Charley Pride (born Charley Frank Pride on 18 March 1934; died 12 December … Read Full Bio ↴Charley Pride (born Charley Frank Pride on 18 March 1934; died 12 December 2020) was an American singer, musician, guitarist, business owner, and professional baseball player. His greatest musical success came in the early to mid-1970s, when he became the best-selling performer for RCA Records since Elvis Presley. During the peak years of his recording career (1966–87), he garnered 52 top-10 hits on the US Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, 30 of which made it to number one. He also won the Entertainer of the Year award at the US Country Music Association Awards in 1971.
Becoming a trailblazing Country Music superstar was an improbable destiny for Pride, especially considering his humble beginnings as a sharecropper’s son on a cotton farm in Sledge, Mississippi. His unique journey to the top of the music charts includes a tumultuous detour through the world of Negro league, minor league and semi-pro baseball as well as many long years of labor alongside the vulcanic fires of a smelter. But in the end, with boldness, perseverance and undeniable musical talent, he managed to parlay a series of fortuitous encounters with Nashville insiders into an amazing legacy of hit singles and tens of millions in record sales.
Growing up, Pride was exposed primarily to Blues, Gospel and Country music. His father inadvertently fostered Charley’s love of Country music by tuning the family’s Philco radio to Nashville’s WSM-AM in order to catch Grand Ole Opry broadcasts. At 14 years of age, Pride purchased his first guitar—a Silvertone from a Sears Roebuck catalog—and taught himself how to play it by listening to the songs that he heard on that radio.
By the age of 16, Pride began emerging as a talented baseball player. He first played organized games in the Iowa State League and then professional games in the Negro American League as a pitcher and outfielder for the Memphis Red Sox. In 1953, he signed a contract with the Boise Yankees, the Class C farm team of the New York Yankees. But during that season an injury hampered his pitching. He was first sent to the Yankees' Class D team in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin and then released. Over the next several years, Charley rejoined the Memphis Red Sox, moved to the Louisville Clippers and then was traded, along with another player, to the Birmingham Black Barons for a used bus. He also played for the El Paso Kings and a team in Nogales, Mexico. Upon rejoining the Memphis Red Sox in 1956 he won 14 games as a pitcher and earned himself a position on the Negro American League All-Star Team. As an all-star player that year, Pride pitched against a group of major league all-stars that included Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Al Smith, Gene Baker and Ernie Banks.
Between ballparks, Pride often passed the time and entertained teammates by singing and playing his guitar on the team bus. And during these travels he happily joined performers onstage whenever he was given the opportunity.
In late 1956 Pride was drafted by the US Army and ordered to report to Fort Chaffee, Arkansas for basic training. During Christmas leave from basic training, he married his wife Rozene, who he had met earlier in the year while playing baseball in Memphis. After basic training, he was stationed at Fort Carson, near Colorado Springs, Colorado, where he was assigned to quartermaster duty and the fort’s baseball team. Upon receiving his discharge from the US Army in early 1958, Pride rejoined the Memphis Red Sox and returned to doggedly pursuing his dream of becoming a major league baseball pitcher.
In 1960, Pride moved to Montana to play for the Missoula Timberjacks in the Pioneer League, but ended up working at a smelter operated by the Anaconda Mining Company and playing for its semi-pro baseball team, the East Helena Smelterites. In 1961, he was invited to try out for the Los Angeles Angels during spring training but found himself heading back home to Helena, Montana after just two weeks.
During the first half of the 1960’s, Pride continued to work at the smelter and play baseball for its semi-pro team. But he also began making a name for himself as a music performer by singing the national anthem at baseball games and performing at honky-tonks and nightclubs in the Helena, Anaconda and Great Falls areas. Sometimes he performed as a solo artist and other times as a member of a combo or group.
In 1962, with the help of Tiny Stokes, a local disc jockey, Pride was introduced to Country singers Red Sovine and Red Foley and invited to perform “Heartaches By The Numbers” and “Lovesick Blues” during one of their shows. This brief initial encounter with Red Sovine would turn out to be crucial in laying the groundwork for Charley’s future music career.
