Ray Price

52,020 plays (7,945 listeners)

country, classic country, honky tonk, male vocalists, oldies… see all

Price hit Nashville in the early 1950s, rooming for a short time with Hank Williams. When Williams died, Price took over Williams’ band, the Drifting Cowboys, and had minor success. He was the first artist to have a hit with “Release Me” (1953), a song made famous by Engelbert Humperdinck in 1967.
However, Price became one of the stalwarts of the grinding, honky tonk music that became even more popular in the early 1950s with such singers as Hank Williams, Lefty Frizzell, Webb Pierce and others. Price developed the famous “Ray Price Shuffle Beat” that is heard on “Crazy Arms,” which served as the beat for many honky-tonk classics since then.
In 1953, Price formed his famous band, the Cherokee Cowboys. Among its members in the late 1950s and early 1960s were Roger Miller, Willie Nelson and Johnny Paycheck. In fact, Miller wrote one of Ray Price’s classics in 1958, “Invitation to the Blues,” and sang harmony on the recording. In addition, Nelson penned the Ray Price classic, “Night Life.”
Later career

Price disappeared off the country music scene in the 1960s, but emerged with another hit, the Kris Kristofferson classic, “For the Good Times,” which featured a more mellow Price backed up by sophisticated musical sounds, quite the opposite from the honky-tonk sounds Price pioneered two decades before. Today he is singing Gospel music and has recorded such songs as “Amazing Grace,” “What A Friend We Have in Jesus,” “Farther Along,” and “Rock of Ages”[1].

The Essential Ray Price
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16 Biggest Hits
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Ray Price Gospel
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American Originals
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Top Tracks

1	For the Good Times full track	79
2	Crazy Arms full track	49
3	Heartaches By The Number full track	40
4	Invitation To The Blues full track	19
5	Release Me full track	18
6	I've Got A New Heartache full track	16
7	City Lights full track	15
8	My Shoes Keep Walking Back To You full track	13
9	I Can't Go Home Like This full track	12
10	Pride full track	11
11	I'll Be There (If You Ever Want Me) full track	10
11	Make the World Go Away full track	10
11	Night Life full track	10
11	The Road of No Return full track	10
15	You're the Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me full track	8

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Jodi_Ann wrote:
August 2008

You may also like this artist! http://www.last.fm/music/Jodi+Ann

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alexashton wrote:
October 2007

Saw him with Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard this summer...83 years old and STILL amazing.

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