One of the greatest of all singers, who can croon just as believably about yearning for a certain love and the love of the no-good night life, was Ray Price. This blue-eyed Cherokee Cowboy had many songs go to the top over his long career.
Born in 1926, he first recorded “Your Wedding Corsage” and “Jealous Lies” for Bullet, a local Dallas, Texas recording company, when he was 23 years old. Two years later, he moved to Nashville, where he met Hank Williams and the two of them became fast friends. Hank Williams wrote a song for Ray Price titled “Weary Blues from Waiting.”
What? You’ve never heard of it? You’re not alone. It was one of the few songs that Williams wrote that didn’t make the charts. Regardless, Ray Price stuck close to Hank Williams, becoming his confidante and rock during his divorce and downward spiral into alcoholism and eventual death.
Ray Price began recording for Columbia Records, where he stayed for 20 years. During that time, he formed a band called the “Cherokee Cowboys,” sang a number of hits and catapulted several singers into the country arena. Among those singers were Roger Miller, Willie Nelson and Johnny Paycheck.
If there is one thing that Ray Price did well (besides singing!) it was choose songs that were memorable. Even children went around singing, “Don’t Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes… don’t let the moon break your heart…” Recorded in 1952, that was one of his early hits that made memories.
Ray Price enjoyed experimenting with music and he “invented” the slow and hard dance floor rhythm that he used in “Crazy Arms,” which was one of the first country music songs to be recorded with drums. Until then, drums had been banned from the Grand Ole Opry. “Crazy Arms” was a totally different sound in “the business,” a roaring hit and an astonishing leg up for Ray Price. The song was at the top of country music charts for 20 weeks and forever split “country” from “bluegrass” music.
As his career progressed through the 50’s and 60’s, his continual musical experimentation too him “off on a tack,” according to some of his die-hard fans, when he recorded “Danny Boy” in 1967. It was quite a change from honky-tonk country to something closer to folk music and his regular fans didn’t like it at all. However, the song was magic to those who had not been among those fans at the beginning and it was one of his biggest hits regardless of his faithful followers’ dislike.
Ray Price’s popularity dropped in the early 70’s as new sounds and voices took over country music and he never regained the adoration of the crowds at the level he’d once had. Still, he recorded several albums and singles and had a measure of success with them through the years.
One of his most popular songs during that time was “Mansion on the Hill.” He also joined Willie Nelson to record an album called “San Antonio Rose,” which was very well received.
Although he backed away from recording during the mid 80’s, Ray still works regularly, touring across the United States, singing on the Grand Ole Opry and making appearances with stars, both old and new.
Throughout the most successful years of his career, Ray Price recorded many, many hit songs, but the most popular were these (in chronological order):
1 – 1954 Release Me was one of the Top Ten singles released in 1954.
2 – 1956 Crazy Arms. This was THE song that made the charts hum.
3 – 1956 I’ve Got a New Heartache
4 – 1957 My Shoes Keep Walking Back to You
5 – 1958 City Lights
6 – 1959 Under Your Spell Again
7 – 1959 Heartaches by the Number
8 – 1963 Make he World Go Away
9 – 1967 Danny Boy
10 – 1970 For the Good Times was written by Kris Kristofferson
For those of you with a yearning for the past, turn your speakers up and make sure your Flash player is up to date. Take a look at the awesome past: www.raypricefanclub.net/indexFlash.html” target=”_blank” class=”link”>http://www.raypricefanclub.net/indexFlash.html And listen to that beat! You’re hearing country music history in the making.
Reference:
- Ray Price Fan Club www.raypricefanclub.net/ Ray Price Biography www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql;=11:7x62mpc39f2o~T1