After a disastrous 1963 tryout with the New York Mets in Clearwater, Florida it became clear that a major league baseball career was not in the cards. Charley chose to return to Montana via Tennessee because Red Sovine had told him that if he ever became serious about a singing career and decided to come to Nashville, he should stop by Cedarwood Publishing, the company that booked Sovine’s shows.
From the bus station in Nashville, Pride walked straight over to Cedarwood’s office and by sheer luck ended up meeting Jack Johnson, who had been actively searching for a promising black Country singer. Johnson made a simply produced recording of Charley performing a couple of songs and then immediately drove him back to the bus station with the promise of a management contract. Johnson quickly made good on that promise and it was the beginning of a working relationship that would start off slow, but prove to be very fruitful over the next decade.
Johnson ran into significantly more resistance than he had anticipated as he shopped around the crude demo recording that he had made of Charley to the record labels in Nashville. It wasn’t until 1965 that forward progress was made. Charley came to Nashville and Johnson introduced him to producer, Jack Clement. Clement gave Charley seven songs to learn and within a week they cut three of these songs–“The Snakes Crawl At Night”, “Atlantic Coastal Line” and “Just Between You And Me”–during a three-hour studio session with top-notch session players.
Even with the professionally produced sides, Johnson and Clement continued to have a difficult time as they shopped Charley around to the Nashville labels. But finally in 1966, Chet Atkins decided to trust his ears and signed Charley to RCA Records. Atkins took Charley under his wing, nurtured his talent and figured out how to dance past the race issue, which was no small feat during mid 1960s America. Although Charley’s first couple of singles failed to jump-start his career, “Just Between You and Me” caught fire in 1967, breaking into the Top-10 Country chart and garnering Charley his first Grammy nomination.
What happened next is Country Music history. Charley Pride quickly became Country Music’s first African-American superstar. Between 1967 and 1987, he amassed no fewer than 52 Top-10 Country hits and went on to sell tens of millions of records worldwide. In 1971, Charley won two Grammy Awards related to his Gospel album Did You Think To Pray –“Best Sacred Performance, Musical (Non-Classical)” for the album, as well as “Best Gospel Performance Other Than Soul” for the single “Let Me Live.” Later that year, his #1 crossover hit “Kiss An Angel Good Mornin’” sold over a million singles and helped him to win the Country Music Association’s “Entertainer of the Year” award and the “Top Male Vocalist” awards of 1971 and 1972. It also brought him a “Best Male Country Vocal Performance” Grammy Award in 1972. Some of Charley’s hits from his 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s output include “All I Have To Offer You Is Me,” “Is Anybody Goin’ To San Antone,” “Amazing Love,” “Mississippi Cotton Pickin’ Delta Town,” “Burgers And Fries,” “Roll On Mississippi” and “Mountain Of Love.” After parting ways with RCA Records in 1986, Charley spent the remainder of the decade releasing albums on the 16th Avenue Records label.
In 1993, Charley was inducted into the Grand Ole Opry, 26 years after he had first played there as a guest. On December 9th of that year he performed at the White House for President Bill Clinton, Hillary Rodham Clinton and many others during the Lighting of the National Christmas Tree celebration at President's Park.
Pride: The Charley Pride Story, an autobiography that Charley wrote with the assistance of Jim Henderson, was published in 1994. This book covers the events of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s in significantly more depth.
In 1994, he opened the Charley Pride Theatre in Branson Missouri where he performed for 4 years, doing nearly 200 shows yearly. Also in 1994, Pride was honored by the Academy of Country Music with its prestigious Pioneer Award. And from 1994 until 1997, Pride released several albums on the Honest Entertainment record label.
In 2000, Pride was honored with an induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Shortly thereafter, he began releasing new music on the Music City Records label, including his critically acclaimed A Tribute To Jim Reeves (2001) and Pride And Joy: A Gospel Music Collection (2006) albums.
Charley appeared in the 2009 documentary film, The Black List: Vol. 2, which aired on HBO. The film is a component of The Black List Project, which interviews, films and photographs prominent African Americans of various professions, disciplines and backgrounds.
