Many music fans may only know Charlie Rich (aka “the Silver Fox”) through his massive hit songs in the 1970s, “Behind Closed Doors” and “Most Beautiful Girl.” But Rich had a long diverse musical career that ranged from being one of the early rock and roll singers at Sun Records to a final album in the 1990s highlighting his love of jazz. But for someone wanting to delve deeper into his catalog, the journey may be confusing, largely because he recorded for so many record companies.
Unlike other artists of Rich’s talent, he has no large music box set covering his career due to his music being spread out across so many record companies. Similarly, it remains surprising that there is no official biography of someone who created such a wonderful body of music during a long career.
Many have noted that Rich never consistently achieved the level of fame he deserved, often blaming it upon the fact that record companies and producers had trouble categorizing someone with such diverse talents. Others have noted Rich’s own hesitancies about fame, sometimes bordering on self-destructiveness.
Despite the lack of a comprehensive biography, author Peter Guralnick has written two beautiful lengthy essays about Rich that appeared in his books Feel Like Going Home: Portraits in Blues and Rock ‘n’ Roll (1971) and Lost Highway: Journeys and Arrivals of American Musicians (1979). Around 2005, I asked Guralnick — who has now written definitive biographies of Elvis Presley, Sam Cooke, and Sam Philips — if he had any plans to ever write a full biography about Rich. Unfortunately, at least at that time, he said he had not plans on expanding what he had already written about Rich in his essays.
Regarding the music, despite Rich’s lack of a large career-spanning box set of music, fans newly discovering Rich’s music have several options. Although there are numerous one-CD “greatest hits” packages, fans are better off starting with the excellent 2-CD compilation that does include music spanning his career, Feel Like Going Home: The Essential Charlie Rich. Feel Like Going Home does a wonderful job of capturing the range of Rich’s talent. The hits are here as well as other important songs from his career. It is a great place to start.
If you prefer to start with a one-CD collection, I suggest you avoid the many slapdash “greatest hits” packages. Instead, the best one-CD hits package is the one that captures many of the peaks across several different record labels, A Rich Anthology: 1960-1978. Beyond that, if one wishes to delve deeper into Rich’s career (and one should), one must understand how his music career went in many different directions. And then find CD’s each reflecting the different era’s.
Sun Records 1958-62
Prior to signing to Sun Records, Rich developed his love of jazz that included studying music at the University of Arkansas and playing in a jazz group in Oklahoma after enlisting in the Air Force in 1952.
When Rich signed with Sun Records in 1958, Sam Phillips saw great potential in the singer-songwriter. But ultimately Rich did not have the success at the label that Phillips had hoped for, although Rich wrote a hit for Sun’s Jerry Lee Lewis (“I’ll Make It All Up to You”) and wrote and recorded his own hit, “Lonely Weekends.”
In retrospect, though, Rich’s output at Sun is a remarkable body of work. Fans looking to explore this part of Rich’s career would be well-served by the 2009 3-CD set, The Complete Sun Masters, featuring 102 tracks recorded for the Sun Records and Phillips Records labels (including alternate versions and demos). Covering the same ground, Bear Family Records earlier released Lonely Weekends: The Sun Years 1958-1962. The latter includes better packaging and a worthwhile book, so if you can find a copy and price is not a concern, the Bear Family Records version would be preferable. But otherwise, if you just want the music, The Complete Sun Masters is available for a much better price as a digital download.
There are one-CD best-of compilations covering the Sun Years and you cannot go wrong with them either. I own The Sun Sessions (2007) and enjoyed it before upgrading to The Complete Sun Masters. But I suggest you ave yourself some time and just get the entire Sun output.
Groove/RCA: 1963 – 1965
By the early 1960s, Rich was frustrated with Sun Records. He explained, “Sam Phillips had gotten wealthy, and was more interested in Holiday Inn stock than the record business.” So, he switched to Groove, a subsidiary of RCA records. The legendary Chet Atkins signed him to the label and produced his recordings.
