Ray Price (musician) 1940s-1950s success What happened in the early 1940s? After the war and college, Price rethought his decision to continue schooling to be a veterinarian. What success did Ray have? He was the first artist to have a success with the song "Release Me" (1954
First artist out of who?
Ray Prince was the first artist out of who?
After the war and college, Price rethought his decision to continue schooling to be a veterinarian. For one thing he was considered too small to work with large cattle and horses, the backbone of a Texas veterinarian's practice. While helping around his father's ranch he also began singing at various functions around the Abilene, Texas area. This eventually led him to begin singing on the radio program Hillbilly Circus broadcast on Abilene's KRBC in 1948. He joined the Big D Jamboree on Dallas radio station KRLD-AM in 1949, and when the show was picked up for broadcast on the CBS radio network soon afterward Price had his first taste of national exposure. It was around this time Ray Price became friends with Lefty Frizzell. The two first met at Beck Recording Studio in Dallas, and Price ended up writing the song "Give Me More, More, More Of Your Kisses" for Frizzell's use. A few demos recorded by Price at Beck's caught the attention of Bullet Records in Nashville, Tennessee and he was signed to his first recording contract. However, his first single released on Bullet, "Jealous Lies" failed to become a chart hit. He relocated to Nashville in the early 1950s, rooming for a brief time with Hank Williams. When Williams died, Price managed his band, the Drifting Cowboys, and had minor success. He was the first artist to have a success with the song "Release Me" (1954), a top five popular music hit for Engelbert Humperdinck in 1967. In 1953, Price formed his band, the Cherokee Cowboys. Among its members during the late 1950s and early 1960s were; Roger Miller, Willie Nelson, Darrell McCall, Van Howard, Johnny Paycheck, Johnny Bush, Buddy Emmons, Pete Wade, Jan Kurtis, Shorty Lavender and Buddy Spicher. Miller wrote one of Ray Price's classics in 1958, "Invitation to the Blues", and sang harmony on the recording. Additionally, Nelson composed the Ray Price song "Night Life". Price became one of the stalwarts of 1950s honky tonk music, with hit songs such as "Talk To Your Heart" (1952) and "Release Me". He later developed the famous "Ray Price Shuffle," a 4/4 arrangement of honky tonk music with a walking bassline, which can be heard on "Crazy Arms" (1956) and many of his other recordings from the late 1950s. CANNOTANSWER
He was the first artist to have a success with the song "Release Me
Noble Ray Price (January 12, 1926 – December 16, 2013) was an American country music singer, songwriter, and guitarist. His wide-ranging baritone is regarded as among the best male voices of country music, and his innovations, such as propelling the country beat from 2/4 to 4/4, known as the "Ray Price beat", helped make country music more popular. Some of his well-known recordings include "Release Me", "Crazy Arms", "Heartaches by the Number", "For the Good Times", "Night Life", and "You're the Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me". He was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1996. He continued to record and tour into his 80s.

Early life
Ray Price was born on a farm near the small former community of Peach, near Perryville, Wood County, Texas. He was the son of Walter Clifton Price and Clara Mae Bradley Cimini. His grandfather, James M. M. Price, was an early settler in the area. Price was three years old when his parents divorced and his mother moved to Dallas, Texas. For the rest of his childhood he split time between Dallas and on the family farm, where his father had remained. Price's mother and step-father were successful fashion designers and wanted him to take up that line of work but it had little appeal to him.

Price began singing and playing guitar as a teenager but at first chose a career in veterinary medicine. He was attending North Texas Agricultural College in preparation for that career when his studies were interrupted by America's entry into World War II. Price was drafted in 1944 and served in the United States Marine Corps in the Pacific Theater. He returned to the college after the war and, in 1972, was honored as a distinguished alumnus.

Music career

1940s–1950s success

After the war and college, Price rethought his decision to continue schooling to be a veterinarian; he was considered too small to work with large cattle and horses, the backbone of a Texas veterinarian's practice. While helping around his father's ranch he also began singing at various functions around the Abilene, Texas, area. This eventually led him to begin singing on the radio program Hillbilly Circus broadcast on Abilene's KRBC in 1948. He joined the Big D Jamboree on Dallas radio station KRLD (AM) in 1949, and when the show was picked up for broadcast on the CBS radio network soon afterward Price had his first taste of national exposure. It was around this time Ray Price became friends with Lefty Frizzell. The two first met at Beck Recording Studio in Dallas, and Price ended up writing the song "Give Me More, More, More Of Your Kisses" for Frizzell's use. A few demos recorded by Price at Beck's caught the attention of Bullet Records in Nashville, Tennessee, and he was signed to his first recording contract. However, his first single released on Bullet, "Jealous Lies", failed to become a chart hit.

