Charley Pride, legendary singer, dies at 86 of COVID complications

By Ben Flanagan | bflanagan@al.com
Charley Pride, legendary singer with an unmistakable baritone voice, died Saturday in Dallas of complications from COVID-19.

He was 86.

Born a sharecropper’s son in Sledge, Miss., in 1934, Pride emerged from Southern cotton fields to become country music’s first Black superstar and the first Black member of the Country Music Hall of Fame. He is also one of three Black artists to become members of the Grand Ole Opry.

Pride was also an accomplished baseball player. A 2-time Negro league all-star, he played for the Memphis Red Sox and Birmingham Black Barons.

He rose to great fame in the early to mid-1970s, when he became the best-selling performer for RCA Records since Elvis Presley. During his recording career, he garnered 52 top-10 hits on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, 30 of which reached number one.

He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2000.

His chart-topping hits included “Kiss An Angel Good Mornin’,” “Is Anybody Goin’ to San Antone” and “Mountain of Love.” He won the Country Music Association’s Entertainer of the Year award in 1971, its top male vocalist prize in 1971 and 1972, and a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2020.

His final performance came on Nov. 11, 2020, when he sang “Kiss An Angel Good Mornin’” during the CMA Awards show at Nashville’s Music City Center with Jimmie Allen. Watch it above.

Between 1967-1987, Pride delivered 52 top 10 country hits, won Grammy awards, and became RCA Records’ top-selling country artist.