As an African-American from Sledge, Mississippi, Charley Satisfaction needed to work tougher to win the acceptance of the nation music mainstream. The one black artist to have made vital progress on the nation scene earlier than him was DeFord Bailey, and that started all of 40 years earlier.
Satisfaction was already 28 when he achieved his first hit single, “Just Between You and Me,” a rustic High 10 hit early in 1967. Nevertheless it started an unbelievable run of hits which included 29 No.1s between 1969 and 1983, and profession gross sales of some 25 million albums.
Certainly, it was a becoming reflection of his place within the pantheon of nation music that he was one of many heritage vocalists featured on “Forever Country,” the all-star single launched to mark the fiftieth CMA Awards in November 2016. Satisfaction was then acknowledged with a Lifetime Achievement title, as a part of the Grammys’ 2017 Particular Benefit Awards. Simply earlier than his passing in December 2020, he acquired the Willie Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award on the 54th annual CMA Awards.
One among his best accolades
On January 7, 1967, whilst “Just Between You and Me” was on the charts, got here an occasion that was maybe one of many best accolades he ever acquired. That evening, he grew to become the primary African-American solo singer to carry out on the radio present and reside establishment that was the Grand Ole Opry. To make the second even sweeter, he was launched by one of many best names in nation historical past, Ernest Tubb.
Satisfaction carried out “The Snakes Crawl At Night” and, fittingly, a tune synonymous with an Opry star of a earlier era, in Hank Williams’ 1951 hit “I Can’t Help It (If I’m Still In Love With You).” “I was so nervous, I don’t know how I got through those two songs,” he mentioned later. “It’s hard to remember that far back because it’s been a while, but I can remember how nervous I was, that I can tell you. It was something.”
The efficiency got here originally of a tremendous 1967 for him, as he adopted his first hit with “I Know One” and “Does My Ring Hurt Your Finger,” all of them whereas he was nonetheless credited on disc as Nation Charley Satisfaction. He went on to be inducted into the Opry in 1993.
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