Charley Pride

Charley Pride (born 1938) was country music's first African American star. For the past 25 years, Pride has been ranked among the top 15 best-selling recording artists of all time. During his career, he has had 36 number-one hit singles, and he has sold over 25 million albums. He has had 31 gold albums, 4 platinum albums, and 1 quadruple platinum album. Pride was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2000, the highest honor a country musician can receive. As an RCA Records recording artist, Pride is second in sales only to Elvis Presley.

Mississippi Delta Childhood

Charl (mistakenly changed to "Charley" on his birth certificate) Frank Pride was born on March 18, 1938, in Sledge, Mississippi. Like many other Mississippi Delta towns, Sledge consisted only of little more than a "grocery store, a barber shop, a hardware and farm supply store, a general merchandise store, a café, and a gas station." In the pre-civil rights era that coincided with Pride's childhood, life for African Americans in the Mississippi Delta was strictly regulated by enforced codes of segregation that governed who could use rest rooms, attend schools, and purchase housing.

The fourth of eleven children - eight boys and three girls - Pride grew up in a family headed by Mack and Tessie B. Stewart Pride. Pride's parents worked as sharecroppers and picked cotton. The family shared a three-room tin and cracked-wood "shotgun" house, so named because a person could "fire a shotgun through the front door and out the back without hitting anything."

Although the Pride family was poor, Pride's mother insisted there were people with a lot more money who would give millions for what her son had. She pointed out to him, as an example, that he had all of his fingers and both eyes.

Pride and his siblings suffered frequent beatings at the hands of their father, a stern disciplinarian. Said Pride, "He showed concern for his children by using the strap to keep us on a straight and narrow path and he showed tenderness by protecting us and caring for us. We all survived the hardships of our youth and turned out to be reasonably solid citizens."

Charley's father, Mack Pride, was a deacon in the Baptist church, but Pride later said that it was his mother who seemed the more spiritual of his parents. In his autobiography, Pride: The Charley Pride Story, Pride said that he grew up not liking his father very much. "I loved him and there was a lot about him that I admired but I didn't like him," he wrote. Elsewhere in the book, Pride added, "Over time, I have come to realize that Daddy was not unfeeling; he was just unable to express his emotions in the normal way." But he went still further, saying, "However I account for him in my own mind, it doesn't change one thing - how much I regret that there was no warmth or tenderness between us."

As a young boy, Pride had little choice in how he spent his time and was made to pick cotton. In his autobiography, Pride recalled telling his father. "I just don't want to be a cotton picker, Daddy." His father reportedly replied, "You don't want to pick cotton? Well. What do you think you're going to do?"

Pride grew up listening to country music on the radio and learning the songs of Hank Williams and Roy Acuff. From the age of six, Pride became a devotee of the Grand Ole Opry radio broadcasts. A neighbor began calling Charley "Mocking Bird" when the boy showed a reluctance to do much besides sing and play baseball. Although Pride dreamed of being a country music star, he was actually planning on becoming a baseball player.

At the age of 14, Pride bought a guitar from the Sears, Roebuck catalog after saving for most of year to buy it. He then began teaching himself to play a few chords. He eventually began mimicking songs on the radio, using his index finger as a capo and playing open bar chords. After he accidentally left his guitar outside one night in a heavy rain, he was forced to tinker with make-shift instruments, including a comb, for a while.

Between Baseball and Country Music

Pride's mother died in 1956. After her death, Pride's ties to Sledge, Mississippi, were largely severed. By his late teens, Pride had left home and traveled to Memphis. At 17, one day after entering a talent contest at Lave's Grand Theater in Memphis, Pride left for baseball training camp. He recalls having to walk seven miles to pitch nine innings, and then having to walk the seven miles back home again.

About this time, one of Pride's teammates asked him why he was not pursuing a career as a singer, and Pride told him, "I want to go to the major leagues. Years from now, when they ask who hit the most home runs, I don't want the answer to be Babe Ruth, I want it to be Charley Pride." Jackie Robinson had broken the color barrier in the major leagues in 1947, and by the mid-1950s every major league team had two or three black players on its roster.

