Charley Pride

Charley Pride
Pride performing at Capital Centre on Inauguration Day, January 1981
Background information
Birth name	Charley Frank Pride
Born	(1934-03-18)March 18, 1934 Sledge, Mississippi, U.S.
Died	December 12, 2020(2020-12-12) (aged 86) Dallas, Texas, U.S.
Genres	Country[1] country pop[1] countrypolitan[2] gospel[3]
Occupations	Singer guitarist
Instruments	Vocals guitar
Years active	1952–2020
Labels	RCA Records 16th Avenue Music City
Website	charleypride.com
Baseball player Baseball career
Pitcher
Batted: Switch Threw: Right
Negro leagues debut
1953, for the Memphis Red Sox
Last appearance
1958, for the Memphis Red Sox
Teams
Negro leagues  • Memphis Red Sox (1953, 54–57, 58)  • Birmingham Black Barons (1954) Minor leagues  • Boise Yankees (1953)  • Fond du Lac Panthers (1953)  • Missoula Timberjacks (1960)  • East Helena Smelterites (1960)
Career highlights and awards
• 2x Negro league All-Star (1956–1957)  • All Army Championship (1957)

Charley Frank Pride (March 18, 1934 – December 12, 2020) was an American singer, guitarist, and professional baseball player.

Beginning his career as a Negro league baseball player in the early-1950s, he later pursued a career in country music, becoming the genre's first major black superstar.^[4] The period of his greatest musical success was from around 1969 to 1975, when he was the top-selling artist for RCA Records, outselling even Elvis Presley and John Denver. During the peak years of his recording career (1966–1987), he had 52 top-10 hits on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, 30 of which made it to number one. Songs such as "All I Have to Offer You (Is Me)", "Is Anybody Goin' to San Antone", and "Kiss an Angel Good Mornin'", among others, typified the "countrypolitan" style that made him famous and became crossover-pop hits. He won the Entertainer of the Year award at the Country Music Association Awards in 1971 and was awarded a Grammy for "Best Country Vocal Performance, Male" in 1972. Pride later ventured into gospel music, releasing his first gospel album Did You Think to Pray in 1971. In 1973 he performed "The River Song" from the motion picture musical Tom Sawyer.

Pride is one of three African-American members of the Grand Ole Opry (the others being DeFord Bailey and Darius Rucker). He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2000.