Ray Price

Few postwar country vocalists explored as wide a stylistic range as Ray Price, who also provoked strong reactions throughout his career. Admirers credited him with rescuing traditional country sounds during Nashville’s pop-oriented phase, while detractors accused him of shifting toward pop just as hard country began reclaiming its identity with confidence. In truth, Price remained simply an ambitious vocalist who continually sought fresh challenges for a voice capable of filling any roadhouse.

Around 1949 he made his first recordings for Bullet in Dallas. Columbia signed him in 1951, and he stayed with the label for over two decades. After spending roughly six months in Lefty Frizzell’s orbit—his debut Columbia release being a Frizzell song—Price formed a close friendship with Hank Williams. That association led him to the Opry and left a lasting imprint on his vocal approach. Following Williams’s death, Price began expanding his range as both singer and arranger, an evolution that peaked with the 4/4, bass-propelled “Crazy Arms,” named country song of the year for 1956. The propulsive rhythmic feel he developed on that track shaped his music and much of the genre for the ensuing six years; Nashville musicians still refer to a 4/4 country shuffle as the “Ray Price beat.” His late-’50s country sides, rich in fiddle, steel, and high-tenor harmony, matched the era’s rock & roll for sheer energy. Eventually tiring of that approach, he turned to string arrangements. His expansive 1967 reading of “Danny Boy” and his 1970 version of Kris Kristofferson’s “For the Good Times” stood as crossover landmarks, though many longtime fans rejected the new direction. For the three decades after “For the Good Times,” Price’s work often balanced twin Texas fiddles against orchestral backdrops.

Born in the small Texas town of Perryville, Price grew up mainly in Dallas, where he first learned guitar and singing. After high school he studied veterinary medicine at North Texas Agricultural College in Abilene, yet he left to enlist in the Marines in 1942. He remained in uniform through World War II and returned to Texas in 1946. Initially resuming college, he soon began performing in local clubs, honky-tonks, and on KRBC radio, which gave him the nickname Cherokee Cowboy. Three years later he joined the Dallas-based Big D Jamboree, a move that prompted him to pursue music full time. Shortly afterward the show gained CBS television exposure, leading to his first single, “Your Wedding Corsage”/“Jealous Lies,” issued on the independent Dallas label Bullet.

Price relocated to Nashville in 1951 seeking a major-label deal. After repeated unsuccessful auditions, he secured a Columbia contract once A&R man Troy Martin persuaded label head Don Law that Decca was ready to sign the singer. Law had previously rejected Price twenty times and instructed Martin never to mention his name again, yet he refused to let a competitor acquire the vocalist. Just before “Talk to Your Heart” reached number three in spring 1952, Price met his idol Hank Williams, who quickly became a close friend. Over the following year Williams extended several favors, among them offering “Weary Blues” for recording and assisting Price’s entry into the Grand Ole Opry. Price also served as Williams’s regular substitute whenever the latter was absent or impaired. After Williams died in 1953, Price inherited the Drifting Cowboys.

Following the success of “Don’t Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes” in fall 1952, Price stayed off the charts for most of 1953. He returned in 1954 with the number-two hit “I’ll Be There (If You Ever Want Me),” which launched a strong year that also included Top Ten entries “Release Me” and “If You Don’t, Somebody Else Will.” Rather than build on that momentum, he vanished from the charts in 1955 while assembling the Cherokee Cowboys. Having noticed that working with the Drifting Cowboys made him sound too much like Hank Williams, he formed his own band; many original members came from Lefty Frizzell’s Western Cherokees, and over time the group launched the careers of Roger Miller, Johnny Paycheck, Buddy Emmons, Johnny Bush, and Willie Nelson.

Price reappeared on the charts in 1956, first with “Run Boy” and then with the driving honky-tonk classic “Crazy Arms.” One of the earliest country recordings to feature a drum kit, the track delivered a steady, pounding groove. Before Price, most country artists avoided drums, and the instrument had even been barred from the Grand Ole Opry stage; the single’s blockbuster run helped alter that policy. Spending twenty weeks at number one, “Crazy Arms” also grazed the lower pop charts and established Price as a star. He remained near the top for the next decade, notching twenty-three Top Ten singles between 1956 and 1966 and cutting numerous country standards such as “I’ve Got a New Heartache” (number two, 1956), “My Shoes Keep Walking Back to You” (number one, 1957), “Make the World Go Away” (number two, 1963), and “City Lights,” which held the summit for thirteen weeks in 1958.

By the mid-’60s his hit pace had eased, though he continued charting. His tastes meanwhile gravitated toward the crooning style of traditional pop singers. He abandoned cowboy attire, introduced string sections, and became one of the first artists to explore the polished, orchestrated country-pop sound of the late ’60s and early ’70s. While some hardcore honky-tonk listeners disapproved, the shift produced further Top Ten hits. It took time for the broader country audience to accept the new approach; only with the number-one success of his Kris Kristofferson cover “For the Good Times” in 1970 did he regain the summit. Over the next three years he added three more number-one singles: “I Won’t Mention It Again,” “She’s Got to Be a Saint,” and “You’re the Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me.”

By the mid-’70s the popularity of his string-laden country-pop material had faded, and he spent the rest of the decade fighting to reach the charts. In 1974 he left Columbia for Myrrh, where he scored two Top Ten hits within a year. At the end of 1975 he moved to ABC/Dot; although his style remained unchanged, commercial results declined, with only 1977’s “Mansion on the Hill” attracting notice. He switched again in 1978, this time to Monument, another unsuccessful stint. In 1980 Price reunited with former bassist Willie Nelson for the duet album San Antonio Rose, a major success that yielded the number-three hit “Faded Love.” The project revived his career; in 1981 he placed two more Top Ten singles—“It Don’t Hurt Me Half as Bad” and “Diamonds in the Stars”—on his new label, Dimension. He departed Dimension in 1983 for Warner, staying only a year; by then his renewed popularity had waned and he struggled to crack the Top 40. That difficulty persisted through subsequent affiliations with Viva (1983–1984) and Step One (1985–1989).

By the late ’80s Price had largely shifted focus from recording to a theater he owned in Branson, Missouri. Throughout most of the ’90s he performed there, occasionally entering the studio. The most notable release among his ’90s albums was 1992’s Sometimes a Rose, produced by Norro Wilson. Among several full-length projects in the 2000s, two were collaborations: 2003’s Run That by Me One More Time with Willie Nelson and 2007’s Last of the Breed with Nelson and Merle Haggard. Both appeared on the alt-country imprint Lost Highway, and the latter prompted a tour showcasing the trio of country veterans. In early 2012 Price revealed a pancreatic-cancer diagnosis, though chemotherapy initially proved effective and he hoped to resume touring and record an album of love songs for his wife. He was briefly hospitalized again in May 2013 and entered hospice care that December. Ray Price died at his Texas home on December 16, 2013. The album intended for his wife, Beauty Is… The Final Sessions, was released posthumously in 2014.