In 1955, Pride joined the American Negro League, playing for Detroit, Michigan; Memphis, Tennessee; and Birmingham, Alabama. Pride met his wife Rozene, a cosmetologist from Oxford, Mississippi, while playing baseball in Memphis. The couple later had three children, Kraig, Dion, and Angela. Meanwhile, Pride's baseball career was interrupted by a two-year hitch in the service.

The Mighty Casey

In 1958, Pride resumed his career with the American Negro League, now playing for the Birmingham Black Barons. After Pride was cut from the Memphis team in 1959, he decided to go to Montana where he ended up taking a job at the Zinc Smelting Manning Company and playing semi-professional baseball at night. He also sang in a nightclub two nights a week.

Pride later said of his time in Montana, "Montana wasn't just geographically far removed from the South, but the thinking was pretty isolated too. When the sit-ins and boycotts and protest marches began in the south, guys I worked with would ask things like, 'What's going on with y'all down there.' "

By 1960, Pride had abandoned semi-professional baseball and the American Negro League for a Major League C-team. After rejections from the Angels, Pride tried the Mets, whose coach, the legendary Casey Stengel, told him, "We ain't running no damn tryout camp down here." Stengel went on to suggest that Pride go out in a cow pasture where someone else could look at him. Pride decided to give up a baseball career following that episode.

RCA Recording Contract

Returning home from the debacle with Casey Stengel, Pride auditioned for songwriter and record producer Jack Clement in Memphis. Chet Atkins, then vice-president of RCA recording in Nashville, was sufficiently impressed with Pride that he offered him an RCA recording contract.

In 1966, Pride was named best country and western male vocalist after having recorded 13 songs. By 1975, he released 22 records, and had 12 gold singles. Among his most popular recordings were "Snakes Crawl at Night" and "Just Between You and Me."

Medical Problems

In 1968, Pride was hospitalized following a USO tour with symptoms of manic depression that included an inability to sleep, delusions, and hyper-activity. Told that he would need to take medication for the rest of his life, Pride refused. After the symptoms recurred in 1982 though, Pride began taking lithium carbonate to control his manic swings. He then stopped taking the medication after he developed a skin rash that he thought was a lithium side-effect, but after another episode in 1989, he finally came to terms with his need to take the medication. Pride explained in his autobiography, "I've taken lithium regularly for the past few years and have had no further bouts with manic depression. I've always been a hyper person, one who needed to be doing something physical all the time. I had difficulty sitting through business meetings or any other sedentary activity. I'm still that way, but I run on an even keel - no wild highs, no migraines, and no imagining things that aren't there. And I sleep very well."

On Top

In 1969, Pride scored his first number one single with the release of "All I Have to Offer You (Is Me)." Over the next 15 years, he would go on to top the charts with more than 36 number one country singles, bringing him within close range of becoming Billboard magazine's all-time record holder in that category.

Some of Pride's songs, like "Kiss an Angel Good Morning," are now considered classics. Other big hits have included "Is Anybody Goin' to San Antone?," "I'm So Afraid of Losing You Again," "Mississippi Cotton Picking Delta Town," "Someone Loves You Honey," "When I Stop Leaving I'll Be Gone," "Burgers and Fries," "Mountain of Love," and "You're So Good When You're Bad." "Kiss An Angel Good Morning" helped Pride capture Country Music Association's awards as Entertainer of the Year (1971) and Top Male Vocalist (1971, 1972).

Businessman

By the 1980s, Pride was dividing his time between his careers as musician and businessman. His business activities then included banking, broadcasting, and real estate. He holds the most shares in Texas's largest minority owned bank and has real estate holdings across the country. He also owns a music publishing company and a production company.

Career Achievements

On May 1, 1993, Pride was inducted into the Grand Ole Opry, where he had first performed 26 years earlier. Pride received the Academy of Country Music's Pioneer Award in 1994, the same year he released his autobiography, Pride: The Charley Pride Story. Pride opened the 2000-seat Charley Pride Theatre in Branson, Missouri, in June 1994. He performed there for four years, doing approximately 200 shows a year.