Atkins recognized Rich’s vast talent, saying after Rich’s death, “He was one of the greatest singer-musicians that I ever knew.”
Atkins did a great job in capturing Rich’s tenor voice. While Rich’s recordings still contained elements of rockabilly, soul, jazz, pop, country, and blues, most recordings show a Nashville influence. Groove was the first place to add chorale vocals and strings to some of Rich’s songs. At Groove, Rich did not achieve any major hits, with the first single, the wonderful version of “Big Boss Man,” failing to meet expectations on the charts.
One may explore Charlie Rich’s Groove/RCA years with the compilation 2-CD set, Too Many Teardrops – The Complete Groove & RCA Recordings (2008). Again, there are shorter samplers of the period, but it is worth getting all of the wonderful music. AllMusic recommends the set, too, saying it reveals the sound of a master discovering his voice, and the set provides “a clean, comprehensive retrospective of everything Rich recorded between 1963 and 1965. “
Below, Rich performs “River, Stay Away From My Door” and “Big Boss Man” on The Jimmy Dean Show in 1964. One may see that Dean is impressed with the young Rich, who does not yet have his signature silver hair.
Smash Records 1965
After Groove, in 1965 for a brief period, Rich went to Smash Records (a subsiduary of Mercury Records), where producer Jerry Kennedy focused on Rich’s country and rock-and-roll sound. The first single, “Mohair Sam,” written by Dallad Frazier, was a top 30 hit for Rich.
But none of the following singles did so well, although Rich and Kennedy made some great music, including “Mohair Sam'” B-side, “I Washed My Hands in Muddy Water.” Soon, Rich was off to another label.
There are great songs from this period, such as “You Can Have Her,” a rerecording of his Sun record “Lonely Weekends,” and a range of strong songs written by other writers as well as by Rich and his wife Margaret Ann Rich. So, again, the way to go is to go complete, with The Complete Smash Sessions (1992) or 2011’s It Ain’t Gonna Be That Way: The Complete Smash Sessions. If you are buying rather than streaming, because of Rich’s short tenure at the record label, the complete set is not going to hurt your pocketbook (with only 29 tracks).
Hi Records 1966-1967
Rich next made a short stay with Hi Records, a small Memphis label. There, he recorded a number of R&B singles and covers of Hank Williams songs. Although his stay at the label was brief, his recordings showed a wonderful range and quality. Highlights here include “When Something is Wrong With My Baby,” “I’ll Shed No Tears,” a re-recording of his Groove/RCA song “Who Will the Next Fool Be,” and a cover of Williams’s “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” that AllMusic calls “among the most beautiful and emotionally naked ever recorded.”
Once again, because of the short stay at the label, you should just get the whole set of 28 tracks available on 2000’s The Complete Hi Recordings Of Charlie Rich. Or you may find 25 of the tracks on 1994’s Charlie Rich Sings the Songs of Hank Williams Plus the R&B Sessions (missing “Anytime,” an alternate version of “Only Me,” and “Don’t Come Knocking at My Door”) . Currently, The Complete Hi Recordings is more difficult to find (and so more expensive), so if you are buying rather than streaming, Charlie Rich Sings the Songs. . . may be the way to go for all but completists.
Epic Records: 1967 – 1978
With a recommendation from legendary producer Billy Sherrill, Epic Records signed Rich in 1967. Rich would stay at Epic for more than a decade, the longest tenure he would have at any record label. And it would be at Epic where Rich had his greatest commercial success as a country singer, recording records with Sherill’s lush backing vocals and strings.
The biggest two hits were “Behind Closed Doors” and “The Most Beautiful Girl.” Anyone alive during that time could not escape those songs on the radio. The success of those songs even prompted Rich’s previous record labels to look for songs to release, such as Groove releasing “There Won’t Be Anymore,” recorded in 1960s, as a single in 1973 (when it topped the country charts and did well on the pop charts).
“Behind Closed Doors” later also featured on the soundtrack for the Clint Eastwood movie Every Which Way But Loose (1978). In the film, Rich briefly appeared in an uncredited role as himself.