On July 21, 2009 Charley performed for President Barack Obama and guests in the historic East Room of the White House. His performance was part of a concert and educational workshop event (the White House Music Series) that also featured Brad Paisley and Alison Krauss. Hosted by Michelle Obama, the purpose of the event was to support the arts and demonstrate the continuing importance of arts education in America.
As part of an investment group spearheaded by Hall Of Game pitcher, Nolan Ryan, Charley became one of the owners of the Texas Rangers major league baseball team in 2010. The investment group purchased the team in a federal bankruptcy auction just weeks before the Rangers appeared in the World Series for the first time in team history. Charley has a long history with the Texas Rangers–he was invited to work out with the team during spring training in the 1970s and has continued to do so every year since. Each February and March, Charley blocks off several weeks from his schedule so that he can work out with the team at their Arizona spring training facility. In addition, Pride was drafted in 2008 by the Rangers during Major League Baseball’s ceremonial Special Negro League Player Draft.
Charley’s latest studio album Choices will be released on March 8, 2011. It features 13 new recordings written by such songwriters as Ted Harris (who wrote “Crystal Chandeliers”) and Ben Peters (who wrote “Kiss An Angel Good Morning” and many other Pride hits) as well as tracks penned by such fellow Country music stars as Eddy Raven and Richie McDonald (Lonestar).
Charley calls Dallas, Texas home. He relocated his family from Helena to Great Falls, Montana in 1967 and then to Dallas in 1969.
As of 2011, Charley continues to play 30 to 40 concert dates a year throughout the United States, Canada and Europe. He also performs at the Grand Ole Opry several times each year and hosts an annual fan club breakfast in Nashville each June. In addition to performing, recording new music and spending spring training with the Texas Rangers, he enjoys playing golf and spending time with his family.
Charley Pride's official website is at www.charleypride.com and his official Facebook page is at www.facebook.com/charleypride
Becoming a trailblazing Country Music superstar was an improbable destiny for Pride, especially considering his humble beginnings as a sharecropper’s son on a cotton farm in Sledge, Mississippi. His unique journey to the top of the music charts includes a tumultuous detour through the world of Negro league, minor league and semi-pro baseball as well as many long years of labor alongside the vulcanic fires of a smelter. But in the end, with boldness, perseverance and undeniable musical talent, he managed to parlay a series of fortuitous encounters with Nashville insiders into an amazing legacy of hit singles and tens of millions in record sales.
Growing up, Pride was exposed primarily to Blues, Gospel and Country music. His father inadvertently fostered Charley’s love of Country music by tuning the family’s Philco radio to Nashville’s WSM-AM in order to catch Grand Ole Opry broadcasts. At 14 years of age, Pride purchased his first guitar—a Silvertone from a Sears Roebuck catalog—and taught himself how to play it by listening to the songs that he heard on that radio.
By the age of 16, Pride began emerging as a talented baseball player. He first played organized games in the Iowa State League and then professional games in the Negro American League as a pitcher and outfielder for the Memphis Red Sox. In 1953, he signed a contract with the Boise Yankees, the Class C farm team of the New York Yankees. But during that season an injury hampered his pitching. He was first sent to the Yankees' Class D team in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin and then released. Over the next several years, Charley rejoined the Memphis Red Sox, moved to the Louisville Clippers and then was traded, along with another player, to the Birmingham Black Barons for a used bus. He also played for the El Paso Kings and a team in Nogales, Mexico. Upon rejoining the Memphis Red Sox in 1956 he won 14 games as a pitcher and earned himself a position on the Negro American League All-Star Team. As an all-star player that year, Pride pitched against a group of major league all-stars that included Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Al Smith, Gene Baker and Ernie Banks.
Between ballparks, Pride often passed the time and entertained teammates by singing and playing his guitar on the team bus. And during these travels he happily joined performers onstage whenever he was given the opportunity.