Pride received the Trumpet Award from Turner Broadcasting in January 1996 in recognition of his outstanding achievement as an African American. The state of Mississippi adopted his "Roll On Mississippi" as its official song and named a stretch of highway in the state for him. Also that year, he performed in a special Christmas program at the White House for President and Mrs. Clinton. In 2000, he was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Pride still works out each year with the Texas Rangers baseball team, fulfilling a boyhood aspiration. He also enjoys playing golf when he is not on tour or recording.

Besides the U.S., Pride has performed in Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Fiji, and Canada. He frequently appears on USO tours, entertaining military personnel stationed overseas. Once during a USO tour, after being heckled by black soldiers for singing country music, Pride told the mixed race audience, "I'm singing for my brothers on this side of the room, and for my brothers on this side. I told you in the beginning. I'm not James Browne. I'm not Sam Cooke. I'm Charley Pride, country singer. I'm just me and that's what you get."

Pride currently splits his time between his homes in Dallas, Texas, and Branson, Missouri.

Books

Pride, Charley, (with Jim Henderson), Pride: The Charley Pride Story, William Morrow and Company, 1994.

Online

"Charley Pride," http://www.charleypride.com/ (January 2003).

"Charley Pride," http://www.topblacks.com/entertainment/charlie-pride.htm (January 2003).

country singer

Personal Information

Born Charl Pride on March 18, 1938, in Sledge, MS; son of Mack Pride, a sharecropper farmer; married, wife's name Rozene; children: Kraig, Dion, and Angela.
Military/Wartime Service: U.S. Army, 1956-58.

Career

Country singer, guitarist, and former professional baseball player; played in Negro Leagues in Detroit, Memphis, and Birmingham, Alabama, 1955-56 and 1958-59; played baseball and worked as tin smelter in Montana, 1960-63; began singing in nightclubs around 1962; recorded debut album for RCA label, 1967; topped country and pop charts with hit single "Kiss an Angel Good Morning," 1970; moved to 16th Avenue label, 1987.

Life's Work

Many African Americans have crossed the color line in their respective fields of endeavor, winning respect and fame throughout American society for their persistence, for their belief in equality and justice, and for sheer guts. Perhaps none other, however, has had a career that so completely overcame negative expectations as that of Charley Pride, country music's first and only major African American star. Pride made his mark not only by breaking into a white-dominated world, but also by succeeding brilliantly. He was among the best-selling country vocalists of the 1960s and 1970s, and enjoyed an enduring career that stretched over parts of four decades.

Pride's own autobiography, Pride, is unclear as to his actual birthdate, but most sources agree that he was born on March 18, 1938. Named Charl Frank Pride by his father, he received the name Charley when a clerk mistyped his birth certificate. Pride grew up in the Mississippi Delta, in the small town of Sledge, as one of eleven children in a sharecropper's family. The children, he wrote in his autobiography, "slept three and four to a bed, lying alternately head to foot."

Inspired by Jackie Robinson

As a child, Pride endured not only the worst indignities that Southern segregation could dish out, but also unrelenting physical abuse from his father. Two breezes of influence from the outside seemed to carry suggestions of a different life. Pride shared one of these inspirational influences with many other African American young people of his time: a gifted athlete named Jackie Robinson. Pride was greatly impressed by Robinson, who became the first African American player to enter baseball's major leagues. The other inspiration was more unusual. Pride, along with his family, listened to the weekly Saturday-night broadcasts of country music's long-running Grand Ole Opry radio program, which was transmitted on station WSM out of Nashville.

While it was not uncommon for African Americans in the South to listen to country music from time to time--jazz and pop vocalist Ray Charles described similar listening sessions from his own childhood--Pride's interest went much deeper. Born with a talent for mimicry, he quickly mastered the nasal yet sonorous singing styles of top country vocalists of the day such as Hank Williams and Roy Acuff. Pride's siblings were mystified by his desire to sing country music. A natural musician, Pride amused himself by constructing simple musical instruments out of such materials as combs and pieces of wire. At the age of 14, he bought his first guitar.

