Charlie Rich Biography, Photos and Posters

Charlie Rich

Biography

Born: December 14, 1932
City and Country of Origin: Colt, Arkansas
Music Training:
Awards: CMA 1974 Entertainer of the Year; 1973 Album of the Year, Behind Closed Doors; CMA Male Vocalist of the Year; Grammy 1973 Best Country Vocal Performance
Top Recordings: "I Take It on Home," "Behind Closed Doors, "The Most Beautiful Girl," "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"
Charlie Rich Biography: Multi-Grammy Award winner Charlie Rich was an American musician, songwriter, and pianist. The The Silver Fox, as he became known in his later years, was often hard to classify in a single genre, playing in the rockabilly, jazz, blues, country, and gospel genres. He is perhaps best remembered for a pair of 1973 hits, "Behind Closed Doors" and "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World," both of which topped the U.S. country singles charts, the latter also topping the pop singles charts. Rich's son, Charlie Rich, Jr., is also a musician.

The son of an Arkansas cotton farmer, he began his professional music career while in the Air Force in th early 1950s. His first group The Velvetones, played jazz and blues and featured his fiancée, Margaret Ann, on lead vocals. He laeft the military in 1956 to farm 5 acres in Tennessee. He began performing in clubs around Memphis playing both jazz and r and b.

He became a session musician for Judd Records, which was owned by Sun Records Sam Phillips brother Judd. From there he moved on to work at Sun Records as a session musician playing on records by Lewis, Johnny Cash, Bill Justis, Warren Smith, Billy Lee Riley, Carl Mann, and Ray Smith. He recorded several songs for the Sun subsidiary Phillips International Records including the 1960 Top 30 hit "Lonely Weekends," but none of the others were commercially successful.

After a short stint at an RCA subsidiary, Rich signed with Smash Records early in 1965. Here producer Jerry Kennedy encouraged him to focus on his country and rock & roll leanings. Rich had always fashioned himself as a jazz pianist. Here he had another top 30 hit, a novelty rock number "Mohair Sam," but after that he had no success. From ther he moved to Hi Records, but none of his recordings were successful.

Inspite of his lackluster record sales in the past Epic Records signed him to a contract in 1967 on the recommendation of producer Billy Sherrill. Sherill helped shape Rich into aNashville 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. The efforts 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 1973, 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. 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 for Best Country Vocal Performance, Male, and he also 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.

The now renowned singer had 3 more top 5 hits in 1975, but his success began to take its toll. Rich began to drink heavily. In 1975 he presented the CMA Entertainer of the Year Award visibly drunk. Instead of reading th ename of the winner, John Denver, he set fire to the envelope and then announced the award had gone to "My good buddy, John Denver." Most thought it was a revolt as he considered Denver to be to pop oriented to win a country award. After this Rich had trouble turning out hits with only "Since I Fell For You" making the top 10 in 76.

Rich 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 and throughout that year 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.

Rich struggled throughout 1979 having hits with United Artists and Epic with his singles becoming moderate hits, the biggest of his hits that year on either UA and 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 where 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 penned "Are We Dreamin' the Same Dream" early in 1981 — but Rich decided to remove himself from the spotlight.

Rich remained a recluse for much of the remainder of his life releasing only 1 more record. In 1992 Rich released Pictures and Paintings, a jazzy record produced by journalist Peter Guralnick and released on Sire Records.On July 25, 1995, Charlie Rich died in Hammond, Louisiana, the age of 62 from a blood clot in his lung.
Died: July 25, 1995

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