Before Barack Obama, There was Charley Pride
Charley Pride, an outstanding country singer, is one of the only African-American artists to have achieved success in an almost completely white music arena. And he did this at a time when African-Americans were still struggling to achieve basic civil rights in the United States.
Pride was born to a large family of sharecroppers in Mississippi. He began his eventual path to a musical career in his teens when he first started playing the guitar. However, a possible musical career was put on hold while Pride followed his dream to be a professional baseball player. He played in the Negro American League and in the minor leagues as a pitcher until an injury basically ended his baseball career.
Pride recorded his first songs in 1958, at the age of 20 and while still playing baseball. The records went nowhere and Pride's musical career did not get a real start until Chet Atkins signed him to a contract with RCA Records in 1966. His first song with RCA was "The Snakes Crawl At Night." This was followed by a second song that didn't catch on, but his third song for RCA, "Just Between You And Me," brought Pride his first top ten hit. It reached number nine on the country charts and in 1967 won a Grammy award for Pride.
Pride appeared on the Grand Ole Opry in 1967 and he was the first African-American to do so in 42 years. Pride's career continued to rise, and he had several number one hits in the late 1960s and early 1970s. His greatest hit, "Kiss An Angel Good Morning," was released in 1971. After that hit, Pride received two major awards from the Country Music Association - Top Male Vocalist and Entertainer of the Year.
Pride continued to be a top country artist throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Some of his greatest hits during this era were "Is Anybody Goin' To San Antone," "Mississippi Cotton Picking Delta Town" and "Someone Loves You Honey."
Over his long career, Pride's songs and albums sold over 70 million records. In 1994, Pride received the Pioneer Award from the Academy of Country Music and he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2000.
Official Website of Charley Pride
Information Sources
Grand Ole Opry
Country Music Hall of Fame
Wikipedia - Charley Pride
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Loretta Lynn - A Great Female Country Artist
Loretta Lynn, one of the leading female country artists of the 1960s and 1970s, has had an almost 50 year career. She had 16 number one hits, several of them with Conway Twitty, and 17 number one albums. During her long career, Lynn wrote over 160 songs and recorded 70 albums.
Lynn's life was hard from an early age. The daughter of a Kentucky coal miner, she married as a child at the age of only 13. By the time she was 17, she already had four children.
Lynn first started singing as a child in church and at local concerts. However, after she married, she quit singing to raise her children. At the age of 18, her husband bought her a guitar, and Lynn taught herself to play it. She went back to performing several years later.
Lynn's first big break came in 1960 when she signed a contract with Zero Records and recorded two songs, "Whispering Sea" and "I'm A Honky Tonk Girl." While traveling around the country to promote "I'm a Honky Tonk Girl," Lynn met the Wilburn brothers who owned a publishing company. They helped Lynn get a contract with Decca Records.
In 1960, Lynn had her first appearance at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville. Two years later, she finally hit it big with a recording when her song, "Success," hit number six on the country charts. Her good fortunes continued throughout the early 1960s with hits such as "Before I'm Over You" and "Wine, Women And Song."
Beginning in the mid-1960s, Lynn started a new trend in country music by composing and singing songs from a feminist view. In 1966, "You Ain't Woman Enough To Take My Man" hit number two on the country charts. Her first number one hit song and album came a year later with "Don't Come Home A-Drinkin' (With Lovin' On Your Mind)."
Lynn's success and popularity continued into the 1970s, beginning with her major number one hit in 1970, "Coal Miner's Daughter." This autobiographical song told of her early life in Kentucky and later became the title and theme song for her movie biography that starred Sissy Spacek.
From 1971 until 1975, Lynn formed a very successful partnership with Conway Twitty. During these years, the duo had five number one hits, including "After The Fire Is Gone" (1971), "Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man" (1973) and "As Soon As I Hang Up The Phone" (1974). Lynn and Twitty won the Vocal Duo of the Year award from the County Music Association four times (1972, 1973, 1974, 1975). They continued their partnership until 1981 and they had seven more hits from 1976 to 1981.
The 1980s saw a decline in Lynn's recording career, but she was still popular on the concert circuit. In the early 1990s, she stopped performing in order to take care of her ailing husband who passed away in 1996. Lynn then returned to performing and she still occasionally appears in concerts.
Loretta Lynn has been honored several times with prestigious awards. She was voted Female Vocalist of the Year by the Country Music Association in 1967, 1972 and 1973. In 1988, Lynn was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame and she received the Kennedy Center Honor in 2003.
Information Sources
Wikipedia - Loretta Lynn
Country Music Hall of Fame
Loretta Lynn - Official Website
Eddy Arnold - A Star for 65 Years
Eddy Arnold, often associated with the Nashville sound, had a 65-year career as a country singer. He was known as a clean-cut performer who never fell into the trap of drug and alcohol addiction that affected so many of his contemporaries. He was nicknamed the "Tennessee Plowboy" because of his early roots, growing up on a farm in Tennessee. Arnold's natural and gifted talents resulted in the sale of more than 85 million records and 28 number one hits on Billboard's "Country Singles" chart over the span of his long career.
Arnold started singing professionally at the age of 17 but it took several years for him to achieve any success. However, by 1943, he was a solo performer on the Grand Ole Opry and in 1944, he signed a recording contract with RCA Victor. His first major hit for the record company came two years later with "That's How Much I Love You."
Arnold's manager early in his career was Colonel Tom Parker, best known for also managing Elvis Presley. Arnold stayed with Parker until 1964 and Parker was instrumental in Eddy Arnold becoming a top country singer.