Despite his interest in music, Pride first turned to baseball as his ticket out of Sledge. "As far as I was concerned, my future was in baseball," he wrote in his autobiography. "Once I saw what Jackie Robinson did, that was my goal." Pride won a spot with the Memphis Red Sox and the Birmingham Black Barons in the old Negro Leagues, and excelled even when these teams faced off against major league squads in exhibition play. Following military service in the U.S. Army in 1956 and 1957, Pride made repeated attempts to break into the majors. However, he became frustrated because the number of African Americans who were allowed to play major league baseball was still small. Newly married, Pride settled for an offer from the owner of a small semi-professional team in Montana, the Missoula Timberjacks. The baseball job came with a price, working a dangerous, demanding shift in a smelting plant.

Discovered by Red Sovine

Pride sang the national anthem at baseball games and occasionally performed a country song or two between innings. He was greatly encouraged by the audience's positive response, and soon began to round out his income by singing in taverns. At a concert in the early 1960s, he filled a slot at a Helena, Montana concert hosted by country stars Red Foley and Red Sovine. Sovine was impressed with Pride's performance, and gave him the telephone number of his booking agent in Nashville. In the meantime, Pride still tried to earn a spot in the major leagues. In 1963 he tried out for the New York Mets, but was rejected. Given a bus ticket back to Montana by the team, Pride traveled by way of Nashville and acquired the services of a manager, Jack Johnson.

Two years passed before Pride was signed to the RCA label in Nashville, and executives at the label moved gingerly to promote their new artist. His first single, the murder ballad "Snakes Crawl at Night," was released without any accompanying photo publicity. Pride's rich baritone voice was so steeped in the traditions of country music, that most audiences did not realize he was African American. Initially, RCA would not allow Pride to record love songs such as the sentimental classic "Green, Green Grass of Home". The song referred to a woman with "hair of gold and lips like cherries," and executives feared that white audiences would react negatively to hearing Pride sing of a love affair with a blonde-haired woman.

Pride's first several singles became hits and, by 1966, his career was in full bloom. During live performances, he won the audience over with his vocal stylings and genial sense of humor. Before a crucial Detroit concert, Pride and manager Johnson devised the trademark joke in which he mentioned his "permanent tan." During the late 1960s, when tensions were running high over riots in several American cities, Pride's remarkable rapport with audiences ensured that his concerts would be free of any racial violence. Pride joined a tour organized by rising "outlaw" singer-songwriter Willie Nelson, who gave Pride important support during the early stages of his career.

"Kiss an Angel" Became a Hit

Pride soon became a fixture on the country music scene. With the release of a 1969 collection of his singles, The Best of Charley Pride, the singer hit the coveted Number One position on country music sales charts. In 1970, Pride released "Kiss an Angel Good Morning," which crossed over to pop audiences and reached the pop top 20. The song, in which Pride delivers the folksy advice "Kiss an angel good morning/And love her like the devil when you get back home", remains one of his most popular hits. In 1971, Pride swept the Country Music Association's Male Vocalist of the Year and Entertainer of the Year awards.

Pride's string of hit singles and albums was virtually unbroken throughout the 1970s. Cash Box magazine named Pride country music's top male vocalist of the decade. At several points in his career, he struggled with depression. However, he always bounced back and turned to medication only after being hospitalized in 1989. In the early 1980s, Pride released the Hank Williams tribute album There's a Little Bit of Hank in Me. Pride had always had an affinity for Williams's songs, and later recorded a rambunctious version of the Williams song "Kaw-Liga". The song tells the story of a wooden antique-store Indian who is unable to verbalize his love for a similar female figure. The female figure is eventually purchased by a customer and taken away.

During the late 1980s, Pride's popularity faded somewhat with the rise of newer, rock-oriented country styles. He became a leader of a group of older, established singers who were critical of country radio stations for ignoring the legends of the genre. Pride continued to hold on to his devoted base of fans, however. In 1992, he opened a theater in Branson, Missouri, a country music-oriented tourist town geared to older travelers. That year, he was inducted into the roster of the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville--a high honor among country music traditionalists. Twenty-five years earlier, Pride had become the first African American singer to appear on the Opry stage. In the year 2000, he became the first African American member of the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Awards

Several Grammy awards. Entertainer of the Year and Male Vocalist of the Year, Country Music Association, 1970; Top Male Artist of the Decade (1970s), Cash Box magazine, 1980; inducted into Country Music Hall of Fame, 2000.

