Charley Pride

Charley Frank Pride (born March 18, 1938 in Sledge, Mississippi) is a former Negro League baseball player who became one of the only African Americans to have a successful career in modern country music.

Background

Pride was one of eleven children born to desperately poor sharecroppers. His father named him Charl Frank Pride, but due to a typing error on his birth certificate, he was legally born as Charley Frank Pride. He grew up dreaming of being a baseball player and met his future wife, Rozene, while playing for the Memphis Red Sox in Memphis, Tennessee (which was a Negro-American League team). Pride played guitar and sang while touring as a baseball player.

Related Topics:
Sharecropper - Memphis, Tennessee - Guitar

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Early music success

When it became clear that he would not become a Major League Baseball player, he turned to music as a full time career. He was introduced to producer Jack Clement, who gave him two songs to record, "Snakes Crawl at Night" and "Atlantic Coastal Line." Clement gave Pride?s two-song demo to the head of RCA Records in Nashville, Chet Atkins, who signed him to the label. Atkins and Clement considered not disclosing that he was black until the records were established, but Atkins decided that it was unfair to all concerned. Pride?s first single was broadcast in January 1966. Within a short period of time, both songs became hits.

Related Topics:
Major League Baseball - Jack Clement - RCA Records - Nashville - Chet Atkins - 1966

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