The first half of this programme is Charlie's 1975 "Silver Fox" album, which gives us some idea of what a Charlie Rich concert would be like - basically, Charlie telling the story of his years of struggling for recognition followed by "overnight success", interspersed with new versions of some of his Sun classics and his Epic hit "Behind Closed Doors", followed by new and recent recordings. If you can get past the narration, which is excruciating, the songs are absolutely blinding - there is not a weak track on the entire album, and his new recordings of "Don't Put No Headstone On My Grave" and "Break-Up" are sublime.
The same cannot be said of the second half, "Every Time You Touch Me" (1976), which unfortunately has too many sugary tracks giving us a foretaste of the musical direction he would take from then on - frankly, a complete lack of engagement and mostly worthless material. However, this album is redeemed by brilliant versions of "Since I fell for You", "Midnight Blues" (terrific!) and "Pass On By", plus the bitter-sweet "Rendezvous". If only he had kept it up!
After the great "Behind Closed Doors" album, finally "The Silverfox"& "Everytime You Touch Me (I get High)" on CD!!!
The best 'Epic' period of The talented Silverfox ! AWESOME !!!
A must for the fans ;)
Charlie Rich was very hard to figure out, which was why the success he had was very surprising, but still wonderful. His complex life & career is displayed on side 1 of "The Silver Fox". 1st, he was taking classical lessons ("Ronda a la Charlie"), but he didn't like 'the thought of wearing tuxedos, and besides, the shirt's collar was giving me quite a rash.' He then discovered the blues as it 'started drifting over the Mississippi River into my tender young years,' then decided to be a blues singer ("Don't Put No Headstone On My Grave"), but 'the blues made us blue, 'cause it made us broke. We couldn't find any work.' Then he mentioned having tried the big band, using the names of Stan Kenton, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, and Lefty Frizzell (I didn't know he was a bandleader, but I knew he was a country legend, but that's off topic) ("Charlie's Swing"). He then went to Sun Records to do rockabilly ("Break Up"), but he stated that they didn't want 2 singing piano rockers up front (Jerry Lee Lewis was already at Sun). 'He was selling about 20 million records a year, and I was just about selling 20, so you know who moved on.' (Actually, Jerry Lee left before Charlie, but...) He then fast-forwards to when he moved to Nashville and made it big. (Spoiler: the original "Behind Closed Doors" single, which Charlie called 'my favorite country song,' plays) He then said that he would get a little homesick, then he breaks the fourth wall, and "Feel Like Going Home" (B-side of "The Most Beautiful Girl") plays. The rest of the CD is great as well. "I Love My Friend" topped Country & Easy Listening charts as well as going Pop #24, soon in competition w/ "She Called Me Baby from RCA, as buyers didn't know what was the new single! "My Elusive Dreams" is done best by him, going #3, 49, and 16 on country, pop, and EL, respectively. Going into the other album featured here, "Every Time You Touch Me (I Get High)", the album was recorded w/ the idea of another CMA Album of the Year in mind. (Sadly, he wasn't even nominated.) Chris Bolton called the title track (a C. Rich co-write)'the most "un-Country" song that Charlie had recorded since the Epic hits began to flow in 1972.' It went #3 in country, became his last Pop Top 70 at #19, and his last EL Top 5, topping the chart. "All Over Me" went Country #4 and EL #33, but probably would've done better if not for a certain something. That 'something' didn't stop his cover of the standard "Since I Fell For You" from making the Country Top 10 (even if barely), nearly making it on EL at #11, and bing his last Hot 100 entry at #71. "A Mellow Melody", later the B-side for the duet w/ Janie Fricke "On My Knees", was another co-write by Charlie. "Pass On By", a rerecording of a Hi Records B-side, made the song a B-side again, this time for the title track. "You and I" & "She" were flipsides of, respectively, "All Over Me" & "Since I Fell For You". "Midnight Blues" was originally recorded at Sun Records as a flopped single. Apparently, Charlie got better for each version of any song he rerecorded. This is highly recommended, but 1st, buy "Set Me Free/The Fabulous Charlie Rich" & "Boss Man/Very Special Love Songs" in that order. Hopefully Demon/Edsel will find out they've been missing 2 other Epic albums as another Amazon reviewer mentioned on the same page.