In late 1956 Pride was drafted by the US Army and ordered to report to Fort Chaffee, Arkansas for basic training. During Christmas leave from basic training, he married his wife Rozene, who he had met earlier in the year while playing baseball in Memphis. After basic training, he was stationed at Fort Carson, near Colorado Springs, Colorado, where he was assigned to quartermaster duty and the fort’s baseball team. Upon receiving his discharge from the US Army in early 1958, Pride rejoined the Memphis Red Sox and returned to doggedly pursuing his dream of becoming a major league baseball pitcher.
In 1960, Pride moved to Montana to play for the Missoula Timberjacks in the Pioneer League, but ended up working at a smelter operated by the Anaconda Mining Company and playing for its semi-pro baseball team, the East Helena Smelterites. In 1961, he was invited to try out for the Los Angeles Angels during spring training but found himself heading back home to Helena, Montana after just two weeks.
During the first half of the 1960’s, Pride continued to work at the smelter and play baseball for its semi-pro team. But he also began making a name for himself as a music performer by singing the national anthem at baseball games and performing at honky-tonks and nightclubs in the Helena, Anaconda and Great Falls areas. Sometimes he performed as a solo artist and other times as a member of a combo or group.
In 1962, with the help of Tiny Stokes, a local disc jockey, Pride was introduced to Country singers Red Sovine and Red Foley and invited to perform “Heartaches By The Numbers” and “Lovesick Blues” during one of their shows. This brief initial encounter with Red Sovine would turn out to be crucial in laying the groundwork for Charley’s future music career.
After a disastrous 1963 tryout with the New York Mets in Clearwater, Florida it became clear that a major league baseball career was not in the cards. Charley chose to return to Montana via Tennessee because Red Sovine had told him that if he ever became serious about a singing career and decided to come to Nashville, he should stop by Cedarwood Publishing, the company that booked Sovine’s shows.
From the bus station in Nashville, Pride walked straight over to Cedarwood’s office and by sheer luck ended up meeting Jack Johnson, who had been actively searching for a promising black Country singer. Johnson made a simply produced recording of Charley performing a couple of songs and then immediately drove him back to the bus station with the promise of a management contract. Johnson quickly made good on that promise and it was the beginning of a working relationship that would start off slow, but prove to be very fruitful over the next decade.
Johnson ran into significantly more resistance than he had anticipated as he shopped around the crude demo recording that he had made of Charley to the record labels in Nashville. It wasn’t until 1965 that forward progress was made. Charley came to Nashville and Johnson introduced him to producer, Jack Clement. Clement gave Charley seven songs to learn and within a week they cut three of these songs–“The Snakes Crawl At Night”, “Atlantic Coastal Line” and “Just Between You And Me”–during a three-hour studio session with top-notch session players.
Even with the professionally produced sides, Johnson and Clement continued to have a difficult time as they shopped Charley around to the Nashville labels. But finally in 1966, Chet Atkins decided to trust his ears and signed Charley to RCA Records. Atkins took Charley under his wing, nurtured his talent and figured out how to dance past the race issue, which was no small feat during mid 1960s America. Although Charley’s first couple of singles failed to jump-start his career, “Just Between You and Me” caught fire in 1967, breaking into the Top-10 Country chart and garnering Charley his first Grammy nomination.
What happened next is Country Music history. Charley Pride quickly became Country Music’s first African-American superstar. Between 1967 and 1987, he amassed no fewer than 52 Top-10 Country hits and went on to sell tens of millions of records worldwide. In 1971, Charley won two Grammy Awards related to his Gospel album Did You Think To Pray –“Best Sacred Performance, Musical (Non-Classical)” for the album, as well as “Best Gospel Performance Other Than Soul” for the single “Let Me Live.” Later that year, his #1 crossover hit “Kiss An Angel Good Mornin’” sold over a million singles and helped him to win the Country Music Association’s “Entertainer of the Year” award and the “Top Male Vocalist” awards of 1971 and 1972. It also brought him a “Best Male Country Vocal Performance” Grammy Award in 1972. Some of Charley’s hits from his 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s output include “All I Have To Offer You Is Me,” “Is Anybody Goin’ To San Antone,” “Amazing Love,” “Mississippi Cotton Pickin’ Delta Town,” “Burgers And Fries,” “Roll On Mississippi” and “Mountain Of Love.” After parting ways with RCA Records in 1986, Charley spent the remainder of the decade releasing albums on the 16th Avenue Records label.