Eddy Arnold's Early Career
From 1947 to 1948, Arnold was one of the major recording artists in the country music field. He had 13 out of 20 top country hits, including "I'll Hold You In My Heart (Till I Can Hold You In My Arms)" and "Bouquet Of Roses."
By the early 1950s, Arnold had achieved national fame and he had his own summer TV show. In the mid-1950s, Arnold's sound took on a popular tone and he recorded new versions of country songs, including a modern, updated version of the country-western song, "Cattle Call."
Eddy Arnold's Later Career
In 1964, Arnold left Colonel Parker and Jerry Purcell became his new manager. This switch brought about a new, more contemporary sound to Arnold's music. One of his songs that hit both the country and pop charts during this time was "Make The World Go Away."
By the late 1960s, Arnold was revolutionizing and popularizing country music by appearing in concerts with symphony orchestras. He also began a tradition of country stars crossing over to mainstream audiences with performances at top showrooms in Las Vegas and Lake Tahoe.
Awards Won by Eddy Arnold
Eddy Arnold won many prestigious awards in his career, beginning in 1966 with his induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame. The following year, he was named Entertainer of the Year by the Country Music Association. In 1984, Arnold was awarded the Pioneer Award from the Academy of Country Music. Fifteen years later, in 1999, his recording of "Make the World Go Away" was included in the Grammy Hall of Fame. Arnold's last award came when he was 87 years old. In 2005, he was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.
In 1999, at the age of 81, Arnold retired, but he still continued to occasionally perform and record albums and his final album was released when he was 87 years old. Arnold died two years later on May 8, 2008, just seven days short of his 90th birthday.
Information Sources
Wikipedia - Eddy Arnold
Country Music Hall of Fame
The Legendary Hank Williams
Hank Williams is undoubtedly one of the greatest country legends, having influenced the genre and numerous singers who succeeded him. Williams, best associated with the Honky Tonk style of country music, began singing professionally at the age of only 14. He started as a young street singer with a guitar, performing outside a radio station in Montgomery, Alabama. He was soon hired by the radio station for his own 15 minute show, twice a week.
Once Williams had enough money saved from his radio job, he formed his own band, the Drifting Cowboys. The were soon playing in clubs and for parties in Alabama. At age 16, Williams left school to perform with his band full time. Soon afterwards, his mother became the group's manager and she arranged gigs for them in Georgia and Florida.
Williams' band split up in 1941 when most of the members were drafted into the US armed services. Williams began drinking heavily and in 1942, he was fired from his radio show because of his excessive drinking. A year later, he married and his new wife became his manager.
In 1946 and 1947, Williams had his first two hit recordings for Sterling Records ("Never Again" and "Honky Tonkin'"). These two successes led to a recording contract with MGM Records and his first recording with MGM, "Move It On Over," was a huge hit.
The next few years brought even more success to Williams. In 1948, he became a regular on The Louisiana Hayride and a year later, he achieved national recognition with the success of his mainstream hit, "Lovesick Blues." In 1949, Williams had seven additional hit songs and the trend continued through 1951. One of his major hits during this period was "Cold, Cold Heart."
After 1951, Williams career faltered due to his problems with alcohol and drug abuse. He suffered from a painful congenital form of spina bifida and he became addicted to prescription drugs taken to relieve the pain. In 1952, Williams was fired from the Grand Ole Opry and his band split up. On January 1, 1953, Williams was found dead in the back seat of his car. It is unclear what caused his death.
Williams' last song, "Your Cheatin' Heart," was released posthumously in 1953.
Information Source
Wikipedia - Hank Williams
Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs
Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs played bluegrass music with Bill Monroe, but they are probably best known for the group they formed in 1948, the Foggy Mountain Boys. Together, Flatt and Scruggs probably did more to bring bluegrass into mainstream music than any other individual or group.
Lester Flatt, a school dropout at the age of 12, didn't begin performing professionally until he was in his mid-twenties and his big break with Bill Monroe didn't come until 1945 when Flatt was 31 years old. Earl Scruggs, on the other hand, had a much earlier start and he joined Monroe's Bluegrass Boys at the age of 21. Scruggs' distinctive three-finger style of banjo playing quickly stirred audiences and helped to revolutionize bluegrass music.
Flatt and Scruggs left Monroe and the Bluegrass Boys in 1948 to perform as a duo. Soon afterwards, they hired other musicians and formed the Foggy Mountain Boys. The band began by playing for radio stations in the South and cutting records for the Mercury label. Later, in 1950, they signed with Columbia Records, the company for which they would record until they broke up their act in 1969.
In 1955, Flatt and Scruggs moved up the ladder of success when they became regulars on the Grand Ole Opry. Their careers continued to climb and by the late 1950s, they had their own syndicated TV show, watched primarily in the southeastern states. Their recording career also flourished and their songs, such as "Cabin on the Hill," began appearing on country charts.
The 1960s, with its revived interest in folk music, brought Flatt and Scruggs into the national limelight. Their hit recording of "The Ballad of Jed Clampett," the theme song for the popular TV comedy, "The Beverly Hillbillies," led to further fame, with the song eventually reaching the number one slot on the country charts.
Flatt and Scruggs, after 21 years as a team, split up in 1969, both forming their own new groups. Scruggs partnered with his sons to form the Earl Scruggs Revue and Flatt started a band called the Nashville Grass. Sixteen years later, in 1985, both men were inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.
Information Sources
Country Music Hall of Fame
Wikipedia - Earl Scruggs
Wikipedia - Lester Flatt