
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, July 26, 1995                   TAG: 9507260054
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

COUNTRY SINGER CHARLIE RICH DIES

Charlie Rich, the silver-haired country singer whose popularity peaked in the mid-1970s and who is best remembered for his 1973 hits ``Behind Closed Doors'' and ``The Most Beautiful Girl,'' died Tuesday. He was 62.

Rich, who had struggled with alcoholism throughout his career, died in a Hammond, La., motel where he and his wife, Margaret, had stopped for the night during a trip to Florida. The local coroner, Vincent Cefalu, said the cause of death was a blood clot on the lungs.

Dubbed the ``Silver Fox'' because of his long mane that turned white when he was 23, Rich was selected by the Country Music Association of America as male vocalist of the year in 1973 and entertainer of the year in 1974.

His album ``Behind Closed Doors'' was chosen best album of the year in 1973, and his ``A Very Special Love Song'' won the same honor in 1974.

Rich's last No. 1 single was a duet with Janie Fricke in 1978, ``On My Knees.''

His most recent popular songs were ``I'll Wake You Up When You Get Home'' and ``You Made It Beautiful'' in 1981.

Success eluded Rich for years before and after his mid-'70s burst of popularity - partly because of his shyness and reluctance to perform outside small clubs in Memphis and Nashville and partly because of his eclectic style that cut across country, blues, jazz, pop and gospel categories.

``Of all the great country and rock singers who followed Elvis Presley out of the South in the '50s, Charlie Rich came closest to matching the soulful purity of Presley's voice,'' commented Los Angeles Times rock music critic Robert Hilburn on learning of Rich's death.

Born in Colt, Ark., Rich gained his appreciation of blues from pickers on his parents' cotton farm, of gospel from his father who sang in a choir and his mother who played the organ, and of jazz from listening avidly to the records of Stan Kenton.

He learned to play piano and saxophone and studied music at the University of Arkansas.

by CNB