The “Golden Hits Of The 70s” 

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RAY PRICE

“FOR THE GOOD TIMES”

(Kris Kristofferson)

Columbia 45178

No. 11   January 2, 1971

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Ray Nobel Price (b. Jan. 12, 1926, Perryville, TX) grew up on a farm, served in the Marines, and attended

the North Texas Agricultural College in Abilene with plans to become a veterinary surgeon. Ray, however,

had been moonlighting–singing under the guise of”The Chero­kee Cowboy” at school events–and beginning

in 1948, he appeared on the “Hillbilly Circus” radio show on KRBC. The response was better than he had

hoped, so the next year, he joined KRLD’s “Big D Jamboree” in Dallas.  School days were done.

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The program received some network coverage, and soon Price was recording for Bullet, singing on the

Grand Ole Opry, and hanging around with the country legend Hank Williams. Their styles were similar, and

often, when Williams was under the weather and unable to perform, Ray would fill in. Months before

Hank’s death, Price earned his first country charting with “Talk to Your Heart” (#3, 1952), followed by

“Don’t Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes” (#4, 1952). Upon Hank’s death, members of Williams’s Drifting

Cowboys became Price’s band, the Cherokee Cowboys.

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For years, Ray successfully worked the honky-tonk genre.  His C & W hit songs are in some cases even well­

known to pop/rock fans: “Release Me” (#6, 1954), “If You Don’t Somebody Else Will” (#8, 1954), “Crazy

Arms” (#1, 1956), “My Shoes Keep Walking Back to Me” (#1, 1957), “City Lights” (#1, 1958), “Heartaches by

the Number” (#2, 1959), “Under Your Spell Again” (#5, 1959), and “Make the World Go Away” (#2, 1963).

In all, more than 100 of his 45s have made Billboard’s C & W listings, and Ray was to continue for some

years.

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But 1967 marked a major turning point for Price, pundits claim. The more perceptive detected his future

leanings as early as 1964, in “Burning Memories” (C&W: #2, 1964).  Ray abandoned his Texas stylings,

scrapping the fiddle, the steel guitar, and all the other instrumental touches that rural folk considered

“authentic” country.  Great numbers of violins–whole symphonies, it seemed–were added, as Ray over­

hauled his repertory.

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“For the Good Times” is a fine example of this new middle-of-the-road Countrypolitan phase. Eventually, he

or his staunch public tired of this easy-listening syrup, so Price recorded gospel for the Myrrh label before

semi-retir­ing to his Golden Cross Ranch in Texas. He recorded a duet album with Willie Nelson, acted in

Clint East­wood’s Honkytonk Man (1982), and for a period returned on record, full-circle, to his honky-

tonkin’ ways. Ray and his Cherokee Cowboys–a band that at times has included Johnny Bush, Buddy

Emmons, Willie Nelson, Roger Miller, and Johnny Paycheck–returned to that “authentic” country style.

In 1989, Ray open up his own theater in Branson, Missouri. Four years later, he was nominated to the

Country Music Hall of Fame, but lost out to his former band member, Willie Nelson.