Disco de Charlie Rich: “Fabulous Charlie Rich”

Why do we only get to give five stars? Charlie Rich deserves at least a thousand for this CD. This was the first album of Charlie Rich that I ever owned. I still have it but also have the (now out of print) CD. While the grooves on my old record have worn out, the music is as fresh as the day Charlie cut these songs. Once or twice in a lifetime, a song comes along and hits you so hard you remember exactly where you were and what you were doing when you first heard it. "Life's Little Ups and Down" was like that for me. I know exactly where our car was when the song came on the radio. My parents, my brother and I were headed out of town on a vacation when I first heard this one on the radio. I'd never heard Charlie Rich before, but his voice and this amazing song reached out and grabbed me. After I bought the record I played it more than any other I ever owned. Why? On their good days, Elvis, George Jones, Sam Cooke, Aaron Neville, Jackie Wilson and a few others could equal Charlie Rich. But no one ever surpassed his talent. No one ever sang more soulfully, more sweetly or with more passion than Charlie Rich. His talents are on display here. Yet this is just a typical studio album for Rich. Although it was cut in Nashville with Billy Sherrill as producer, it is NOTHING like the albums he cut with Sherrill after hitting the big time in 1973 with Behind Closed Doors. Here Sherrill was content to let Charlie do some of his favorite Jimmie Reed and Ivory Joe Turner songs, and the country songs Sherrill brought somehow fit in. Charlie sang those country songs with so much passion they sounded right on a album with blues and jazz stylings. I wish I could do justice to this music and tell you how great it is. "I Almost Lost My Mind" by Ivory Joe Hunter sounds like country blues. "Life Has It's Little Ups and Downs" is the greatest song about a man's love for his wife I've ever heard (and Charlie's wife wrote it for him to sing). "San Francisco Is a Lonely Town" is uptown country along the lines of "By the Time I Get to Phoenix." It's a great song too. "Sittin' and Thinkin" is the most country song Charlie Rich ever wrote. It's a classic theme: drunken husband sitting in jail and begging his wife to take him back. "July 12, 1939" is a chilling modern country blues about a boy convicted on false testimony. It is such a great song I wonder why it hasn't been covered more times. It deserves to be a classic. "Bright Lights Big City" is Charlie's tribute to Jimmy Reed. The rest of the album is also wonderful music. The one song I'll bet a lot of middle aged music critics hated, "Raggedy Ann," is one that as a girl of 14 when I bought the record, I dearly loved. It refers to a poor teenage girl the singer is waiting for. He will wait till she grows up and then he'll take her away to better things. "Have You Never Been Lonely?" is pure country of the old fashioned kind. "A Picture of You" is a sad song about a man who drinks while looking at a smiling picture of his lost love. "Love Waits For Me" is just a great story song that Charlie sings with wistful passion that gets me every time. "It Makes Me Want to Cry" is one of the best songs Charlie ever sang. The late Eddie Rabbit was one of the co-writers of this song. I will never understand why this song, "It Makes Me Want to Cry" isn't covered more often. Sure, men aren't supposed to cry, but sometimes they do. This song is so beautiful, telling the tale of a marriage where the wife has fallen out of love -- and her husband knows. Charlie Rich gave this one the soulful treatment that really made you believe. He was the ultimte soul singer.

The great Bob Dylan called Charlie Rich his favorite singer. I wonder how many die-hard Dylan fans are aware that Dylan even said it. Sad to say, most Dylan fans never even heard of Charlie Rich. Included in this album is "Life has it's little ups and downs". Written by Charlie's wife Margaret Ann Rich, this is one of the greatest songs I've ever heard in the many years I've been listening to music. It's just so special! July 12,1939, no that's not my birthday, it's just another reason to but this album FABULOUS! An original Sun recording star, Charlie Rich is as we say in N.Y., "Da Man"! Although the cd is out of print(although available through Amazon etc.) don't worry if it's already sold, because it will be re-issued as a two-fer with another fine Rich album, "Set Me Free". These are early CBS recordings. They are hot stuff! Why suffer through today's musical trash when you can get some real fine talent. Charlie Rich, WOW!

You all said it right! Charlie Rich was so excellent, this really should have been titled 'The Excellent Charlie Rich'! I can already imagine this album with that title! Unfortunately, this second album with Billy Sherrill for Epic Records, like the last one, Set Me Free, made little commercial noise, and that also happened to its singles! Raggedy Ann, the lead off single, and Life's Little Ups And Downs, went #45 and #41 on the Country charts respectively. July 12 1939 was the other single. His first crossover, it went #47, #85, and #39 on the Country, Pop, and AC charts respectively. There's also a rerecording of Sittin' And Thinkin' that is even more convicting than the original, as he continued to drink alcohol (and smoke)since 1962, when he first did this song. Then there's another highlight, the Bright Lights, Big City medley as a tribute to Jimmy Reed 'in the style of Ray Charles' to quote someone else. Excellent, as before mentioned, but wouldn't you prefer to buy the two-fer CD Set Me Free/The Fabulous Charlie Rich for less money than this one record? (Crazy, but true.)