Sunday Morning Country Classic Spotlight to Feature Charlie Rich

Join me Sunday June 7th at 11 am for the music of Charlie Rich on the Sunday Morning Country Classic Spotlight.

Charlie was known as the "Silver Fox" for his prematurely grey hair.  He was born December 14, 1932 in Colt, Arkansas.  He took a strange path to country music stardom as he was the most eclectic musician to be a country star.  He was very much into supper club jazz, playing in many clubs around the country.  He dabbled in rock n' roll, R&B and Countrypolitan .

His peak came in 1973 with The Most Beautiful Girl, a single that sold a million copies.

The most requested Charlie Rich song on the 98.1 Country Classic Show on Sundays is, Behind Closed Doors, a song written by Kenny O'Dell and first recorded by Charlie from his 1973 album of the same name.  That single became his first number one hit on the country chart and spent a total of twenty weeks there.

Behind Closed Doors earned awards for Song of the Year and Single of the Year from both the Country Music Association and the Academy of Country Music.  Rich also won a Grammy Award for Best male Country Vocal Performance.

My baby makes me proud, Lord don't she make me proud.

Rich's drinking and bad behavior soon went out of control.  His behavior came to a head with an onstage meltdown at the 1975 Country Music Awards show, where instead of presenting the Entertainer of the Year award to the winner John Denver, he lit the card on fire in front of the audience.

On July 25, 1995 he died suddenly of a blood clot in his lungs.

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