Charley Pride

Charley Pride (1934-2020), musician. Charley Frank Pride was born in the son of sharecroppers in Sledge, Mississippi, one of eleven children. He grew up picking cotton and attending segregated schools, later recalling that as he and his classmates recited the Pledge of Allegiance phrase “with liberty and justice for all,” he’d “look out the window and see that it wasn’t so.” He taught himself to play guitar as a child and listened to country music on the radio, but when Jackie Robinson integrated Major League Baseball in 1947 he told himself “here’s my way out of the cotton fields.” In 1952 he signed with the Memphis Red Sox of the Negro American League as a pitcher. Although integration had caused the Negro Leagues to go into sharp decline, many young black players still started there before signing with the Major Leagues, and the Memphis franchise was still prosperous in part because the city had no Major League team. Pride signed a minor league contract with the New York Yankees in 1953, and if he had made it to the majors he would have become their first black player, but he an arm injury hindered his career. Over the next few years he played for several minor league and Negro League teams, becoming an all-star with Memphis in 1956, and also spending two years in the army. After being released by a team in Missoula, Montana in 1962, he moved to nearby Helena to work at a lead smelting plant and play for the semipro team, but he also began performing country music songs before each game and in local venues. He earned a popular local following, although he and his family were also denied service in a restaurant and by a real estate broker because of their race. Pride also traveled to Memphis to record at the legendary Sun Studios, and his demo tape drew the attention of country star Chet Atkins, who encouraged RCA Victor to give him a record deal in 1966. His first two songs on RCA did not sell well, but his third song “Just Between You and Me” reached number nine on the U.S. country charts and was nominated for a Grammy. All three songs were released without Pride’s photograph, leading many people then and now to believe that RCA did not want the overwhelmingly white and conservative country music fans to know Pride’s race. At one early show, for instance, fans applauded upon hearing his name and then fell into stunned silence when he took the stage, but he said “I realize that I’ve got that permanent tan, but my name’s Charley Pride and I am from Mississippi, my daddy was a farmer down there. And I sing country music. I want to entertain you if you’ll let me.” Knowledge of his racial identity became a moot point in 1967 when he performed at the Grand Ole Opry, a concert and radio broadcast venue in Nashville that since the 1920s had been the centerpiece of country music. Performing at the Opry was considered the crowning achievement of success, and Pride was the first African American to do so since 1941. Even so, some club promoters were reluctant to book or promote him, and even musicians who respected his ability did so in racist terms. One producer declared “I’m fixin’ to cut [a record with] this nigger,” while a fellow singer harmonized with him and exclaimed “I’m singing with a jig, and I don’t even mind it!” Pride navigated all of this through his quiet dignity, telling one man who insulted him “Sir, my name’s not Nigger. It’s Charley Pride.”

Pride’s first hit single and Opry appearance helped to launch one of the most successful careers in country music history. Between 1969 and 1982, 28 of his 42 singles reached the top spot on the U.S. Country Hit Parade charts, including every song he released between 1969 and 1973 except for several gospel records, and even those sold well. His biggest hit “Kiss An Angel Good Mornin’” sold a million copies, spent five weeks at the top of the country charts, made the top ten of the Adult Contemporary charts, and became his only song to reach the pop top-40, peaking at number 21. His 1970 song “All His Children” was included in the Paul Newman film Sometimes a Great Nation and received an Oscar nomination for best song, making Pride one of the first black musicians to be so honored. He would eventually have more than fifty songs that reached the top ten on the country charts. His albums were equally successful, with eleven of them going to number one on the Top Country Charts, another thirteen making the top ten, and eight making the top fifty of the Billboard 200, a further sign that he was popular with a wide variety of fans. Overall, Pride sold more records for RCA Victor than any other musician except Elvis Presley. The Country Music Association named him Entertainer of the Year in 1971 and Male Vocalist of the Year in 1971 and 1972, becoming the first artist to win the latter award twice and still one of only three to accomplish that goal. He was also awarded three Grammys, including two for his gospel recordings. His influence in country music was also seen in another way when songwriter Steve Goodman name-dropped him, along with fellow giants Waylon Jennings and Merle Haggard, in the satirical song “You Never Even Called Me by My Name.” In yet another example of country’s conflict between its legacy of racism and its embrace of Pride, the most popular version of this song was made by David Allan Coe, who also released several songs with the word “nigger.” Pride’s success was a reflection of several broader trends in American music and society. Country music had long been hugely popular among rural and working-class whites, and it had also sold well in the early days of the record charts, but by the mid-1950s it was eclipsed by other genres, including the rock music that it had helped to shape. In the late 1960s, though, it moved towards a more crossover sound with artists like Pride. At the same time, the Civil Rights Movement had helped increase the profile of black musicians in multiple genres. Even though country music was seen as outside of this progress and in fact was preferred by many whites who rejected rock, R&B, and the 1960s in general, the shift in American culture was so profound that it helped create space even for Charley Pride. His success also helped country music become an importance influence in R&B, with country songs now being recorded by artists like the Temptations, Dobie Gray, and Candi Staton. Additionally, although the Great Migration had shifted the black population from the rural South to the urban North and West, Pride’s music was a reminder that nearly all African Americans had once been rural southerners like him and that many still were.

Although Pride’s star began to fade after the mid-1970s, his songs and albums continued to sell well. In 1975 he traveled to Belfast, Northern Ireland, which had been avoided by other performers because of religious violence, but his performance temporarily brought both sides together and encouraged other musicians to follow him. He sang the national anthem at the 1980 World Series, Super Bowl VIII in Houston, at the 2010 World Series (which included the Texas Rangers team of which he had become part owner), and at a Memphis Grizzlies game during their 2014 Martin Luther King Day celebrations. In 1983 he became a member of the Grand Ole Opry, only the second black artist to receive what is considered the highest honor in country music. He continued to perform and record even after suffering from bipolar disorder and having a tumor removed from his vocal cords. He was humorously introduced to a new generation of black music lovers in a 1994 episode of the TV show Martin in which Martin Lawrence’s radio personality character is forced to play country music and tries to remain true to his heritage without getting fired by playing Charley Pride records non-stop. To date his 47 studio albums, 11 compilation albums, and 72 singles have sold more than 70 million copies combined, including fourteen gold albums and a greatest hits collection that has sold four million. He has also received induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame and a 2017 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Grammys. Although country music still remains overwhelmingly white in its fan base and artists, Pride also helped pave the way for current stars Darius Rucker, Jimmie Allen, Kane Brown, and Lil Nas X. Charley Pride died of COVID-19 in 2020.
©David Brodnax, Sr.