Works

Selected discography

• Country Charley Pride, RCA, 1966.
• The Pride of Country Music, RCA, 1967.
• Songs of Pride. . .Charley, That Is, RCA, 1968.
• Charley Pride--In Person, RCA, 1968.
• Christmas in My Home Town, RCA, 1970.
• Charley Pride Sings Heart Songs, RCA, 1971.
• Songs of Love by Charley Pride, RCA, 1973.
• Charley, RCA, 1975.
• Sunday Morning with Charley Pride, RCA, 1976.
• She's Just an Old Love Turned Memory, RCA, 1977.
• Burgers and Fries, RCA, 1978.
• You're My Jamaica, RCA, 1979.
• There's a Little Bit of Hank in Me, RCA, 1980.
• Roll On Mississippi, RCA, 1981.
• Night Games, RCA, 1983.
• The Power of Love, RCA, 1984.
• After All This Time, 16th Avenue, 1987.
• I'm Gonna Love Her on the Radio, 16th Avenue, 1988.
• The Essential Charley Pride, RCA, 1997.

Further Reading

Books

• Contemporary Musicians, volume 4, Gale, 1991.
• Larkin, Colin, ed., The Encyclopedia of Popular Music, Muze UK, 1998.
• Pride, Charley, with Jim Henderson, Pride: The Charley Pride Story, Morrow, 1994.
• Smith, Jessie Carney, ed., Notable Black American Men, Gale, 1999.
• Stambler, Irwin, and Grelun Landon, The Encyclopedia of Folk, Country & Western Music, St. Martin's, 1983.

Periodicals

• Country Music, July-August 1996, p. 64.
• Jet, August 9, 1999.

— James M. Manheim

See Charley Pride Lyrics

• Born: March 18, 1938, Sledge, MS
• Active: '60s, '70s, '80s, '90s, 2000s
• Genres: Country
• Instrument: Vocals
• Representative Albums: "The Essential Charley Pride," "The Essential Charley Pride," "RCA Country Legends"
• Representative Songs: "Kiss an Angel Good Morning," "Crystal Chandeliers," "(Is Anybody Going To) San Ant"

Biography

With 36 number one hits under his belt, Charley Pride, who is black, has helped prove how little race matters to the majority of country music fans. It's taken a long time to understand that, though. His first single, "Snakes Crawl at Night," was released without publicity photos, as some in the industry feared listeners would automatically reject a black country singer. Since then, Pride's 12 gold albums in the United States, combined with 30 gold and four platinum internationally, place him in the Top 15 all-time country record sellers. His easygoing singing style and easy-to-listen-to voice show why these honors have come his way. From picking cotton in his native Mississippi, Pride ended up working in a smelting plant in Montana after a stint as a semipro baseball player. At the suggestion of Red Sovine, Pride moved to Nashville, where he was signed by Chet Atkins of RCA. In 1966, "Just Between You and Me" brought Pride a Grammy nomination and national fame. At the end of the '60s and the early part of the '70s, he had five number one singles in a row, including "All I Have to Offer Is Me" and "(Is Anybody Going To) San Antone." Numerous awards came in 1971 and 1972, with many more hits following, among them "She's Too Good to Be True," "Kiss an Angel Good Mornin'," and "Night Games." Pride's warm baritone voice and relaxed style made him the highest-selling act for RCA since Elvis Presley.

Pride was born on a cotton farm in Sledge, MS. His father was a sharecropper on the farm at a time. When he was 14 years old, Charley bought a guitar from Sears Roebuck and proceeded to learn how to play by listening to country music on the radio. Two years later, he turned his attention to baseball. He joined the Negro American League, playing with the Memphis Red Sox. After playing ball for two years, Pride joined the U.S. Army, where he served for two years. Upon his discharge, he intended to return to baseball, but he sustained injuries that affected his throwing arm. Discouraged that he couldn't qualify for the major leagues, Pride began working construction in Helena, MT, while he still played in the minors. Eventually, he earned a tryout for the California Angels in 1961, but they turned him down; the following year, the New York Mets rejected him as well.

