Cover Story features 22 songs made famous by other artists
A true music legend and trailblazer, Charley Pride enjoyed one of the most successful careers in the history of country music and helped to break color barriers when he became the first black superstar within the genre. An inductee into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2000 and proud member of the Grand Ole Opry, Pride sold tens of millions of records worldwide and toured regularly on an international basis with his extraordinary repertoire of hits. A three-time Grammy Award winner and 2017 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award recipient, Pride garnered no less than 43 chart-topping US country hits, including “All I Have To Offer You Is Me,” “Is Anybody Goin’ To San Antone,” “Mississippi Cotton Picking Delta Town” and “Kiss An Angel Good Morning’ ” a massive No. 1 crossover hit that sold over a million singles and helped him take home the Country Music Association’s (CMA) Entertainer of the Year award in 1971 and Top Male Vocalist awards of 1971 and 1972.
Surprisingly vigorous and the picture of good health at 86 years of age, Pride had intended to continue performing and recording for as long as his voice would allow. But sadly he fell ill in late November 2020 and passed away on December 12, 2020 due to complications from COVID-19, barely a month after an unplanned final curtain call at the CMA Awards where he was honored with the CMA’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
In addition to his own repertoire of legendary hits, Pride’s body of work often featured “covers” of songs that were originally popularized by other artists. The upcoming retrospective, Cover Story, collects 22 such songs that Charley recorded between 1991 and 2020 including eight recordings that are enjoying their first official release in North America and two previously unreleased recordings — “Ring of Fire” and “Heartaches by the Number.”
“Ring of Fire” is, of course, Johnny Cash’s ubiquitous 1963 classic that is generally considered to be one of the greatest country songs of all time. Rediscovered in Pride’s Dallas studio archives on a two-inch multi-track reel simply marked “R.I.N.G,” the recording was originally committed to tape in September 1992 but only recently mixed and finalized under the supervision of Pride’s most recent creative partner, artist/songwriter/producer Billy Yates.
Legendary songwriter Harlan Howard’s “Heartaches by the Number” was originally made famous by Ray Price, a No. 2 country hit, and Guy Mitchell, a No. 1 pop hit, in the late 1950s. The recording presented on Cover Story represents Charley’s only known studio version. More excitingly, it is the first recording to surface from Pride’s final January 2020 studio sessions with Yates. During his latter years, Pride often liked to kick off new studio sessions with a favorite classic country song to warm up his voice, build rapport with the studio musicians and set the tone for the rest of the sessions. “Heartaches by the Number” fulfilled that role during those final 2020 recording sessions.
The project will be available digitally on June 20th via Music City Records.
