Charlie Rich
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| Charlie Rich | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Charles Rich |
| Born | December 14, 1932 |
| Origin | Colt, Arkansas |
| Died | July 25, 1995 (aged 62) |
| Genre(s) | Country, Pop, Nashville Sound, Jazz, Rockabilly, Blues, Gospel |
| Occupation(s) | Singer, Songwriter |
| Instrument(s) | Vocals, Piano, Guitar |
| Years active | 1958 –1995 |
| Label(s) | Sun Records RCA Records Epic Records United Artists Records Elektra Records |
| Associated acts | Roger Miller, Janie Fricke |
| Website | Charlie Rich Official Site |
Charlie Rich (December 14, 1932 - July 25, 1995) was an American Country Music Singer/Musician. A Grammy Award winner, his eclectic-style of music was often hard to classify in a single genre, playing in the rockabilly, jazz, blues, country, and gospel genres.
In the latter part of his life, Rich acquired the nickname The Silver Fox. He is perhaps best remembered for a pair of 1973 hits, "Behind Closed Doors" and "The Most Beautiful Girl". "The Most Beautiful Girl" topped the U.S. country singles charts, as well as the pop singles charts. .
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[edit] Early life
Though he resided in Benton, Arkansas most of his life, Rich was born in Colt, Arkansas to rural cotton farmers, beginning a professional musical career while in the U.S. Air Force in the early 1950s. His first musical group, called the Velvetones, played jazz and blues and featured his fiancée, Margaret Ann, on lead vocals. Rich left the military in 1955 and tried to farm five acres in Tennessee. He also began performing in clubs around the Memphis area, playing both jazz and R&B. It was during these hard times that he began writing his own material.
[edit] Early Recording Career In the Late 50s & 60s
Rich was a session musician for Judd Records, which was owned by Jud Phillips, the brother of Sun Records founder Sam Phillips. After recording some demos for Sam Phillips at Sun Records that Phillips didn't find commercial enough, and too jazzy, legend has it that he was given a stack of Jerry Lee Lewis records and told: "come back when you get that bad."[citation needed] In 1958, Rich became a regular session musician for Sun Records playing on records by Lewis, Johnny Cash, Bill Justis, Warren Smith, Billy Lee Riley, Carl Mann, and Ray Smith. He also wrote songs for Lewis, Cash, and others.
His third single for the Sun subsidiary, Phillips International Records, was the 1960 Top 30 hit, "Lonely Weekends," noted for its Presley-like vocals. None of his seven follow-up singles were a success, though several of the songs became staples in his live set, including "Who Will the Next Fool Be," "Sittin' and Thinkin'," and "No Headstone on My Grave." These songs were often recorded by others to varying degrees of success, such as the Bobby Bland version of "Who Will the Next Fool Be."
Rich's career stalled, and he left the struggling Sun label in 1964, signing with a subsidiary of RCA Records. His first single for RCA, "Big Boss Man," was a minor hit, but again his Chet Atkins-produced follow-ups all stiffed. Rich moved to Smash Records early in 1965. Rich's new producer, Jerry Kennedy, encouraged the pianist to emphasize his country and rock & roll leanings, although Rich considered himself a jazz pianist and had not paid much attention to country music since his childhood. The first single for Smash was "Mohair Sam," an R&B-inflected novelty-rock number, and it became a Top 30 pop hit. Unfortunately again for Rich, none of his follow-up singles were successful. Rich was forced to change labels, moving over to Hi Records, where he recorded straight country, but none of his singles made a dent on the country charts.
[edit] The Height of His Career in the 70s
Despite Rich's lack of consistent commercial success, Epic Records signed Rich in 1967, mainly on the recommendation of producer Billy Sherrill. Sherrill helped Rich refashion himself as a Nashville Sound balladeer during an era when old rock n' rollers like Jerry Lee Lewis and Conway Twitty were finding a new musical home in the country and western format. This new "Countrypolitan" Rich sound paid off in the summer of 1972, when "I Take It on Home" went to number six in the country charts. The title track from his 1973 album, Behind Closed Doors, became a number one hit early in that year, crossing over into the Top 20 on the pop charts. This time his follow-up did not fizzle, as "The Most Beautiful Girl" spent three weeks at the top of the country charts and two weeks at the top of the pop charts. Now established as a country music star, Behind Closed Doors won three awards from the Country Music Association that year: Best Male Vocalist, Album of the Year, and Single of the Year. The album was also certified gold. Rich won a Grammy Award for Best Male Country Vocal Performance, and he took home four ACM awards.
