domain.

Soon after the release of "Snakes Crawl at Night", Pride released another single called "Before I Met You".

Soon after, Pride's third single, "Just Between You and Me", was released. This song was what finally brought Pride success on the Country charts. The song reached #9.

[edit] Height of His Career

The success of "Just Between You and Me" was enormous. He won a Grammy Award for the song the next year. However, success didn't come as easily as it might have for a white country singer.[citation needed] He was still considered by many in the music business as a "Black Performer" and, like other blacks during that time, things didn't come easily for Charley Pride.[citation needed]

In 1967, he became the first black performer to appear at the Grand Ole Opry since harmonica player DeFord Bailey in 1925. He also appeared that year on the American Broadcasting Company's The Lawrence Welk Show. Between 1969 and 1971, he had six number-one hits. These hits were "All I Have to Offer You Is Me", "I'm So Afraid of Losing You Again", "I Can't Believe That You've Stopped Lovin' Me" and "I'd Rather Love You". All of these singles reached the lower region of the Pop charts, showing the Country/Pop crossover sound that was reaching Country music in the late 1960s and early 1970s, known as "Countrypolitan".

Pride's next #1 single came in 1971. It was called "Kiss An Angel Good Morning", and it was a million-selling crossover single and helped Pride land the Country Music Association awards as Entertainer of the Year (1971) and Top Male Vocalist in 1971, as well as in 1972. "Kiss an Angel Good Morning" is one of his best-known songs and also one of his signature tunes. The song was also his first that reached the pop charts, reaching #21, and into the Top Ten of the Adult Contemporary charts.

During the rest of the 1970s and into the 1980s, Charley Pride continued to rack up country music hits. Other Pride standards of the '70s and '80s include "Is Anybody Goin' To San Antone?", "Mississippi Cotton Picking Delta Town," "Someone Loves You, Honey," "When I Stop Leaving, I'll Be Gone," "Burgers and Fries", "I Don't Think She's In Love Anymore", "Roll On Mississippi" and "You're So Good When You're Bad." Like many other country performers, he has paid tribute to Hank Williams with top-sellers of Williams' classics "Kaw-Liga" "Honky Tonk Blues" and "You Win Again".

Pride has garnered more than 36 Number 1 country singles and sold over 70 million records (singles, albums, compilation inclusions).

He stayed with RCA Records until 1986. At that point, he grew angry over the fact that the record company began to promote newer artists and not older artists that had been with the record company for a long time (such as Pride).[citation needed]

[edit] Chronology

  • December 1966 – Makes his debut on the Billboard magazine Hot Country Singles chart with "Just Between You and Me." The song would peak in the top 10 less than three months later; two earlier singles had failed to chart.
  • August 9, 1969 – Scores his first Billboard No. 1 hit with "All I Have to Offer You Is Me."
  • September 6, 1969 – Pride appears on national television on The Johnny Cash Show to perform a medley of Hank Williams songs with Cash. Pride's medley with Cash can be seen here.
  • 1971 – Enjoys the biggest hit of his career with the million-seller "Kiss an Angel Good Mornin'." The song was his eighth No. 1 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart, and spent five weeks atop the chart.
  • September 17, 1983 – Scores his 29th and final No. 1 hit on Billboard with "Night Games." He still remains sixth on the all-time list of most No. 1 hits on the Billboard country charts.
  • May 1, 1993 – Pride accepted an invitation to join the Grand Ole Opry, in the process becoming the first black Opry regular in the show's more than 70-year history.
  • 1994 – Pride released his autobiography, Pride: The Charley Pride Story (published by William Morrow).
  • June 1994 – Pride was honored by the Academy of Country Music with its prestigious Pioneer Award.
  • January 1996 – Pride was honored with a Trumpet Award by Turner Broadcasting, marking outstanding African-American Achievement. His 1981 hit, "Roll On Mississippi", was considered as the official song of his home state[citation needed], a stretch of Mississippi highway was named for him and he headlined a special Christmas performance for President and Mrs. Bill Clinton at the White House.
  • July 1999 – Pride received his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
  • October 4, 2000 – Pride was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. His name was announced by Brenda Lee.
  • May 20, 2003 – Pride's album, Comfort of Her Wings, was released on Music City Records.
  • November 7, 2006 – Pride's album, Pride & Joy: A Gospel Music Collection, was released on Music City Records.

[edit] Famous Quote

  • "I don't have no skin hang-ups. I'm no color. I'm just Charley Pride, the man."[citation needed]

[edit] Trivia

  • Pride returned to his hometown of Sledge and purchased the cotton farm where he had been born.[citation needed]

[edit] Selected Hit Singles

Year Single U.S. Country US Hot 100 U.S. AC Album
1967 "Does My Ring Hurt Your Finger?" #4 - - The Country Way
1967 "Just Between You and Me" #9 - - The Country Way
1968 "The Day the World Stood Still" #4 - - The Country Way
1968 "The Easy Part's Over" #2 - - Songs of Pride..Charley That Is
1969 "I'm So Afraid of Losing You Again" #1 #74 - Just Plain Charley
1969 "All I Have to Offer You Is Me" #1 #91 - Best of Charley Pride
1970 "I Can't Believed You Stopped Lovin' Me" #1 #71 - From Me to You
1970 "Is There Anybody Goin' to San Antone?" #1 - - Charley Pride's 10th Album
1970 "Wonder I Could Live There Anymore" #1 #87 - From Me to You
1971 "Do You Think I Pray?" #70 - - Do You Think I Pray?"
1971 "I'd Rather Love You" #1 #79 - I'm Just Me
1971 "I'm Just Me" #1 #94 - I'm Just Me
1971 "Kiss An Angel Good Mornin'" #1 #21 #7 Charley pride Sings Heart Songs
1971 "Let Me Live" #21 - - Do You Think I Pray?"
1972 "All His Children" #2 #92 - Sometimes a Great Nation
1972 "It's Gonna Take a Little Bit Longer" #1 - - A Sunshine Day With Charley Pride
1972 "She's Too Good to Be True" #1 - - Songs of Love by Charley Pride
1973 "Amazing Love" #1 - - Amazing Love
1973 "Don't Fight the Feelings of Love" #1 - - Sweet Country
1973 "A Shoulder to Cry On" #1 - - Sweet Country
1975 "Mississippi Cotton Picking Delta Town" #3 #70 - Pride of America
1975 "Hope You're Feeling Like I'm Feelin' You" #1 - - Charley
1975 "Then Who Am I?" #1 - - Pride of America
1976 "My Eyes Can Only See As far As You" #1 - - The Happiness of Having You
1976 "A Whole Lotta Things to Sing About" #2 - - The Happiness of Having You
1976 "The Happiness of Having You" #3 - - The Happiness of Having You
1977 "I'll Be Leavin' Alone" #1 - - She's Just An Old Love Turned Memory
1977 "More to Me" #1 - - She's Just An Old Love Turned Memory
1977 "She's Just An Old Love Turned Memory" #1 - - She's Just An Old Love Turned Memory
1978 "Burgers and Fries" #2 - - Burgers and Fries
1978 "Someone Loves You Honey" #1 - - Someone Loves You Honey
1978 "When I Stop Leaving (I'll Be Gone)" #3 - - -

[edit] Sources

  • Country Music: The Rough Guide; Wolff, Kurt; Penguin Publishing
  • All Music Guide.com

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Country Music Hall of Fame

[edit] External links

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