Although Charley Pride was already an established name with seven No. 1 hits, 1971 single "Kiss an Angel Good Mornin'" quickly became his signature song.
Born March 18, 1934 in Sledge, Miss., Pride hoped his talent at either baseball or singing would allow him to escape sharecropping. After stints with the Memphis Red Sox and the Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro American League and in the New York Yankees farm system, Pride chased country music stardom with RCA Records.
Pride didn't enter the big label game as an unknown talent. Red Sovine and Red Foley helped him before his Nashville arrival, while Jack Clement and Chet Atkins made sure his Music City stay got off to a hot start. Pride's third single, 1967's "Just Between You and Me" cracked the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart—a feat all of his singles would duplicate over the next 22 years.
The top 10 success of "Just Between You and Me" positioned Pride to become the first Black man to grace the Grand Ole Opry stage since country pioneer DeFord Bailey's final appearance in 1941.
Pride's Prime
Pride left no doubt that he was the right singer to implore the married men in his audience to "kiss an angel good mornin'" and "love her like the devil when you get back home." It became one of the biggest hits for both its singer and writer Ben Peters, the mind behind Freddy Fender's "Before the Next Teardrop Falls" and Kenny Rogers' "Daytime Friends." Beyond topping the American country charts for five weeks, it marked Pride's only top 25 appearance on the pop charts and it cracked the top 10 of the adult contemporary chart.
It's the only single off stacked album Charley Pride Sings Heart Songs, which features "You'll Still Be the One," "Miracles, Music and My Wife," "What Money Can't Buy," "Pretty House For Sale" and other showcases of the singer's storytelling talent. The song also represents a career tipping point. Hit singles like "It's Gonna Take a Little Bit Longer," "She's Too Good to Be True," "The Happiness of Having You," "My Eyes Can Only See as Far as You" and numerous others followed as new fans and established listeners clamored to hear more from one of country music's most gifted vocalists.
An Instant Cover Song Candidate
Back then, country singers covered each other frequently. It's hard to imagine Eric Church or Thomas Rhett rushing to the studio to interpret Luke Combs' latest, greatest hit, but that's exactly what happened in 1972 when Roy Clark, Conway Twitty and George Jones recorded "Kiss an Angel Good Mornin'." While those three struck while the iron was hot, Alan Jackson simply paid tribute to one of his favorites when he cut a version for his 1999 album Under the Influence.
Neal McCoy hat-tipped one of Pride's greatest hits in 2013 with a Darius Rucker collaboration that punctuates the stacked playlist of "Kiss an Angel Good Mornin'" covers.
'Kiss An Angel Good Mornin'' Lyrics:
When ever I chance to meet, some old friends on the street
They wonder how does a man get to be this way
I've always got a smiling face, anytime & any place
And every time they ask me why I just smile & say
You've got to kiss an angel good morning
And let her know you think about her when you're gone
Kiss an angel good morning
And love her like the devil when you get back home
Well people may try to guess, the secret of my happiness
But some of them never learn it's a simple thing
The secret I'm speaking of, is a woman & a man in love
And the answer is in this song that I always sing
You've got to kiss an angel good morning
And let her know you think about her when you're gone
Kiss an angel good morning
And love her like the devil when you get back home
Kiss an angel good morning
And let her know you think about her when you're gone
Kiss an angel good morning
And love her like the devil when you get back home
This article was originally published in 2018.
