Ray Price (musician)
Ray Price ( born January 12, 1926 in Perryville, Texas, † December 16, 2013 in Mount Pleasant, Texas) was an American country music singer.
Life
Ray grew up in Dallas. After finishing school he was drafted into the Navy in 1942. After his release in 1946 he began to study veterinary medicine. During his studies he came frequently as a singer and guitarist in clubs and at smaller events and worked as an entertainer for a local radio station. He joined a band and eventually became a professional musician. In 1949 he took on the first single.
Career
In spring 1951 he signed a recording contract with Columbia Records and moved to Nashville shortly thereafter. There he became friends with the then superstar of country music - Hank Williams - on. Beginning of 1952, he managed a top 10 hit. Hank Williams gave him a place in the Grand Ole Opry and provided him with a good song material. Price again took the big star a few times when he was too drunk for performances. After the death of Hank Williams' 1953, he took over his band, The Drifting Cowboys and renamed it in Cherokee Cowboys. Bassist of this group was for a time Willie Nelson. Other band members were Roger Miller and Johnny Paycheck.
In 1956 he reached with Crazy Arms for the first time # 1 on the country charts. The plate was sold more than a million copies, outperforming even Elvis Presley. There was a long series of further hits, including 1958 City Lights, 1964 Burning Memories and 1970 For The Good Times. In 1974, he joined the record company and returned to Texas. In 1980 he produced together with his old companion Willie Nelson a remarkable album from which the single Faded Love was decoupled, which reached # 3 on the country charts. The successes persisted until the beginning of the 90s. In the 90s he began recording gospel CDs. Ray Price took still in the 90s plates and graduated from live performances. He could look back on a more than fifty year career and is considered one of the greats in his field. In 1996 he received the coveted award of country music: He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.
2011 was diagnosed with Ray Price pancreatic cancer. At the same illness he died on December 16, 2013 at the age of 87 years.