He relocated to Nashville in the early 1950s, rooming for a brief time with Hank Williams. When Williams died, Price managed his band, the Drifting Cowboys, and had minor success. He was the first artist to have a success with the song "Release Me" (1954), a top five popular music hit for Engelbert Humperdinck in 1967. In 1953, Price formed his band, the Cherokee Cowboys. Among its members during the late 1950s and early 1960s were Roger Miller, Willie Nelson, Darrell McCall, Van Howard, Johnny Paycheck, Johnny Bush, Buddy Emmons, and Buddy Spicher. Miller wrote one of Ray Price's classics in 1958, "Invitation to the Blues", and sang harmony on the recording. Additionally, Nelson composed the Ray Price song, "Night Life". Price became one of the stalwarts of 1950s honky tonk music, with hit songs such as "Talk To Your Heart" (1952) and "Release Me".

1960–2000s: Nashville sound to gospel

During the 1960s, Ray experimented increasingly with the so-called Nashville sound, singing slow ballads and utilizing lush arrangements of strings and backing singers. Examples include his 1967 rendition of "Danny Boy", and "For the Good Times" in 1970, which was Price's first country music chart No. 1 hit since "The Same Old Me"  by Kris Kristofferson, the song also scored No. 11 on the popular music chart and featured a mellower Price backed by sophisticated musical sounds, quite in contrast to the honky tonk sounds Price had pioneered two decades before. Price had three more No. 1 country music successes during the 1970s: "I Won't Mention It Again", "She's Got To Be A Saint", and "You're the Best Thing That Ever Happened To Me" (the last of which was a pop hit in Canada, and would gain greater fame a year later when Gladys Knight & the Pips covered it).

Price's final top ten hit was "Diamonds In The Stars" in early 1982. Price continued to have songs on the country music chart through 1989. Later, he sang gospel music and recorded such songs as "Amazing Grace", "What A Friend We Have In Jesus", "Farther Along" and "Rock of Ages". Price briefly made national news again in 1999 when he was arrested for possession of marijuana. According to Price in a 2008 interview, old friend Willie Nelson — no stranger to marijuana arrests — phoned and told him he had just earned $5 million in free publicity with the drug bust.

In 2009, he made two performances for the Fox News show Huckabee. The first was with the Cherokee Cowboys and host Mike Huckabee, and he performed "Crazy Arms" and "Heartaches By The Number". Weeks later he performed with the Cherokee Cowboys and Willie Nelson (again with Huckabee playing bass guitar). This time they performed duets of "Faded Love" and "Crazy". Price worked on his last album, Last of the Breed, with fellow country music singers Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard. This album was released on March 20, 2007, by the company Lost Highway Records. The two-disc set features 20 country classics as well as a pair of new compositions. The trio toured the U.S. from March 9 until March 25 starting in Arizona and finishing in Illinois. This was Price's third album with Nelson and first album with Haggard. After the tour, Haggard remarked, "I told Willie when it was over, 'That old man gave us a goddamn singing lesson.' He really did. He just sang so good. He sat there with the mic against his chest. And me and Willie are all over the microphone trying to find it, and he found it."

Cancer and death
On November 6, 2012, Price confirmed that he was fighting pancreatic cancer. Price told the San Antonio Express-News that he had been receiving chemotherapy for the past six months. An alternative to the chemo would have been surgery that involved removing the pancreas along with portions of the stomach and liver, which would have meant a long recovery and stay in a nursing home. Said Price, "That's not very much an option for me. God knows I want to live as long as I can but I don't want to live like that." He told the newspaper, "The doctor said that every man will get cancer if he lives to be old enough. I don't know why I got it – I ain't old!"

Although in February 2013 the cancer appeared to be in remission, Price was hospitalized in May 2013 with severe dehydration. On December 2, 2013, Price entered a Tyler, Texas, hospital in the final stages of pancreatic cancer, according to his son, then left on December 12 for home hospice care. Price died at his home in Mt. Pleasant, Texas, on December 16, 2013, aged 87. Price was interred at Restland Memorial Park in Dallas, Texas.

