Born in Perryville, Texas, he served with the U.S. Marines from 1944–1946, and began singing for KRBC in Abilene, Texas during 1948. He joined the Big D Jamboree in Dallas in 1949. He relocated to Nashville in the early 1950s, rooming for a brief time with Hank Williams. When Williams died, he managed his band, the Drifting Cowboys, and had minor success. He was the first artist to have a success with the song Release Me (1954), a top five popular music hit for Engelbert Humperdinck in 1967. In 1953, Ray Price formed his band, the Cherokee Cowboys. Among its members during the late 1950s and early 1960s were Roger Miller, Willie Nelson, Darrell McCall, Van Howard, Johnny Paycheck and Johnny Bush. Miller wrote one of Ray Prices classics in 1958, Invitation to the Blues, and sang harmony on the recording. Additionally, Nelson composed the Ray Price song Night Life. During the 1960s, Ray experimented increasingly with the so-called Nashville sound, singing slow ballads and utilizing lush arrangements of strings and backing singers. Examples include his 1967 rendition of Danny Boy, and For the Good Times in 1970 which was Prices first country music chart No. 1 hit since The Same Old Me in 1959. Written by Kris Kristofferson, the song also scored No. 11 on the popular music chart and featured a mellower Price backed by sophisticated musical sounds, quite in contrast to the honky tonk sounds Price had pioneered two decades before. Price had three more No. 1 country music successes during the 1970s: I Wont Mention It Again, Shes Got To Be A Saint, and Youre the Best Thing That Ever Happened To Me. His final top ten hit was Diamonds In The Stars in early 1982. Price continued to have songs on the country music chart through 1989. Today he is singing gospel music and has recorded such songs as Amazing Grace, What A Friend We Have In Jesus, Farther Along and Rock of Ages. On November 6, 2012 Ray Price confirmed that he was fighting pancreatic cancer. Price told the San Antonio Express-News that he has been receiving chemotherapy for the past six months. An alternative to the chemo would have been surgery that involved removing the pancreas along with portions of the stomach and liver, which would have meant a long recovery and stay in a nursing home. Price said Thats not very much an option for me. God knows I want to live as long as I can but I dont want to live like that. As most of you know Ray passed just a few short weeks later with his wife Janie by his side. Ray was an irreplaceable loss. Today The Icon would have been 89 years old, but today he celebrates his second birthday in heaven, singing with the angels, strolling Heaven with Jesus. Happy Birthday Mr. Ray, it truly is Funny How Time Slips Away but our Priceless Memories gives us all......
Posted on: Mon, 12 Jan 2015 19:47:18 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015