The movie also included Rich’s song, “I’ll Wake You Up When I Get Home,” selected by the orangutan on the jukebox. That song is apparently only available on the movie soundtrack, never appearing on a proper Rich album. But it became his last country music hit song. And, like much of Rich’s music, through the years it had an impact on listeners, such as Toby Keith (“about as good as it has ever got”).
Alas, Rich’s commercial success did not last. There are various explanations for his reversal of fortune. Some have claimed that Rich’s decline was a result of his behavior at the 1975 CMA Awards ceremony, where, on pain pills and drunk, he famously burned the card announcing John Denver had won Entertainer of the Year.
A more likely explanation for his career’s trajectory is that changing tastes in the 1970s as well as the sameness of some of his Epic recordings may have contributed to the decline. Sherrill’s productions, which once commercially complemented Rich’s tenor, began to overshadow Rich’s voice, as on 1974’s Very Special Love Songs.
Ultimately, Rich would again change record labels. He later explained that he felt he had gone as far as he could with Sherrill: “Billy worked hard on my recordings, but we were not progressing anywhere.”
There currently is not a good sweeping collection of Rich’s Epic years, perhaps because this label is where he had his largest output. Outstanding albums include Behind Closed Doors, Let Me Go, and Fabulous Charlie Rich (including a wonderful “Life’s Little Ups and Downs,” written by Charlie’s wife Margaret Ann Rich). Another excellent album from this period is Silver Linings, a gospel album where Sherrill allowed sparser arrangements than his other productions to highlight Rich’s voice.
Some Rich fans may downplay Rich’s work at Epic, saying the countrypolitan productions and strings sound dated and did not let Rich shine. But one cannot dispute the craftsmanship of the recordings that gave Rich his greatest success.
I still get shivers when I hear the opening piano of “Behind Closed Doors.” And the more consistent direction of Rich during these years gave a steady competence to the work, whether for good or bad.
United Artists 1978 – 1980; Elektra Records: 1980 – semi-retirement
After his success at Epic, Rich once again changed labels at the end of the 1970s and then again in 1980. His stays at United Artists and Elektra Records produced a number of singles. And United Artists released the albums I Still Believe in Love (1978), The Fool Strikes Again (1979), and Nobody But You (1979).
These albums apparently never made it to CDs or digital so are not available except for used vinyl versions. The Fool Strikes Again, however, may be the best Charlie Rich album cover, featuring the Silver Fox next to . . . a real fox.
Swan Song with Sire Records in 1992
After spending nearly a decade in semi-retirement with only an occasional performance, and more than a decade without a full album, Rich returned with a new album in 1992, Pictures and Paintings. The album was a labor of love, produced by journalist Peter Guralnick, who had earlier written moving essays about Rich at different stages of his early career.
The new album allowed Rich to delve into his lifelong love of jazz, sounding unlike many of his prior recordings in one way but also highlighting elements that were always there too. Similarly, one may also see his love of jazz in a performance at Church Street Station in 1988.
For this period, fans will of course want to listen to Pictures and Paintings, with highlights including a gospel version of Rich’s song “Feel Like Going Home” (which also appears as a wonderful demo version on the collection Feel Like Going Home: The Essential Charlie Rich (mentioned at the start of this essay)
Final Thoughts
The album Pictures and Paintings received critical praise, but it would be Rich’s final album. He passed away in his sleep in July 1995 while on vacation in Louisiana. He was 62. His body was buried within thirty miles of where he got his career break at Sun Records (just like another Sun Records legend, Elvis Presley, who lies buried at Graceland not far from Sun Records).
There are few, if any, comparable artists who bounced around to so many record companies while creating such a vast quality catalog. Hopefully some day we will get that comprehensive box set — or at least more of his unreleased recordings will become available. For now, though, there is plenty of great music and hopefully this short tour gives you an idea of where to start.
What is your favorite Charlie Rich period? Leave your two cents in the comments.
