Influential Country Singer Ray Price Dead at 87
Source: Associated Press
Dec 16, 7:06 PM EST
INFLUENTIAL COUNTRY SINGER RAY PRICE DEAD AT 87
CHRIS TALBOTT AND JAMIE STENGLE
ASSOCIATED PRESS
DALLAS (AP) -- Ray Price, one of country music's most popular and influential singers and bandleaders 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.
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Perhaps best known for his version of the Kris Kristofferson song "For the Good Times," a pop hit in 1970, the velvet-voiced 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 1958-73 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."
Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/country-singer-ray-price-dead-87
O.k., I think it's for real this time.
= new reply since forum marked as read
... yesterday Price's son posted on facebook he died - then the wife issued a statement that he was still alive - now the family spokesperson says he died today.
Sounds a bit strange to me.
RIP, sir. And thanks for the songs.