Ray Price (singer)

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Ray Price
Price, ca. 1968
Price, ca. 1968
Background information
Birth nameNoble Ray Price
Also known asThe Cherokee Cowboy
Born(1926-01-12)January 12, 1926
Wood County, Texas, U.S.
DiedDecember 16, 2013(2013-12-16) (aged 87)
Mount Pleasant, Texas, U.S.
Genres
Occupation(s)
  • Singer
  • songwriter
  • musician
Instrument(s)
  • Vocals
  • guitar
Years active1948–2013
LabelsColumbia, Myrrh, ABC, Monument, Dimension, Viva, Step One

Noble Ray Price (January 12, 1926 – December 16, 2013)[1] was an American country music singer, songwriter, and guitarist. His wide-ranging baritone is regarded as among the best male voices of country music,[2] and his innovations, such as propelling the country beat from 2/4 to 4/4, known as the "Ray Price beat", helped make country music more popular.[2]

Some of his well-known recordings include "

Country Music Hall of Fame
in 1996. He continued to record and tour into his 80s.

Early life

Ray Price was born on a farm near the small former community of Peach, near Perryville,

Dallas, Texas. For the rest of his childhood he split time between Dallas and on the family farm, where his father had remained.[1] Price's mother and step-father were successful fashion designers and wanted him to take up that line of work but it had little appeal to him.[4]

Price began singing and playing guitar as a teenager but at first chose a career in veterinary medicine. He was attending North Texas Agricultural College in preparation for that career when his studies were interrupted by America's entry into World War II.[1] Price was drafted in 1944 and served in the United States Marine Corps in the Pacific Theater.[1] He returned to the college after the war and, in 1972, was honored as a distinguished alumnus.[5]

Music career

1940s–1950s success

Price in a Grand Ole Opry publicity picture

After the war and college, Price rethought his decision to continue schooling to be a veterinarian; he was considered too small to work with large cattle and horses, the backbone of a Texas veterinarian's practice.[4] While helping around his father's ranch he also began singing at various functions around the Abilene, Texas, area. This eventually led him to begin singing on the radio program Hillbilly Circus broadcast on Abilene's KRBC in 1948. He joined the Big D Jamboree on Dallas radio station KRLD (AM) in 1949, and when the show was picked up for broadcast on the CBS radio network soon afterward Price had his first taste of national exposure. It was around this time Ray Price became friends with Lefty Frizzell. The two first met at Beck Recording Studio in Dallas, and Price ended up writing the song "Give Me More, More, More Of Your Kisses" for Frizzell's use. A few demos recorded by Price at Beck's caught the attention of Bullet Records in Nashville, Tennessee, and he was signed to his first recording contract.[6] However, his first single released on Bullet, "Jealous Lies",[6] failed to become a chart hit.

He relocated to Nashville in the early 1950s, rooming for a brief time with Hank Williams.[6] When Williams died, Price managed his band, the Drifting Cowboys, and had minor success. He was the first artist to have a success with the song "Release Me" (1954), a top five popular music hit for Engelbert Humperdinck in 1967.[6] In 1953, Price formed his band, the Cherokee Cowboys.[6] Among its members during the late 1950s and early 1960s were Roger Miller, Willie Nelson, Darrell McCall, Van Howard, Johnny Paycheck, Johnny Bush, Buddy Emmons, and Buddy Spicher.[6] Miller wrote one of Ray Price's classics in 1958, "Invitation to the Blues", and sang harmony on the recording.[7] Additionally, Nelson composed the Ray Price song, "Night Life". Price became one of the stalwarts of 1950s honky tonk music, with hit songs such as "Talk To Your Heart" (1952) and "Release Me".