After "The Most Beautiful Girl", number one hits came quickly, as five songs topped the country charts in 1974 and crossed over to the pop charts. The songs were "There Won't Be Anymore," "A Very Special Love Song," "I Don't See Me In Your Eyes Anymore," "I Love My Friend," and "She Called Me Baby." Both RCA and Mercury (Smash was a subsidiary of Mercury which was absorbed into the main company in 1970) re-released his previously recorded material from the mid-1960s, as well. All of this success led the CMA to name him Entertainer of the Year in 1974. Rich had three more top five hits in 1975, but even though he was at the peak of his popularity, Rich began to drink heavily, causing considerable problems off-stage. His destructive personal behavior famously culminated at the CMA awards ceremony for 1975, when he presented the award for Entertainer of the Year, while visibly intoxicated.[citation needed] Instead of reading the name of the winner, who happened to be John Denver, he set fire to the envelope with a cigarette lighter, before announcing the award had gone to "My good buddy, John Denver." Some considered it an act of rebellion against the Music Row-controlled Nashville Sound. But many speculated that Rich's behavior was a protest against the award going to Denver, whose music Rich had considered too "pop," and not enough "country."[1] Others, including industry insiders, were outraged, and Rich had trouble having hits throughout 1976, and only had one top ten with "Since I Fell For You."
The slump in his career was exacerbated by the fact that his records began to sound increasingly similar: pop-inflected country ballads with overdubbed strings and little of the jazz or blues Rich had performed his entire life. He did not have a top ten hit again until "Rollin' With the Flow" in 1977 went to number one. Early in 1978, he signed with United Artists Records, and throughout that year, he had hits on both Epic and UA. His hits in 1978 included the top ten hits "Beautiful Woman," "Puttin' In Overtime At Home," and his last number one with "On My Knees," a duet with Janie Fricke.
[edit] Reclusive Era & Death
Rich struggled throughout 1979 having hits with United Artists and Epic. His singles were moderate hits that year, the biggest of them on either UA or Epic was a version of "Spanish Eyes," which became a top 20 country hit. Rich appeared as himself in the 1979 Clint Eastwood movie, Every Which Way But Loose, in which he performed the song, "I'll Wake You Up When I Get Home." This song hit number three on the charts in 1979 and was his last top ten single. In 1980, he switched labels again to Elektra Records, and released a number twelve single, "A Man Just Don't Know What a Woman Goes Through" in the fall of that year. One more Top 40 hit followed — the Gary Stewart song, "Are We Dreamin' the Same Dream" early in 1981 — but Rich decided to remove himself from the spotlight. For over a decade, Rich was silent, living off his investments in semi-retirement and only playing occasional concerts.
In 1992, Rich released Pictures and Paintings, a jazzy record that was produced by journalist Peter Guralnick. It was released on Sire Records. Pictures and Paintings received positive critical reviews and restored Rich's reputation as a musician, but it would be his last record. One of his opening acts in these years was Tom Waits, who mentioned him in the song "Putnam County" from his album Nighthawks at the Diner with the lyric: "The radio's spitting out Charlie Rich... He sure can sing, that son of a bitch."
Charlie Rich died in his sleep on July 25, 1995 in the Hammond, Louisiana motel where he and his wife were spending the night during a car trip to Florida. He was 62 years old. The cause of death was a blood clot in his lung. He was buried in the Memorial Park Cemetery in Memphis, Tennessee.
[edit] Discography
[edit] Charted Singles
| Year | Single | US Hot 100 | US Country | US AC | Album |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1960 | "Lonely Weekends" | 22 | - | - | Lonely Weekends With Charlie Rich |
| 1965 | "Mohair Sam" | 21 | - | - | The Many New Sides |
| 1968 | "Raggedy Ann" | - | 45 | - | The Fabulous Charlie Rich |
