Charley Delight, legendary singer, dies at 86 of COVID troubles

Charley Pride, famous singer with an unmistakable baritone voice, died Saturday in Dallas of issues from COVID-19.

He was 86.

Born a sharecropper’s son in Sledge, Miss out on., in 1934, Satisfaction emerged from Southern cotton fields to turn out to be region music’s initially Black superstar and the very first Black member of the Country Audio Corridor of Fame. He is also a single of a few Black artists to come to be members of the Grand Ole Opry.

Delight was also an completed baseball player. A 2-time Negro league all-star, he played for the Memphis Red Sox and Birmingham Black Barons.

He rose to terrific fame in the early to mid-1970s, when he turned the finest-promoting performer for RCA Data considering that Elvis Presley. For the duration of his recording job, he garnered 52 leading-10 hits on the Billboard Sizzling Region Tracks chart, 30 of which attained amount one.

He was inducted into the Region Audio Hall of Fame in 2000.

His chart-topping hits involved “Kiss An Angel Very good Mornin’,” “Is Anybody Goin’ to San Antone” and “Mountain of Appreciate.” He gained the Region Audio Association’s Entertainer of the 12 months award in 1971, its top rated male vocalist prize in 1971 and 1972, and a Life span Achievement Award in 2020.

His last effectiveness came on Nov. 11, 2020, when he sang “Kiss An Angel Great Mornin’” all through the CMA Awards show at Nashville’s Audio City Heart with Jimmie Allen. View it earlier mentioned.

Concerning 1967-1987, Satisfaction shipped 52 leading 10 country hits, won Grammy awards, and grew to become RCA Records’ top rated-offering state artist.