1960–2000s: Nashville sound to gospel

Price in 2009

During the 1960s, Ray experimented increasingly with the so-called

You're the Best Thing That Ever Happened To Me" (the last of which was a pop hit in Canada, and would gain greater fame a year later when Gladys Knight & the Pips covered it).[4]

Price's final top ten hit was "Diamonds In The Stars" in early 1982. Price continued to have songs on the country music chart through 1989. Later, he sang gospel music and recorded such songs as "

What A Friend We Have In Jesus", "Farther Along" and "Rock of Ages". Price briefly made national news again in 1999 when he was arrested for possession of marijuana. According to Price in a 2008 interview, old friend Willie Nelson — no stranger to marijuana arrests — phoned and told him he had just earned $5 million in free publicity with the drug bust.[4]

In 2009, he made two performances for the Fox News show Huckabee. The first was with the Cherokee Cowboys and host

Lost Highway Records. The two-disc set features 20 country classics as well as a pair of new compositions. The trio toured the U.S. from March 9 until March 25 starting in Arizona and finishing in Illinois. This was Price's third album with Nelson and first album with Haggard. After the tour, Haggard remarked, "I told Willie when it was over, 'That old man gave us a goddamn singing lesson.' He really did. He just sang so good. He sat there with the mic against his chest. And me and Willie are all over the microphone trying to find it, and he found it."[8]

Cancer and death

On November 6, 2012, Price confirmed that he was fighting pancreatic cancer. Price told the San Antonio Express-News that he had been receiving chemotherapy for the past six months.[9] An alternative to the chemo would have been surgery that involved removing the pancreas along with portions of the stomach and liver, which would have meant a long recovery and stay in a nursing home. Said Price, "That's not very much an option for me. God knows I want to live as long as I can but I don't want to live like that."[9] He told the newspaper, "The doctor said that every man will get cancer if he lives to be old enough. I don't know why I got it – I ain't old!"[9]

Although in February 2013 the cancer appeared to be in remission, Price was hospitalized in May 2013 with severe dehydration.

Mt. Pleasant, Texas, on December 16, 2013, at age 87.[13][14] Price was interred at Restland Memorial Park in Dallas, Texas
.

Personal life

After leaving Nashville, Price lived his time off the road on his east Texas ranch near Mount Pleasant, continuing to dabble in gamefowl, cattle and horses.[4] Ray Price married twice. He and his first wife divorced in the late 1960s. Price married second wife Janie on June 11, 1970, and they remained together until his death.[4] A son from his first marriage, Cliff Price, also survives.[1]

Discography

Main article: Ray Price discography

Industry awards

Academy of Country Music

Country Music Association

Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum

  • Inducted in 1996

Grammy Awards

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e "Ray Price – Obituary". The Daily Telegraph. December 17, 2013. Archived from the original on 2022-01-12. Retrieved February 1, 2014.
  2. ^ a b Bill Friskics-Warren (December 17, 2013). "Ray Price, Groundbreaking, Hit-Making Country Singer, Dies at 87". The New York Times.
  3. ^ "The Handbook of Texas Online". Tshaonline.org. Retrieved 2015-07-30.
  4. ^
    The Houston Chronicle
    . Retrieved February 3, 2014.
  5. ^ Slupecki, Susan (Spring–Summer 2006). "In Good Company". UT-Arlington magazine. Archived from the original on March 19, 2012. Retrieved February 2, 2014.
  6. ^
    ISBN 0-85112-939-0
    .
  7. ^ "Ray Price - City Lights".
  8. ^ Doyle, Patrick (December 16, 2013). "Ray Price's Son Prematurely Reports Father's Death". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on December 16, 2013. Retrieved July 15, 2020.
  9. ^ a b c Dukes, Billy (6 November 2012). "Ray Price diagnosed with cancer". Retrieved November 6, 2012.
  10. ^ "Ray Price Hospitalized". Tasteofcountry.com. 2013-05-14. Retrieved 2013-08-09.
  11. ^ "Ray Price – Hi Folks, Just to let my Facebook Friends..." Facebook.com. Retrieved 2013-08-09.
  12. ^ Wilonsky, Robert (December 15, 2013). "Reports of country legend Ray Price's death have been premature". The Dallas Morning News. Dallas, Texas. Archived from the original on December 16, 2013.
  13. ^ Edward Morris (1926-01-12). "Ray Price, Country Legend, Dead at 87". Cmt.com. Retrieved 2013-12-18.
  14. ^ Chris Talbott; Jamie Stengle. "Influential Country Singer Ray Price Dead at 87". Abcnews.go.com. Retrieved 2013-12-18.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ray Price (musician).
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