| 1968 | "Set Me Free" | - | 44 | - | Set Me Free |
| 1969 | "Life's Little Ups and Downs" | - | 41 | - | The Fabulous Charlie Rich |
| 1970 | "July 12, 1939" | 85 | 47 | 39 | The Fabulous Charlie Rich |
| 1970 | "Nice'n Easy" | - | 37 | 34 | Boss Man |
| 1971 | "Woman Left Lonely" | - | 72 | - | The Best of Charlie Rich |
| 1972 | "Part of Your Life" | - | 35 | - | The Best of Charlie Rich |
| 1972 | "I Take It on Home" | - | 6 | - | Behind Closed Doors |
| 1973 | "Behind Closed Doors" | 15 | 1 | 8 | Behind Closed Doors |
| 1973 | "The Most Beautiful Girl" | 1 | 1 | 1 | Behind Closed Doors |
| 1974 | "A Very Special Love Song" | 11 | 1 | 1 | A Very Special Love Song |
| 1974 | "There Won't Be Anymore" | 18 | 1 | 15 | There Won't Be Anymore |
| 1974 | "I Don't See Me in Your Eyes Anymore" | 47 | 1 | - | There Won't Be Anymore |
| 1974 | "She Called Me Baby" | 47 | 1 | 41 | She Called Me Baby |
| 1974 | "Field of Yellow Daisies" | - | 23 | - | A Very Special Love Song |
| 1974 | "I Love My Friend" | 24 | 1 | 1 | The Silver Fox |
| 1975 | "My Elusive Dreams" | 49 | 3 | 16 | The Silver Fox |
| 1975 | "Everytime You Touch Me (I Get High)" | 19 | 3 | 1 | Every Time You Touch Me |
| 1975 | "It's All Over Now" | - | 23 | - | There Won't Be Anymore |
| 1975 | "All Over Me" | - | 4 | 33 | Everytime You Touch Me |
| 1975 | "Now Everybody Knows" | - | 56 | - | (Single Only) |
| 1976 | "Since I Fell For You" | 71 | 10 | 11 | Everytime You Touch Me |
| 1976 | "America the Beautiful" | - | 22 | 42 | Greatest Hits |
| 1976 | "Road Song" | - | 27 | 31 | |
| 1977 | "Easy Look" | - | 12 | - | Take Me |
| 1977 | "My Mountain Dew" | - | 24 | - | Greatest Hits |
| 1977 | "Rollin' With the Flow" | 101 | 1 | 32 | Rollin' With the Flow |
| 1978 | "Beautiful Woman" | - | 10 | - | Rollin' With the Flow |
| 1978 | "On My Knees" (with Janie Fricke) | - | 1 | - | Take Me |
| 1978 | "Puttin' In Overtime at Home" | - | 8 | - | I Still Believe in Love |
| 1978 | "I Still Believe in Love" | - | 46 | - | I Still Believe in Love |
| 1979 | "I'll Wake You Up When I Get Home" | - | 3 | - | Every Which Way But Loose Soundtrack |
| 1979 | "The Fool Strikes Again" | - | 45 | - | The Fool Strikes Again |
| 1979 | "I Lost My Head" | - | 26 | - | The Fool Strikes Again |
| 1979 | "Spanish Eyes" | - | 20 | - | Take Me |
| 1979 | "Life Goes On" | - | 84 | 13 | The Fool Strikes Again |
| 1980 | "You're Gonna Love Yourself In the Morning" | - | 22 | - | Nobody But You |
| 1980 | "A Man Just Don't Know What a Woman Goes Through" | - | 12 | - | Once a Drifter |
| 1981 | "Are We Dreamin' the Same Dream" | - | 26 | - | Once a Drifter |
[edit] Charted Albums
| Year | Album | U.S. Top Country Albums | U.S. Pop Albums |
| 1970 | Boss Man | 44 | - |
| 1973 | Behind Closed Doors | 1 | 8 |
| 1973 | Tomorrow Night | 24 | - |
| 1974 | Charlie Rich Sings the Songs of Hank Willimas & Others | 33 | 177 |
| 1974 | Fully Realized | 11 | - |
| 1974 | She Called Me Baby | 10 | 84 |
| 1974 | There Won't Be Anymore | 1 | 36 |
| 1974 | Very Special Love Songs | 1 | 24 |
| 1974 | The Best of Charlie Rich | 4 | 89 |
| 1975 | Everytime You Touch Me | 1 | 54 |
| 1975 | Greatest Hits | 14 | 162 |
| 1975 | The Silver Fox | 1 | 25 |
| 1976 | Silver Linings | 25 | 160 |
| 1976 | The World of Charlie Rich | 22 | - |
| 1977 | Big Boss Man/My Mountain Dew | 38 | - |
| 1977 | Rollin' With the Flow | 19 | 180 |
| 1977 | Take Me | 22 | - |
| 1978 | Classic Rich Vol. 2 | 29 | - |
| 1978 | Classic Rich | 29 | - |
| 1978 | I Still Believe In Love | 29 | - |
| 1980 | Once a Drifter | 52 | - |
[edit] Awards Won
| Year | Award Program | Award |
| 1973 | CMA Awards | Male Vocalist of the Year |
| 1973 | CMA Awards | Album of the Year for Behind Closed Doors |
| 1974 | Grammy Awards | Best Male Country Vocal Performance for "Behind Closed Doors" |
| 1974 | CMA Awards | Entertainer of the Year |
[edit] References
[edit] External Links
- All Music Guide
- An early discography with sound checks
- Biography on Charlie Rich, Jr.'s website
- Charlie Rich's official website
- Escott, Colin. (1998). "Charlie Rich". In The Encyclopedia of Country Music. Paul Kingsbury, Editor. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 442-3.
