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Charley Frank Pride (born March 18, 1934) is an American country music singer, musician/guitarist, recording artist, performer and business owner. His greatest musical success came in the early- to mid-1970s, when he became the best-selling performer for RCA Records since Elvis Presley. During the peak years of his recording career (1966–87), he garnered 52 top-10 hits on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts, 29 of which made it to number one. He has appeared with country music star Brad Paisley and was featured in the 2016 CMA Awards.

Pride is one of the few African Americans to have had considerable success in the country music industry and one of only three (along with DeFord Bailey and Darius Rucker) to have been inducted as a member of the Grand Ole Opry. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2000.

In 2010, Pride became a special investor and minority owner of the Texas Rangers Major League Baseball club.

Pride was born in Sledge, Mississippi, one of 11 children of poor sharecroppers. His father intended to name him Charl Frank Pride, but owing to a clerical error on his birth certificate, his legal name is Charley Frank Pride. Eight boys and three girls were in the family. He married Rozene Cohan in 1956.

When Pride was 14, his mother purchased him his first guitar and he taught himself to play.  Though he loved music, one of Pride's lifelong dreams was to become a professional baseball player. In 1952, he pitched for the Memphis Red Sox of the Negro American League. He pitched well and in 1953 signed a contract with the Boise Yankees, the Class C farm team of the New York Yankees. During that season, an injury caused him to lose the "mustard" on his fastball, and he was sent to the Yankees' Class D team in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. Later that season, while in the Negro leagues with the Louisville Clippers, another player (Jesse Mitchell) and he were traded to the Birmingham Black Barons for a team bus. "Jesse and I may have the distinction of being the only players in history to be traded for a used motor vehicle," Pride mused in his 1994 autobiography.

He pitched for several other minor league teams, his hopes of making it to the big leagues still alive, but the Army derailed this. After serving two years in the military, he tried to return to baseball. Though hindered by an injury to his throwing arm, Pride played three games for the Missoula Timberjacks of the Pioneer League  (a farm club of the Cincinnati Reds) in 1960,  and had tryouts with the California Angels (1961) and the New York Mets (1962) organizations, but was not picked up by either team.

When he was laid off by the Timberjacks, he moved to work construction in Helena, Montana in 1960. He was recruited to pitch for the local semipro baseball team, the East Helena Smelterites, and the team manager helped him get a job at the local Asarco lead smelter. The lead smelter kept 18 jobs open specifically for baseball players, and arranged their shifts so they could play as a team. Pride batted a .444 his first year.

Pride's singing ability soon came to the attention of the team manager, who also paid him to sing for 15 minutes before each game, which increased attendance and earned Pride another $10 on top of the $10 he earned for each game. He also played gigs in the local area, both solo and with a band called the Night Hawks, and Asarco asked him to sing at company picnics. His job at the smelter was dangerous and difficult; he once broke his ankle. He routinely unloaded coal from railroad cars, shoveling it into a 2,400 °F furnace while keeping clear of slag, a task which frequently gave him burns. In a 2014 interview, Pride explained, "I would work at the smelter, work the swing shift and then play music," said Pride. "I'd work 11-7. Drive. Play Friday. Punch in. Drive. Polson. Philipsburg."

Between his smelter job and his music, he made a good living in the Helena area. He moved his wife and son to join him and they lived in Helena until 1967, purchasing their first home there, and with their children Dion and Angela being born at the local hospital. The Pride family moved to Great Falls, Montana, in 1967, because Pride's music career was taking off and he required quicker access to an airport. 

The family ultimately left Montana and moved to Texas in 1969. In a 1967 interview with the Helena Independent Record, Rozene commented that the family encountered minor racism in Montana, citing an incident where they were refused service in a restaurant and another time when a realtor refused to show them a home, but she felt that the family endured less racism than she saw leveled against local Native American people, whose treatment she compared to that given to black people in the south. Pride has generally spoken with fondness of the near-decade he spent there. "Montana is a very conservative state...I stood out like a neon. But once they let you in, you become a Montanan. When the rumor was that I was leaving. They kept saying, 'we will let you in, you can't leave.'"

On June 5, 2008, Pride and his brother Mack "The Knife" Pride and 28 other living former Negro league players were "drafted" by each of the 30 Major League Baseball teams in a recognition of the on-field achievements and historical relevance of 30 mostly forgotten, Negro-league stars. Pride was picked by the Texas Rangers, with whom he has had a long affiliation, and the Colorado Rockies took his brother.[

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSXoqBMYflg


CHARLEY PRIDE LYRICS
"Me And Bobby Mcgee"
(originally by Roger Miller)

Busted flat in Baton Rouge headin' for the train feelin' nearly faded as my jeans
Bobby thumbed a diesel down just before it rained took us all the way to New Orleans
I took my har'poon out of my dirty red bandana
And was blowing sad while Bobby sang the blues
With them windshield whipers slapping time
And Bobby clapping hands we finally sang up ever song that driver knew
Freedom's just another word for nothin' left to lose
And nothin' ain't worth nothin' but it's free
Oh but feeling good was easy Lord when Bobby sang the blues
And feeling good was good enough for me good enough for me and Bobby McGee

From the coal mines of Kentucky to the California sun
Bobby shared the secrets of my soul
Standin' right beside me Lord through everything I done
And every night she kept me from the cold
Then somewhere near Salinas Lord I let her slip away
Looking for the home I hope she'll find
And I'll trade all my tomorrows for a single yesterday
Holdin' Booby's body next to mine
And nothin' ain't worth nothin' but it's free
Oh but feeling good was easy Lord when Bobby sang the blues
A body that was good enough for me good enough for me and Bobby McGee
La da da da dee da da da...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRIRTQ_k-Sg

Kiss an Angel Good Mornin'" is a song written by Ben Peters, and recorded by American country music artist Charley Pride.

It was released in October 1971 as the first single from the album Charley Pride Sings Heart Songs. The song has since become one of his signature tunes and was his eighth song to reach number one on the country charts.

"Kiss an Angel Good Mornin" was also Charley Pride's first single to reach the pop charts, peaking at number twenty-one on the Billboard Hot 100, and also went into the Top Ten of the Adult Contemporary charts. It also reached #19 on the U.S. Cash Box Top 100. The song spent four months on the pop chart, longer than any of his other hits. Billboard ranked it as the No. 74 song for 1972.

Most Beautiful Girl