In 1993, Charley was inducted into the Grand Ole Opry, 26 years after he had first played there as a guest. On December 9th of that year he performed at the White House for President Bill Clinton, Hillary Rodham Clinton and many others during the Lighting of the National Christmas Tree celebration at President's Park.
Pride: The Charley Pride Story, an autobiography that Charley wrote with the assistance of Jim Henderson, was published in 1994. This book covers the events of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s in significantly more depth.
In 1994, he opened the Charley Pride Theatre in Branson Missouri where he performed for 4 years, doing nearly 200 shows yearly. Also in 1994, Pride was honored by the Academy of Country Music with its prestigious Pioneer Award. And from 1994 until 1997, Pride released several albums on the Honest Entertainment record label.
In 2000, Pride was honored with an induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Shortly thereafter, he began releasing new music on the Music City Records label, including his critically acclaimed A Tribute To Jim Reeves (2001) and Pride And Joy: A Gospel Music Collection (2006) albums.
Charley appeared in the 2009 documentary film, The Black List: Vol. 2, which aired on HBO. The film is a component of The Black List Project, which interviews, films and photographs prominent African Americans of various professions, disciplines and backgrounds.
On July 21, 2009 Charley performed for President Barack Obama and guests in the historic East Room of the White House. His performance was part of a concert and educational workshop event (the White House Music Series) that also featured Brad Paisley and Alison Krauss. Hosted by Michelle Obama, the purpose of the event was to support the arts and demonstrate the continuing importance of arts education in America.
As part of an investment group spearheaded by Hall Of Game pitcher, Nolan Ryan, Charley became one of the owners of the Texas Rangers major league baseball team in 2010. The investment group purchased the team in a federal bankruptcy auction just weeks before the Rangers appeared in the World Series for the first time in team history. Charley has a long history with the Texas Rangers–he was invited to work out with the team during spring training in the 1970s and has continued to do so every year since. Each February and March, Charley blocks off several weeks from his schedule so that he can work out with the team at their Arizona spring training facility. In addition, Pride was drafted in 2008 by the Rangers during Major League Baseball’s ceremonial Special Negro League Player Draft.
Charley’s latest studio album Choices will be released on March 8, 2011. It features 13 new recordings written by such songwriters as Ted Harris (who wrote “Crystal Chandeliers”) and Ben Peters (who wrote “Kiss An Angel Good Morning” and many other Pride hits) as well as tracks penned by such fellow Country music stars as Eddy Raven and Richie McDonald (Lonestar).
Charley calls Dallas, Texas home. He relocated his family from Helena to Great Falls, Montana in 1967 and then to Dallas in 1969.
As of 2011, Charley continues to play 30 to 40 concert dates a year throughout the United States, Canada and Europe. He also performs at the Grand Ole Opry several times each year and hosts an annual fan club breakfast in Nashville each June. In addition to performing, recording new music and spending spring training with the Texas Rangers, he enjoys playing golf and spending time with his family.
Charley Pride's official website is at www.charleypride.com and his official Facebook page is at www.facebook.com/charleypride
Oklahoma Morning
Charley Pride Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Oh!
