Charlie Rich - Mohair Sam

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Charlie Rich (December 14, 1932 - July 25, 1995) was an American Country Music Singer/Musician. A Grammy Award winner, his eclectic-style of music was often hard to classify in a single genre, playing in the rockabilly, jazz, blues, country, and gospel genres.

In the latter part of his life, Rich acquired the nickname The Silver Fox. He is perhaps best remembered for a pair of 1973 hits, "Behind Closed Doors" and "The Most Beautiful Girl". "The Most Beautiful Girl" topped the U.S. country singles charts, as well as the pop singles charts. .

Though he resided in Benton, Arkansas most of his life, Rich was born in Colt, Arkansas to rural cotton farmers, beginning a professional musical career while in the U.S. Air Force in the early 1950s. His first musical group, called the Velvetones, played jazz and blues and featured his fiancée, Margaret Ann, on lead vocals. Rich left the military in 1955 and tried to farm five acres in Tennessee. He also began performing in clubs around the Memphis area, playing both jazz and R&B. It was during these hard times that he began writing his own material.

Rich was a session musician for Judd Records, which was owned by Jud Phillips, the brother of Sun Records founder Sam Phillips. After recording some demos for Sam Phillips at Sun Records that Phillips didn't find commercial enough, and too jazzy, legend has it that he was given a stack of Jerry Lee Lewis records and told: "come back when you get that bad." In 1958, Rich became a regular session musician for Sun Records playing on records by Lewis, Johnny Cash, Bill Justis, Warren Smith, Billy Lee Riley, Carl Mann, and Ray Smith. He also wrote songs for Lewis, Cash, and others.

His third single for the Sun subsidiary, Phillips International Records, was the 1960 Top 30 hit, "Lonely Weekends," noted for its Presley-like vocals. None of his seven follow-up singles was a success, though several of the songs became staples in his live set, including "Who Will the Next Fool Be," "Sittin' and Thinkin'," and "No Headstone on My Grave." These songs were often recorded by others to varying degrees of success, such as the Bobby Bland version of "Who Will the Next Fool Be."

Rich's career stalled, and he left the struggling Sun label in 1963, signing with a subsidiary of RCA Records Groove. His first single for Groove, "Big Boss Man," was a minor hit, but again his Chet Atkins-produced follow-ups all stiffed. Rich moved to Smash Records early in 1965. Rich's new producer, Jerry Kennedy, encouraged the pianist to emphasize his country and rock & roll leanings, although Rich considered himself a jazz pianist and had not paid much attention to country music since his childhood. The first single for Smash was "Mohair Sam," an R&B-inflected novelty-rock number, and it became a Top 30 pop hit. Unfortunately again for Rich, none of his follow-up singles were successful. Rich was forced to change labels, moving over to Hi Records, where he recorded blue eyed soul music and straight country, but none of his singles made a dent on the country or pop charts.

You can read the rest of Charlies bio at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Rich

Category:

Education

Tags:

• pop
• rock
• Sun

[TEMPmichaelhansen]

i have a weird story about this

isnt Charlie Rich supposed to be a country performer

[John1948TwoC]

@TEMPmichaelhansen  Not at the time. He was a rockabilly artist with Sun Records.

[MrDagwoodBumstead]

@John1948TwoC True. But he'd left Sun for Smash when he cut this.

[John1948TwoC]

@MrDagwoodBumstead Yes, that's right. The first single for Smash was "Mohair Sam," an R&B-inflected novelty-rock number, and it became a Top 30 pop hit. Then he moved to Hi Records where he did some soul and some country. I think he really made the jump to country when he signed with Epic Records in 1967,  There was a huge amount over crossover in the early days of rock / rockabilly so it's very hard to pin down.

[John1948TwoC]

We all wanted to be Mohair Sam. - - - even though we had no idea what mohair was...

[King689]

I had to look this up because Paul McCartney said this was the song Elvis was playing on his bass when the Beatles met him for the first time. Never heard this one before. Cool song!

[DavidLPeel]

That's right King689. On The Beatles Anthology documentary, McCartney also says Mohair Sam was one of The Beatles big songs of that time.

[elvispresley718]

@King689 thats exactly why i came here as well!

[Jm01394]

Yes Charlie Rich

[rosebud7158]

Best song he ever did.

[kiwiduncan]

Awesome song - when it came out I thought it was just the hippest song of them all. Found the single for my jukebox at home, and I think this has the highest play of them all - and the Wurlitzer is loaded with some mighty competition from Atlantic, Motown... in some ways these hits that brushed the top 30 have lasted better than the Number Ones that have been thrashed to death over the past 40 years. Twin Spin... Ramsey Lewis "In Crowd.'

[MrRaiderfan1000]

@King689 This was all over the radio in 1965. I did not hear about Charlie Rich until I got into high school and heard his biggist hit "The most Beautiful girl"

[KitJR50]

Try sitting perfectly STILL during this song.  YOU CAN'T!

[MichaelHansenFUN]

@robin14669 good one-its in a book? i had this record as a child...

[MichaelHansenFUN]

@John1948TwoC I had a copy of this with LITTLE GREEN APPLES on the other side by another artist...

[egami098]

Great song and great voice. I can see why Elvis wanted to play this single over and over.