Charlie Rich Albums (23)
'The Fabulous Charlie Rich'
Release Date 11/23/1994
Tracks 11
Label Koch International
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
The Fabulous Charlie Rich follows the same formula as its predecessor, Set Me Free, but to more successful results. For starters, the record has a more consistent set of material -- these are songs that Rich can really sink his teeth into, as evidenced by the beautiful, melancholy "Life's Little Ups and Downs" (written by his wife, Margaret Ann) and his own "Sittin' and Thinkin'." Furthermore, the core of each song -- from the bluesy "July 12, 1939" and "Bright Lights, Big City" (which is done essentially as a Jimmy Reed medley, performed in the style of Ray Charles) to the soulful "I Almost Lost My Mind" and the country-pop stylings of "San Francisco Is a Lonely Town" and "Love Waits for Me" -- is more apparent, thanks to Billy Sherrill's relatively trimmed-down production. There are still strings, vocal choruses, and horns throughout the album, but Sherrill has incorporated them into Rich's style more effectively. Occasionally, there is a fairly uninspired number, but The Fabulous Charlie Rich does capture the eclectic nature of Rich's music better than the great majority of his albums, even if the sumptuous production will make it less palatable for country purists. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Despite a career that lasted over four decades, no record he ever made came as close to capturing the totality of Charlie Rich's musical persona as Pictures and Paintings. Ironically, it was to be his last recording; Rich died less than three years later of a blood clot in his lung in a motel in Florida. While Rich came into the public eye in the 1950s writing for Jerry Lee Lewis and with his own '60s hit "Mohair Sam," and became a superstar known as the Silver Fox in the early '70s for his Billy Sherrill-produced hits like "Behind Closed Doors," none of these records came close to capturing the complex essence of who Rich was as a songwriter, arranger, and pianist. Pictures and Paintings offers 11 slices of Rich the public had rarely, if ever, seen. Produced by Scott Billington with help from writer Peter Guralnick and Joe McEwen, Rich developed his material from informal jam sessions held over a couple of years with friends. The music ranges from jazz and blues to swing to country and gospel. Rich's own tunes, which make up the majority of the album, cut across genres and time lines. His radical reworking of "Every Time You Touch Me I Get High" (co-written with Sherrill) becomes a Latin-tinged samba worthy of being interpreted by the early Tamba 4 or Sergio Mendes. His reading of the title track, a co-write of the Doc Pomus/Dr. John collaboration, is a smoky, jazzy tune rather than a New Orleans-flavored R&B number. Michael Toles' shimmering chromatic shapes and colors on guitar, accented by Rich's tastefully placed piano fills, de-center the rhythm of the track and make it a steamy little swinging, mid-tempo ballad. Either Dean Martin or Conway Twitty could have recorded "You Don't Know Me" in their prime. Rich's own version has more soul than both of them put together, though. Rich's reading of Duke Ellington's "Mood Indigo" is no novelty number, but a serious revisioning of the harmonic extrapolations Ellington and Barney Bigard built into its chromatic architecture. Nothing can prepare the listener for the album's final track, however. "Feel Like Going Home" is a gospel tune of such desperation and disappointment, such a plea for deliverance, that it shatters the listener's composure. This writer defies anyone to be unmoved by it -- if you aren't, you must have sawdust instead of blood in your veins. Rich begins with a simple country gospel motif, which he builds upon with each passing verse as the band enters the first into the background and then into the body of the tune, with a Hammond B3 floating above it all. By the time the choir enters, the effect is devastating and the listener feels the crack in Rich's voice and spirit, but the choir buoys him and adds the hope that makes grace possible. It goes out soaring with promise and possibility, summing up an astonishing and extremely complex journey through American music so thorough, so masterfully executed, it could have only been navigated by someone of Rich's unparalleled abilities. To record an album of diverse and difficult material is one achievement, to make that material accessible to a wide range of listeners is yet another. Rich succeeded on both counts, and given that his life ended after this session, that final track is all the more powerful, eerie, and profound. On Pictures and Paintings, Charlie Rich saved the very best, his magnum opus, for last, and we are all the richer for it. For fans, this is as essential; for the beginner, this is as fine an introduction as there is. ~ Thom Jurek, All Music Guide
'Nobody But You'
Release Date 1/1/1980
Tracks 11
Label United Artists
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'The Fool Strikes Again'
Release Date 1/1/1979
Tracks 9
Label United Artists
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'I Still Believe in Love'
Release Date 1/1/1978
Tracks 10
Label United Artists
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'The Most Beautiful Girl'
Release Date 1/1/1978
Tracks 14
Label Embassy
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What The Critics Say
In 1976 Charlie Rich was still riding the charts on the heels of Every Time You Touch Me (I Get High) to be able to record whatever the hell he wanted to, and his label, Epic, wasn't about to argue. Produced by Billy Sherrill, Silver Linings is a collection of traditional spirituals done as only the Silver Fox could, melding country, rhythm & blues, jazz, and pop together to come up with something wholly original, adding depth and dimension to songs that have been worn lifeless by overuse. Usually artists close an album with "Will the Circle Be Unbroken," but Rich had balls enough to kick off the set with it -- before moving into a hard-swinging read of "Down by the Riverside" that rivals Ray Charles' version for heart-stirring spiritual intensity and pure Saturday-night swagger. Whether backed by the Jordanaires or the Nashville Edition, Rich gets his choirs to deliver enough from the gut to allow him to work his magic. On "Why Me?" Rich sounds like a man at the end of his rope, and the choir serves to try to lift him above his despair. Side two is where the disc moves into overdrive with one of the finest-ever renditions of "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" by a country artist. Rich's voice, with all its smoke and sweetness, blends well with the choir before kicking into a bluesy country stomp with whining pedal steel and snare drums popping in the margins. "Amazing Grace" is done as a cross between Jerry Lee Lewis' rock & roll and Meade "Lux" Lewis' boogie-woogie -- it's unadulterated, sanctified sinner's music. Rich sends it all out on a spooky note with "Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child," which is part original Negro spiritual and part late-night blues. Amazing from start to finish, Silver Linings is one of the Top Ten country gospel records of all time. ~ Thom Jurek, All Music Guide
