Influential country artist did it his way
Singer from Texas was a honky-tonk, instrumental innovator
DALLAS, TEXAS — Ray Price, one of country music’s most influential singers who had more than 100 hits and was one of the last living connections to Hank Williams, died Monday. He was 87.
Price died Monday afternoon at his ranch outside Mount Pleasant, Texas, said Billy Mack Jr., who was acting as a family spokesman. Billie Perryman, the wife of family friend and spokesman Tom Perryman, a DJ with KKUS-FM in Tyler, also confirmed his death.
Price was discharged last week from the East Texas Medical Center in Tyler, where he had been in and out in recent months as he was treated for cancer and its complications. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2011 and it has recently spread to his liver, intestines and lungs, the hospital said.
Perhaps best known for his version of the Kris Kristofferson song For the Good Times, a pop hit in 1970, the velvetvoiced Price was a giant among traditional country performers in the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s, as likely to defy a trend as he was to defend one. He helped invent the genre’s honky-tonk sound early in his career, then took it in a more polished direction.
He reached the Billboard Hot 100 eight times from 195873 and had seven No. 1 hits and more than 100 titles on the Billboard country chart from 1952 to 1989. For the Good Times was his biggest crossover hit, reaching No. 11 on the Billboard pop music singles chart. His other country hits included Crazy Arms, Release Me, The Same Old Me, Heartaches by the Number, City Lights and Too Young to Die.
“If you got a pop hit, you sold a lot more records,” Price said in 2000. “It was my style, really. I sang ballads, sort of laid-back. I’m still a country boy. I don’t pretend to be anything else.”
Price was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1996, long after he’d become dissatisfied with Nashville and returned to his home state of Texas.
His importance went well beyond hit singles. He was among the pioneers who popularized electric instruments and drums in country music. After helping to establish the bedrock 4/4 shuffle beat that can still be heard on every honky-tonk jukebox and most country radio stations in the world, Price angered traditionalists by breaking away from country. He gave early breaks to Willie Nelson, Roger Miller and other major performers.
His Danny Boy in the late 1960s was a heavily orchestrated version that crossed over to the pop charts. He then started touring with a string-laden 20-piece band that outraged his dance-hall fans.
In the 1970s he sang often with symphony orchestras — in a tuxedo and cowboy boots.
Like Nelson, his good friend and contemporary, Price simply didn’t care what others thought and pursued the chance to make his music the way he wanted to.
“I have fought prejudice since I got in country music and I will continue to fight it,” he said in 1981. “A lot of people want to keep country music in the minority of people. But it belongs to the world. It’s art.”