Charley Pride topped the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart for the first time on August 9, 1969, with “All I Have to Offer You (Is Me).” The song stayed at the top for a week between Buck Owens’ rendition of “Johnny B. Goode” and Merle Haggard’s “Workin’ Man Blues.” However, it was more than Pride’s first No. 1. It was a historic moment for the artist and the genre.
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Pride kicked off a years-long string of top 10 hits in 1966 with his third single, “Just Between You and Me.” In June 1969, he released “All I Have to Offer You (Is Me)” as the first and only single from his first compilation album, The Best of Charley Pride. When it hit No. 1 in August, Pride became the first Black artist to top the Billboard country chart in 25 years.
Before Pride, the last Black artist to send a single to the top of the country chart was Louis Jordan. His song, “Is You Is or Is You Ain’t My Baby,” reached the summit in late July 1944. Nat King Cole was the first Black artist to top the country chart with “Straighten Up and Fly Right” earlier in 1944. Cole would have one more country No. 1, and Jordan would top the charts two more times. Pride, however, would earn 28 more No. 1 singles.
Charley Pride Followed His Love of Country Music to Stardom
As a Black man in Jim Crow-era Mississippi, Charley Pride had to be mindful of everything he said and did. The legislation that codified segregation into law had been largely overturned in 1965, a year before he released his first single, “The Snakes Crawl at Night,” but the attitudes that allowed the laws to stand stayed the same. As a result, he still had to be mindful about song selection and other aspects of his career, lest he offend the sensibilities of racists.
Pride grew up in Sledge, Mississippi, working on his family’s cotton farm and listening to the Grand Ole Opry with his father. When he got his first guitar at the age of 14, he began learning songs by the likes of Hank Williams, Roy Acuff, Pee Wee King, and Ernest Tubb, according to the Country Music Hall of Fame.
He found success when “Just Between You and Me” peaked at No. 9 on the country chart. Country fans nationwide loved his music. While many audiences were shocked to find that Pride wasn’t white, he was largely well-received due to the quality of his music. That is not to say that he didn’t face racism, discrimination, or death threats. However, Pride didn’t let the bigots win. Instead, he stood on his conviction and let his love of country music lead him to superstardom.
“No one had ever told me that whites were supposed to sing one kind of music and Blacks another,” Pride wrote in his autobiography. “I sang what I liked in the only voice I had.”
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