Charley Pride, who has died of complications from Covid-19 aged 86, was a hugely successful American country music star who made history when in 1969 he topped the US country charts, the first black performer to achieve that feat since Louis Jordan 25 years earlier.
The song was All I Have to Offer You (Is Me), and with its lush background vocals and slick production the song epitomised the Nashville sound pioneered by Chet Atkins, the great guitarist and RCA executive who produced it with Cowboy Jack Clement.
Pride hit his artistic purple patch in the late 1960s and early 1970s with ballads of broken hearts, including Just Between You and Me and Does My Ring Hurt Your Finger, as well as more uptempo hits with countrypolitan appeal, among them Kiss an Angel Good Mornin and the paean to hitchhiking Is Anybody Going to San Antone?.
Pioneering country music singer Charley Pride (1934-2020) dies of COVID-19
Country music singer Charley Pride died from the COVID-19 virus on December 12 in Dallas at age 86. He was the first African American artist to achieve major success in country music, signing with the RCA Victor label in 1966. He produced at least 30 chart-topping country songs through the late 1980s and sold over 70 million records worldwide.
Pride is best known for songs of love and heartache, including “Kiss an Angel Good Mornin’,” “Is Anybody Goin’ to San Antone?”, “All I Have to Offer You (Is Me),” “Help Me Make It Through the Night,” “Streets of Baltimore,” “I Can’t Believe You’ve Stopped Loving Me” and “Just Between You and Me.”
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Photo: Jason Kempin | Getty Images for the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum
Charley Frank Pride was a rare commodity. Not only was he an icon with universal appeal, but his six-decade career also embodied a strong message that many to this day still don t understand. He was living proof that being true to yourself and what you love is the highest form of cultural authenticity, and that country music as much as music of any other tradition belongs to everyone. Pride, who died Dec. 12 at 86 of complications from COVID-19, was the first Black superstar in country music s modern era, although he knew better than most that he wasn t the idiom s first African American performer.
KCAP-AM on Dec. 12, country singer
Red Foley who was there to promote a concert had reservations as the tall Black man introduced himself and reached out for a handshake. Is this something pertaining to civil rights? asked Foley, according to an account in
Pride: The Charley Pride Story.
The DJ,
Elmer Tiny Stokes, vouched for Pride, and before the day was over, the singer was able to perform two songs during the show at the Helena Civic Center. He also got a boost when
Red Sovine, another hitmaker on the bill, offered assistance to get Pride a meeting at Cedarwood Publishing in Nashville.
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Photo: Jason Kempin | Getty Images for the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum
Charley Frank Pride was a rare commodity. Not only was he an icon with universal appeal, but his six-decade career also embodied a strong message that many to this day still don t understand. He was living proof that being true to yourself and what you love is the highest form of cultural authenticity, and that country music as much as music of any other tradition belongs to everyone. Pride, who died Dec. 12 at 86 of complications from COVID-19, was the first Black superstar in country music s modern era, although he knew better than most that he wasn t the idiom s first African American performer.