Charley Pride was born 89 years ago today.
A country music singer, musician/guitarist, recording artist, performer and business owner, Pride’s greatest musical success came in the early to mid-1970s when he became the best-selling performer for RCA Records since Elvis Presley.
In total, he garnered 39 #1 hits on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts.
Pride was one of the few African-American country musicians to have had considerable success in the country music industry and only the second African American to have been inducted as a member of the Grand Ole Opry.
In 2010, Pride became a special investor and minority owner of the Texas Rangers Major League Baseball club.
Born in Sledge, Mississippi, Pride was one of eleven children of poor sharecroppers. His father intended to name him Charl Frank Pride, but owing to a clerical error on his birth certificate, his legal name is Charley Frank Pride. In his early teens, Pride began playing guitar.
Though he also loved music, one of Pride's lifelong dreams was to become a professional baseball player. In 1952, he pitched for the Memphis Red Sox of the Negro American League. He pitched well, and, in 1953, he signed a contract with the Boise Yankees, the Class C farm team of the New York Yankees.
During that season, an injury caused him to lose the "mustard" on his fastball, and he was sent to the Yankees' Class D team in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. Later that season, while in the Negro leagues with the Louisville Clippers, he and another player (Jesse Mitchell), were traded to the Birmingham Black Barons for a team bus.
"Jesse and I may have the distinction of being the only players in history to be traded for a used motor vehicle," Pride mused in his 1994 autobiography.
While he was active in baseball, Pride had been encouraged to join the music business by country stars such as Red Sovine and Red Foley, and was working towards this career.
In 1958, in Memphis, Pride visited Sun Studios and recorded some songs. One song has survived on tape, and was released in the United Kingdom as part of a box set. The song is a slow stroll in walking tempo called "Walkin' (the Stroll)."
Nashville manager and agent, Jack D. Johnson, signed Pride and landed him a contract with a record label, and he caught the ear of record producer Chet Atkins. A longtime producer at RCA Victor, Atkins had made stars out of country singers such as Jim Reeves and Skeeter Davis. Pride was signed to RCA in 1965. In January, 1966, he released his first single, "The Snakes Crawl at Night," which did not chart.
On the records of this song submitted to radio stations for airplay, the singer was listed as "Country Charley Pride." At this time, country music was a white medium. Jack made sure that there were no pictures of Pride distributed for the first two years of his career, in order to avoid the effects of Jim Crowism.
The success of "Just Between You and Me" was enormous. In 1967, he became the first black performer to appear at the Grand Ole Opry since harmonica player DeFord Bailey. Bailey was a regular cast member of the Opry from 1925 through 1941 — and made a final appearance in 1974.
Between 1969 and 1971, Pride had eight single records that simultaneously reached #1 on the U.S. Country Hit Parade and also charted on the Billboard Hot 100. During the rest of the 1970s and into the 1980s, Pride continued to rack up country music hits.
He stayed with RCA Records until 1986. At that point, he grew angry over the fact that RCA began to promote newer country artists and didn't renew contracts with many older artists who had been with the label for years. He moved on to 16th Avenue Records, where Pride bounced back with the #5 hit, "Shouldn't It Be Easier Than This."
Pride's lifelong passion for baseball continued throughout his life. He had 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 was often seen at their games.
Pride died in Dallas on December 12, 2020, of complications related to COVID-19. He was 86 years old.