32 Facts About Charlie Rich

Charles Allan Rich was an American country music singer, songwriter, and musician.

Charlie Rich is perhaps best remembered for a pair of 1973 hits, "Behind Closed Doors" and "The Most Beautiful Girl," which topped the US country singles charts as well as the Billboard Hot 100 pop singles charts and earned him two Grammy Awards.

Charlie Rich was inducted into the Memphis Music Hall of Fame in 2015.

Charlie Rich was born in Colt, Arkansas, to rural cotton farmers.

Charlie Rich graduated from Consolidated High School in Forrest City, where he played saxophone in the band.

Charlie Rich was strongly influenced by his parents, who were members of the Landmark Missionary Baptist Church; his mother, Helen Rich, played piano in church and his father sang in gospel quartets.

Charlie Rich enrolled at Arkansas State College on a football scholarship and then after an injury, transferred to the University of Arkansas as a music major.

Charlie Rich left after one semester to join the United States Air Force in 1953.

In 1958, Charlie Rich became a regular session musician for Sun Records, playing on a variety of records by Lewis, Johnny Cash, Bill Justis, Warren Smith, Billy Lee Riley, Carl Mann, and Ray Smith.

Charlie Rich wrote several songs for Lewis, Cash, and others.

Charlie Rich's first single for Groove, "Big Boss Man", was a minor hit, but , his Chet Atkins-produced follow-up records all failed.

In 1965 he moved to Smash Records, where his new producer, Jerry Kennedy, encouraged him to emphasize his country and rock n' roll leanings, although Charlie Rich considered himself a jazz pianist and had not paid much attention to country music since childhood.

Charlie Rich again changed labels, moving to Hi Records, where he recorded blue-eyed soul music and straight country, but once more, none of his singles for Hi made a dent on the country or pop charts.

Charlie Rich won a Grammy Award for Best Male Country Vocal Performance, and he took home four Academy of Country Music awards.

One of RCA Victor's several resident songwriters, Marvin Walters, co-wrote for three years with Charlie Rich, producing four recordings including the popular "Set Me Free".

Charlie Rich had three more top-five hits in 1975, but though he was at the peak of his popularity, he began to drink heavily, causing considerable problems off-stage.

Charlie Rich's problematic drinking famously culminated at the CMA awards ceremony for 1975, when he presented the award for Entertainer of the Year while visibly intoxicated.

Charlie Rich then announced the winner of the award as "My friend Mr John Denver".

Some considered it an act of rebellion against the Music Row-controlled Nashville Sound; others speculated that it was a protest against the award going to Denver, whose music Charlie Rich had considered too "pop" and not enough "country".

Many, including industry insiders, were outraged, and Charlie Rich's popularity took a dive.

Charlie Rich set it up by talking about how the potential winners were probably nervous, as he had been the previous year.

Charlie Rich had recently broken his foot in a freak accident at his home in Memphis.

Charlie Rich felt badly that people thought it was a statement against John Denver.

The slump in Charlie Rich's career was exacerbated by the fact that his records began to sound increasingly similar: pop-inflected country ballads with overdubbed strings and little jazz or blues.

Charlie Rich did not have a top-10 hit again until "Rollin' With the Flow" went to number one on the country charts in 1977.

In 1979, Charlie Rich had moderate success with his singles, his biggest hit being a version of "Spanish Eyes" that entered the country top 20.

Charlie Rich appeared as himself in the 1978 Clint Eastwood movie Every Which Way but Loose, performing "I'll Wake You Up When I Get Home".

One more top-40 hit followed, the Gary Stewart song "Are We Dreamin' the Same Dream" early in 1981, but Charlie Rich decided to remove himself from the spotlight.

In 1992, Charlie Rich emerged from his semi-retirement to release on Sire Records Pictures and Paintings, a jazzy album produced by journalist Peter Guralnick.

In 2016, a tribute album entitled Feel Like Going Home: The Songs of Charlie Rich was released by Memphis International Records.

Charlie Rich was buried in the Memorial Park Cemetery in Memphis, Tennessee.

Margaret Charlie Rich died in Germantown, Tennessee, on July 22,2010, and was buried alongside her husband.