Mel Street

Mel Street
Street in 1975
Background information
Birth name	King Malachi Street
Born	(1935-10-21)October 21, 1935
Origin	Grundy, Virginia
Died	October 21, 1978(1978-10-21) (aged 43)
Genres	Country
Occupations	Singer-songwriter
Instruments	Guitar
Years active	1972–1978
Labels	Metromedia, GRT, Polydor, Mercury

King Malachi Street (October 21, 1935 – October 21, 1978), commonly known as Mel Street, was an American country music singer.

Biography

Street was born in Rowe, Virginia to a coal mining family.^[1] Publications cite his year of birth as 1933, although his family maintains that he was born in 1935.^[2] He began performing on western Virginia and West Virginia radio shows at the age of sixteen. Street subsequently worked as a radio tower electrician in Ohio and as a nightclub performer in the Niagara Falls area. He moved back to West Virginia in 1963 to open up an auto body shop.^[3]

From 1968 to 1972, Street hosted his own show on a Bluefield, West Virginia television station.^[4] He recorded his first single, "Borrowed Angel," in 1970 for a small regional record label. A larger label, Royal American Records, picked it up in 1972, and it became a top-10 Billboard hit. He recorded the biggest hit of his career, "Lovin' on Back Streets", in 1973.

Street continued to flourish throughout the mid-1970s, recording several hits such as "You Make Me Feel More Like a Man," "Forbidden Angel," "I Met a Friend of Yours Today," "If I Had a Cheatin' Heart," and "Smokey Mountain Memories". He signed with Mercury Records in 1978. But, suffering from clinical depression and alcoholism, he committed suicide by a self-inflicted gunshot wound, on October 21, 1978, his 43rd birthday. He had a record debut on the country charts on October 21 as well, called "Just Hangin' On".^[5] Street later charted four posthumous songs.

Discography

Albums

Singles

Footnotes

References

• Huey, Steve. (2003). Edited by Vladimir Bogdanov, Chris Woodstra, & Stephen Erlewine. "Mel Street (King Malachi Street)." All Music Guide to Country, 2nd ed. San Francisco: Backbeat Books, 2003. ISBN 0-87930-760-9
• Schuler, Dennis Sr. and Larry J. Delp. "Mel Street - A Country Legend", Charleston, WV: Mountain State Press, 2002. ISBN 0-941092-47-X

External links

• http://www.birthplaceofcountrymusic.org/node/86
• Mel Street @ Last.fm
• Mel Street at Find a Grave