Following his rejection in baseball, Pride turned his attention to music, and in 1963, he sang "Lovesick Blues" for Red Foley and Red Sovine backstage at one of Sovine's concerts. The veteran musicians were impressed and told Charley to go to Nashville. Heeding their advice, he traveled to Music City, but he couldn't break into the industry. However, both of the Reds and Webb Pierce kept recommending the fledgling singer to their associates and eventually helped him secure a management deal with Jack Johnson. Through Johnson, Pride met Jack Clement, who sent a demo tape of Pride's to Chet Atkins at RCA, who signed the vocalist in 1966. Later that year, Pride's debut single, "The Snakes Crawl at Night," was released but was issued without a publicity photograph, since the label was afraid that radio programmers would be reluctant to lend support to a black country singer. Both "The Snakes Crawl at Night" and his second single, "Before I Met You," gained a small audience, but it wasn't until "Just Between You and Me" that Charley became a star. Released at the end of 1966, "Just Between You and Me" climbed to number nine and began a virtually uninterrupted streak of Top Ten singles that ran until 1984; out of his 54 singles released during those 18 years, only three failed to crack the Top Ten.

However, Pride's success didn't arrive as easily as it may seem. Though he was praised upon the release of "Just Between You and Me" and won a Grammy award for the single, there remained resistance in certain quarters of the country audience to a black performer. Nevertheless, the consistent quality of Pride's music and the support from his fellow musicians helped break down doors. And the doors began to open very quickly -- on January 7, 1967, he became the first black artist to perform on the Grand Ole Opry since DeFord Bailey in 1925. Over the next two years, his star steadily rose, and between 1969 and 1971, he had six straight number one singles: "All I Have to Offer You (Is Me)," "I'm So Afraid of Losing You Again," "(Is Anybody Going To) San Antone," "Wonder Could I Live There Anymore," "I Can't Believe That You've Stopped Loving Me," and "I'd Rather Love You." All of those singles also charted in the lower regions of the pop charts, giving evidence of his smooth, country-pop crossover appeal. "Let Me Live," taken from his gospel album, Did You Think to Pray?, temporarily broke his streak of number one singles in the spring of 1971, but it won a Grammy for Best Gospel Performance. Directly after "Let Me Live," two of his biggest hits -- "I'm Just Me" and "Kiss an Angel Good Mornin'" -- arrived, earning him his greatest success on both the country and pop charts.

Throughout the '70s, he continued to chart in the upper regions of the country charts, earning number one singles like "It's Gonna Take a Little Bit Longer" (1972), "She's Too Good to Be True" (1972), "A Shoulder to Cry On" (1973), "Then Who Am I" (1975), "She's Just an Old Love Turned Memory" (1977), and "Where Do I Put Her Memory." During this entire time, he never changed his country-pop style, though he promoted new performers and songwriters like Ronnie Milsap, Gary Stewart, and Kris Kristofferson. Pride's success continued during the first half of the '80s, as he continued to have number one hits like "Honky Tonk Blues" (1980), "Mountain of Love" (1982), "You're So Good When You're Bad" (1982), and "Night Games" (1983). During 1984 and 1985, however, he grew frustrated with RCA Records, who began to promote newer artists at the expense of veteran performers like Pride himself. He left the label at the end of 1986, signing with Opryland's 16th Avenue label, where he returned to working with his old producer, Jerry Bradley. Pride had a number of minor hits for the label, highlighted by 1988's number five "Shouldn't It Be Easier Than This," before it collapsed. Pride moved on to Honest Entertainment in the early '90s, where he released My 6 Latest & 6 Greatest, where he dueted with the likes of Marty Stuart and Travis Tritt. Pride didn't record much after that album, yet he continued to be a popular concert attraction. On each of his shows, he was supported by his son Dion, who played lead guitar. In 1994, Pride was given the Academy of Country Music's Pioneer Award.~ David Vinopal, All Music Guide

Legends Buy this CD	Very Best of Charley Pride 1987-1989 Buy this CD	Pride's Platinum, Vol. 1 Buy this CD	Pride's Platinum, Vol. 2 Buy this CD	Pride of Country Buy this CD
Greatest Hits [BMG] Buy this CD	Legendary Charley Pride Buy this CD	Charley Pride Collection Buy this CD	Playlist: The Very Best of Charley Pride Buy this CD	Greatest Songs Buy this CD

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