Personal life

After leaving Nashville, Price lived his time off the road on his east Texas ranch near Mount Pleasant, continuing to dabble in gamefowl, cattle and horses. Ray Price married twice. He and his first wife divorced in the late 1960s. Price married second wife Janie on June 11, 1970, and they remained together until his death. A son from his first marriage, Cliff Price, also survives.

Discography

Industry awards
Academy of Country Music
 1970 Album of the Year – For The Good Times
 1970 Single of the Year – "For The Good Times"

Country Music Association
 1971 Album of the Year – I Won't Mention It Again

Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum
 Inducted in 1996

Grammy Awards
 1971 Best Male Country Vocal Performance – "For The Good Times"
 2008 Best Country Collaboration with Vocals with Willie Nelson – "Lost Highway"

See also
 Country Music Association
 Academy of Country Music
 Inductees of the Country Music Hall of Fame (1996 Inductee)

References

External links

The "Ray Price Shuffle" with audio examples
at the Country Music Hall of Fame
Allmusic Ray Price with Biography, Discography, Charts

1926 births
2013 deaths
20th-century American guitarists
20th-century American male musicians
American acoustic guitarists
American country guitarists
American country singer-songwriters
American male guitarists
American male singer-songwriters
United States Marine Corps personnel of World War II
Columbia Records artists
Country musicians from Tennessee
Country musicians from Texas
Country Music Hall of Fame inductees
Deaths from cancer in Texas
Deaths from pancreatic cancer
Dot Records artists
Gold Star Records artists
Grammy Award winners
Grand Ole Opry members
Guitarists from Tennessee
Guitarists from Texas
Monument Records artists
Musicians from Nashville, Tennessee
Musicians from Dallas
People from Cherokee County, Texas
People from Mount Pleasant, Texas
People from Wood County, Texas
Singer-songwriters from Texas
Singer-songwriters from Tennessee
Step One Records artists
Traditional pop music singers
University of Texas at Arlington alumni
Word Records artists
Drifting Cowboys members
This is a list of the award history of the gospel duo, Mary Mary. The duo have won a total of 78 awards out of 92 nominations

American Music Awards
The duo has won 2 awards out of 5 nominations 
Wins
2005: Favorite Contemporary Inspirational Artist
2009: Favorite Contemporary Inspirational Artist
Nominations
2001: Favorite R&B/Soul or Hip-Hop New Artist
2009: Favorite Soul/R&B Band, Duo or Group
2014: Favorite Gospel Artist

ASCAP
The duo has won 1 awards out of 1 nominations
2011: Golden Note Award

BET Awards
The duo has won 3 awards out of 11 nominations
Wins
2009: Best Gospel Artist
2011: Best Gospel Artist
2013: Best Gospel Artist
Nominations
2001: Best Female Group 
2001: Best Gospel Artist
2003: Best Group 
2006: Best Gospel Artist
2006: Best Group 
2007: Best Gospel Artist
2007: Best Group
2013: Best Artist

Dove Award
The duo has won 7 awards out of 10 nominations
Wins
2001: Urban Recorded Song of the Year – "Shackles (Praise You)"
2001: Urban Album of the Year – Thankful
2002: Urban Recorded Song of the Year – "Thank You" (from Kingdom Come Soundtrack with Kirk Franklin)
2003: Contemporary Gospel Recorded Song of the Year – "In the Morning" (from Incredible)
2004: Urban Recorded Song of the Year – "Dance, Dance, Dance" (from Gotta Have Gospel)
2006: Contemporary Gospel Album of the Year – Mary Mary
2009: Urban Recorded Song of the Year – "Get Up" (from The Sound)
Nominations
2009: Urban Recorded Song of the Year – "Love Him Like I Do" (from Revealed with Deitrick Haddon and Ruben Studdard)
2009: Contemporary Gospel Album of the Year – The Sound
2009: Group Of The Year

Grammy Awards
The duo has won 2 awards out of 6 nominations
Wins
2000: Best Contemporary Soul Gospel Album, for Thankful
2009: Best Gospel Performance, for "Get Up" 

