As an African-American from Sledge, Mississippi, Charley Delight needed to work tougher to win the acceptance of the nation music mainstream. The one black artist to have made important progress on the nation scene earlier than him was DeFord Bailey, and that started all of 40 years earlier.
Delight was already 28 when he achieved his first hit single, “Simply Between You and Me,” a rustic High 10 hit early in 1967. But it surely started an unimaginable 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 “Without end Nation,” the all-star single launched to mark the fiftieth CMA Awards in November 2016. Delight was then acknowledged with a Lifetime Achievement title, as a part of the Grammys’ 2017 Particular Advantage Awards. Simply earlier than his passing in December 2020, he obtained the Willie Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award on the 54th annual CMA Awards.
One in all his best accolades
On January 7, 1967, at the same time as “Simply Between You and Me” was on the charts, got here an occasion that was maybe one of many best accolades he ever obtained. That night time, he grew to become the primary African-American solo singer to carry out on the radio present and dwell 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.
Delight carried out “The Snakes Crawl At Evening” and, fittingly, a tune synonymous with an Opry star of a earlier era, in Hank Williams’ 1951 hit “I Can’t Assist It (If I’m Nonetheless In Love With You).” “I used to be so nervous, I don’t know the way I acquired by means of these two songs,” he mentioned later. “It’s arduous to keep in mind that far again as a result of it’s been some time, however I can bear in mind how nervous I used to be, that I can let you know. It was one thing.”
The efficiency got here originally of an incredible 1967 for him, as he adopted his first hit with “I Know One” and “Does My Ring Damage Your Finger,” all of them whereas he was nonetheless credited on disc as Nation Charley Delight. He went on to be inducted into the Opry in 1993.
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