Charley Pride
Charley Pride was a notable American country music singer and professional baseball player, born on March 18, 1938, in Sledge, Mississippi. Growing up on a cotton farm, he developed a passion for music early on, teaching himself to play guitar by following radio broadcasts of the Grand Ole Opry. Before embarking on his music career, Pride played in the Negro Leagues for teams like the Memphis Red Sox and the Birmingham Black Barons. His transition to music began in the early 1960s when he recorded his first songs, which caught the attention of RCA Records, leading to a successful career.
Pride became a pioneering figure in country music, with a string of number-one hits during the late 1960s and 1970s, including his signature song, "Kiss an Angel Good Mornin'." He was the first African American to join the Grand Ole Opry in 1993 and received numerous accolades, including a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Throughout his life, Pride sold over seventy million records and continued to perform well into his later years. He passed away on December 12, 2020, from complications related to COVID-19, leaving a lasting legacy as a trailblazer in a genre that was predominantly white, reflecting the evolving racial dynamics in American culture.
Charley Pride
Singer
- Born: March 18, 1938
- Birthplace: Sledge, Mississippi
- Died: December 12, 2020
- Place of death: Dallas, Texas
Country musician and baseball player
Charley Pride pursued two common American dreams by becoming a professional baseball player and a music superstar. Although he was a respected Negro League player, Pride is best known as a country music legend. Over a five-decade span, he sold more than seventy million records. He also was the first African American invited to join the Grand Ole Opry.
Areas of achievement: Music: folk and country; Sports: baseball
Early Life
Charley Frank Pride was born on a cotton farm in Sledge, Mississippi, on March 18, 1938. He and his ten brothers and sisters worked alongside their father, sharecropper Mack Pride. By the time he was fourteen years old, Pride had earned enough money to purchase a Silvertone guitar. He taught himself to use it by playing along with radio broadcasts of the Grand Ole Opry.
Before beginning his legendary music career, Pride played professional baseball. Throughout the mid- to late 1950s, he pitched for two Negro League teams, the Memphis Red Sox and the Birmingham Black Barons. One highlight of his baseball career was his participation in the 1956 Negro American League All-Stars team, which played exhibition games against a major-league all-star team that included Willie Mays and Hank Aaron.
Although Pride seemed to be on a path to the major leagues, he was sidetracked by a two-year stint in the Army and his 1956 marriage to his girlfriend, Rozene Cohan. Upon his discharge from the Army and return to Memphis, he quit the Red Sox after he was denied a raise by the team ownership. In the early 1960s Pride tried out for two Major League Baseball teams, the California Angels and the New York Mets, but did not receive a contract.
Life’s Work
Throughout his baseball career, Pride never forgot his love of country music. While traveling through Nashville, he was noticed by music manager Jack Johnson, who persuaded producer Jack Clement to hear Pride perform. Clement offered Pride two hours in the studio to record two songs. Pride recorded “The Snakes Crawl at Night” and “Atlantic Coastal Line,” and by day’s end he had launched his career as a country music singer.
These first two recordings soon landed in the hands of legendary RCA Records producer Chet Atkins, who signed Pride to the label in 1966. Pride’s first two RCA singles, “The Snakes Crawl at Night” and “Before I Met You,” introduced him to a national radio audience. His third single, “Just Between You and Me,” earned Pride his first hit single, reaching the ninth spot on the US country hit parade.
Johnson, Clement, and RCA carefully formulated a marketing plan to introduce the African American singer into the predominantly white world of country music. Pursuing radio success prior to his first major tours, “Country Charlie Pride,” as he was billed at the time, developed a solid fan base that sought out his music without any preconceived ideas based on his race. The plan worked, as evidenced by Pride's rapid and largely unscathed rise to country music stardom in the late 1960s and 1970s. He made his first appearance on the Grand Ole Opry in 1967.
From 1969 through 1971, Pride had seven number-one hits on the country charts, including “All I Have to Offer You (Is Me),” “I’d Rather Love You,” “I’m Just Me,” and the singer’s biggest hit, “Kiss an Angel Good Mornin’,” which topped one million in record sales. Pride’s success earned him two Country Music Association Awards, for top male vocalist and entertainer of the year, in 1971. He took home the best male vocalist award the following year as well.
Throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, Pride continued his run of number-one country singles, among them “Burgers and Fries,” “Roll on Mississippi,” “You’re So Good When You’re Bad,” and “Every Heart Should Have One.” His 1983 hit “Night Games” was his last song to reach number one on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart. Pride left RCA Records in 1986, after a twenty-year tenure that amassed thirty-six number-one singles and thirty-one gold albums. He had sold more than seventy million records, making him one of the label’s best-selling artists.
Pride continued recording in the 1990s and 2000s, releasing the albums Classics with Pride (1996), A Tribute to Jim Reeves (2001), Comfort of Her Wings (2003), and Choices (2011). He also continued to tour and to perform frequently well into his seventh decade.
Pride has garnered many accolades over his long career, among them his 1993 invitation to become the first African American to join the Grand Ole Opry, a childhood dream come true. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1999 and was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2000. In 2009, he held a concert at the White House for an audience that included President Barack Obama.
Pride and his wife, Rozene, moved to Dallas, Texas, in 1969. They have three children, sons Kraig and Dion and daughter Angela. A devoted fan of the Texas Rangers baseball team, Pride became part owner of the team in 2010.
Pride died on December 12, 2020, from complications related to COVID-19. That same year, he received the Willie Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award from the Country Music Association, recognizing his trailblazing work in country music hisory.
Significance
Pride’s achievements go beyond his dozens of hit records and millions of albums sold; his biography reflects the changing racial landscape in twentieth-century American culture. After a successful career in the Negro Leagues just a few years after Jackie Robinson integrated Major League Baseball, Pride ascended to prominence in a musical genre dominated by white artists.
Bibliography
“Biography.” Charley Pride. Charley Pride, n.d. Web. 25 Mar. 2016.
Dunham, Nancy. “Charley Pride among Group Buying Baseball's Texas Rangers.” The Boot. Townsquare Media, 9 Aug. 2010. Web. 25 Mar. 2016.
Imani, Dunkor. “Country Music Gets Some Color.” Black Issues Book Review Sept.–Oct. 2000: 28+. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 25 Mar. 2016.
Malone, Ann. “Charley Pride.” Stars of Country Music: Uncle Dave Macon to Johnny Rodriguez. Ed. Bill C. Malone and Judith McCulloh. Urbana: U of Illinois P, 1975. 340–56. Print.
Pride, Charley, and Jim Henderson. Pride: The Charley Pride Story. New York: Morrow, 1994. Print.
Ratliff, Jason. “Baseball Set Stage for Country Legend.” MLB.com. MLB Advanced Media, 23 Feb. 2006. Web. 25 Mar. 2016.