On an early autumn day
Freshness of the breeze brought the mornin'
And the sun came risin' up
Shinin' down on leaves that fell like golden snow
And the mystery of it all
Made the problems of the day seem unimportant
That Oklahoma mornin'
Puts Oklahoma sunshine in my soul
There ain't nothin' like an Oklahoma mornin'
Nothin' like it when you're feelin' low
It warms up your mind and your body
It puts Oklahoma sunshine in your soul
Our campfire came to life
The crackling of the fire and smell of coffee
Turned back the time
To a day when a man could listen for a while
To the sound of mother nature
Without the sound of industry in the background
That Oklahoma mornin'
Puts Oklahoma sunshine in my smi-I-ile
There ain't nothin' like an Oklahoma mornin'
Nothin' like it when you're feelin' low
It'll warm up your mind and your body
It puts Oklahoma sunshine in your soul
One more time
There ain't nothin' like an Oklahoma mornin'
Nothin' like it when you're feelin' low
It'll warm up your mind and your body
It puts Oklahoma sunshine in your soul
It puts Oklahoma sunshine in your soul
Whoa! Thank you
On an early autumn day
Freshness of the breeze brought the mornin'
And the sun came risin' up
Shinin' down on leaves that fell like golden snow
And the mystery of it all
Made the problems of the day seem unimportant
That Oklahoma mornin'
Puts Oklahoma sunshine in my soul
There ain't nothin' like an Oklahoma mornin'
Nothin' like it when you're feelin' low
It warms up your mind and your body
It puts Oklahoma sunshine in your soul
Our campfire came to life
The crackling of the fire and smell of coffee
Turned back the time
To a day when a man could listen for a while
To the sound of mother nature
Without the sound of industry in the background
That Oklahoma mornin'
Puts Oklahoma sunshine in my smi-I-ile
There ain't nothin' like an Oklahoma mornin'
Nothin' like it when you're feelin' low
It'll warm up your mind and your body
It puts Oklahoma sunshine in your soul
One more time
There ain't nothin' like an Oklahoma mornin'
Nothin' like it when you're feelin' low
It'll warm up your mind and your body
It puts Oklahoma sunshine in your soul
It puts Oklahoma sunshine in your soul
Whoa! Thank you
In Charley Pride's song Oklahoma Morning, the singer describes a serene autumn morning in Oklahoma. The freshness of the breeze signals the beginning of a new day, and the sun rising over the golden leaves creates a mystical atmosphere that makes the singer's problems seem unimportant. The singer speaks of the unique feeling of an Oklahoma morning, the warmth it brings into the mind and body, and how it restores one's soul. As the campfire came to life and the sound of the fire mingled with the smell of coffee, the singer reflects on a time when people could sit and listen to the sounds of mother nature without the intrusion of industry in the background. The song expresses the idea of finding solace in the simplicity of nature and the beauty of a new day in Oklahoma.
Overall, this song is an ode to the natural beauty of Oklahoma and how it can rejuvenate one's spirit. It highlights the importance of taking a break from the complexities of civilization and taking the time to appreciate the beauty of nature. Through the serene imagery, the singer envisions the simplicity of the past as the solution to the noise of the present.
Line by Line Meaning
On an early autumn day
During a crisp day in autumn
Freshness of the breeze brought the mornin'
A refreshing breeze brought the beginning of the day
And the sun came risin' up
The sun began to rise in the sky
Shinin' down on leaves that fell like golden snow
The sunlight illuminated falling golden leaves
And the mystery of it all
The inexplicable nature of the scene
Made the problems of the day seem unimportant
Reduced the significance of daily problems in comparison to the beautiful moment
That Oklahoma mornin'
The beautiful morning in Oklahoma
Puts Oklahoma sunshine in my soul
The morning fills the singer's soul with sunlight from Oklahoma
There ain't nothin' like an Oklahoma mornin'
Nothing compares to an Oklahoma morning
Nothin' like it when you're feelin' low
Especially when feeling down, there is nothing like it
It warms up your mind and your body
The morning brings warmth to the singer's mind and body
Our campfire came to life
The previously-dormant campfire ignited
The crackling of the fire and smell of coffee
The sounds and smell of the campfire and coffee
Turned back the time
Evoking a sense of the past
To a day when a man could listen for a while
A time when one could stop and listen
To the sound of mother nature
The natural sounds of the world
Without the sound of industry in the background
Free from the background noise of industrialization
Puts Oklahoma sunshine in my smi-I-ile
The morning brings a smile with Oklahoma sunshine
One more time
Repeating the sentiment
It puts Oklahoma sunshine in your soul
The morning fills one's soul with Oklahoma sunshine
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: JAMES CHESTNUT
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
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