Nominations
2008: Best Contemporary R&B Gospel Album, for "The Sound"
2010: Best Gospel Song, for "God in Me"
2011: Best Gospel Album, for "Something Big"
2013: Best Gospel Song, for "Go Get It"

Image Awards
The duo has won 2 awards out of 6 nominations
Wins
2009: Outstanding Gospel Artist
2010: Outstanding Song – "God in Me" 
Nominations
2001: Outstanding Duo or Group
2003: Outstanding Duo or Group
2003: Outstanding Gospel Artist
2006: Outstanding Gospel Artist

Lady of Soul Awards
The duo has won 2 awards out of 4 nominations
Wins
2001: Best Gospel Album – Thankful
2001: Best R&B/Soul or Rap New Duo or Group
Nominations
2001: Best R&B/Soul Single Duo or Group – "Shackles (Praise You)"
2003: Best Gospel Album – Incredible

MOBO Award
The duo has won 2 awards out of 4 nominations
Wins
2000: Best Gospel Act
2001: Best Gospel Act
Nominations
2006: Best Gospel Act
2009: Best Gospel Act

NAACP Image Award
The duo has won 2 awards out of 5 nominations
Wins
2009: Best Gospel Artist (Tradition or Contemporary)
2010: Outstanding Song – "God In Me"
Nominations
2003: Outstanding Duo or Group
2003: Outstanding Gospel Artist
2006: Best Gospel Artist (Tradition or Contemporary)

Stellar Awards
The duo has won 17 awards out of 31 nominations
Wins
2001: New Artist of the Year
2001: Group/Duo of the Year
2001: Contemporary Group/Duo of the Year  
2001: Contemporary CD of the Year – Thankful  (Columbia)
2004: Contemporary Group/Duo of the Year 
2006: Urban/Inspirational Single / Performance of the Year – "Heaven"; Mary Mary (album) (Sony Urban Music/ Columbia)
2010: Song of the Year – "God in Me"; The Sound (Columbia)
2010: Group/Duo of the Year
2010: Contemporary Group/Duo of the Year
2010: Urban/Inspirational Single / Performance of the Year – "God in Me"
2012: Group/Duo of the Year
2012: Contemporary Group/Duo of the Year
2013: Urban/Inspirational Single / Performance of the Year - "Go Get It"; Go Get It (album) (My Block/ Columbia)
2013: Group/Duo of the Year
2013: Special Event CD of the Year
2013: Contemporary Group/Duo of the Year
2013: Contemporary CD of the Year - Go Get It (My Block/ Columbia)
Nominations
 2001: Artist Of The Year
 2001: Music Video of the Year – "Shackles (Praise You)"; Thankful
 2004: Artist of the Year
 2004: Group Duo of the Year
 2004: Urban/Inspirational Performance of the Year – "Incredible"; Incredible (Integrity Gospel/Columbia)
 2006: Artist Of The Year 
 2006: Song of the Year – "Heaven";  Songwriters: "Warryn Campbell", "Erica Campbell", "Tina Campbell", Joi Campbell 
 2006: CD Of The Year – Mary Mary
 2006: Group Duo of the Year
 2012: Artist of the Year
 2012: CD of the Year - Something Big
 2012: Contemporary CD of the Year: - Something Big
 2012: Urban/Inspirational Performance of the Year - Walking
 2013: Song of the Year - Go Get It;  Songwriters: Warryn Campbell, Erica Campbell, Trecina Campbell

Soul Train Awards
The duo has won 1 awards out of 4 nominations
Wins
2009: Best Gospel Performance – "God In Me"
Nominations
2009: Best Collaboration – "God In Me"
2009: Song of the Year – "God In Me" 
2001: Best Gospel Album – Thankful

Mary Mary
Awards The Image is a 1969 black and white short film directed by Michael Armstrong with starring Michael Byrne and David Bowie in his first film role. The film is one of the few short films ever to receive a certified 'X' Rating and it gained this rating due to its violent content.

Plot
A troubled artist (Michael Byrne) is haunted by a ghostly young man (David Bowie) who appears to step right out of one of the artist's paintings. From a brief summary located on the cover of the film's script, it reads: a study of the illusionary reality world within the schizophrenic mind of the artist at his point of creativity.

Cast
 David Bowie as The Boy
 Michael Byrne as The Artist

References

External links
 
 The Image - Script
 The Image at CINEBEATS

British films
Films directed by Michael Armstrong
1969 films