Charlie Rich was a country music star who was known as the Silver Fox, especially in the later part of his career. Charlie grew up in Arkansas with a father who sang in gospel quartets and a mother who played piano at the local church. An African American sharecropper on the family land taught Charlie how to play blues piano. Charlie eventually went to college as a music major for one semester and quit to join the Air Force. After his time in the Air Force, he started working as a session musician for the famous Sun Records, where Jerry Lee Lewis and Johnny Cash famously recorded. This gave him lots of opportunities to record, write, and meet the right people. It took a number of years, but in 1973, Charlie released the album Behind Closed Doors. It was a massive hit, and in 1974, he won award after award. He won 3 CMA awards for that year: Best Male Vocalist, Album of the Year, and Single of the Year. He won a Grammy for Best Male Country Vocal Performance and won four Academy of Country Music awards as well. All the fame caught up with Charlie, and he began to drink heavily. In 1975, he presented a CMA award while obviously intoxicated. After struggling with the names of the nominees, he awkwardly tore open the envelope, pulled out a cigarette lighter, and set fire to the paper with the winner’s name. He then announced the award winner as “My friend Mr. John Denver.” This wasn’t a good look for Charlie, and his career went downhill from there. 

This album features some great musicians, but one you need to know is Hargus “Pig” Robbins. Pig was a pianist who played on many great records of the 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s. When he was three years old, he accidentally poked himself in the eye with a knife and had to have the eye removed. He later lost sight in his other eye as well, rendering him blind. His first major recording was George Jones’ hit, “White Lightning.” You hear him a bit on the intro of this tune, but he really shines on “Behind Closed Doors.”

This album, Behind Closed Doors, is one of my favorite country records of the 70s. It’s definitely worth listening to. 

Fun fact: This song was written by Billy Sherrill, Norro Wilson, and Rory Bourke. Billy was the producer for this album. The song “The Most Beautiful Girl” is actually a combination of 2 songs written by Norro Wilson: Hey Mister & Mama McCluskie.

Listen for: Some great pedal steel guitar. The high note right before “tell her I’m sorry” is a big part of the fingerprint of this song. Also, I love the fade out on this tune. It almost feels like he’s walking down the street asking if you’ve seen his girl, and then continues on down the road out of sight.

Hope you enjoy!

Hey, did you happen to see
The most beautiful girl in the world?
And if you did, was she crying, crying?

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Hey, if you happen to see
The most beautiful girl that walked out on me
Tell her I’m sorry
Tell her I need my baby
Oh, won’t you tell her that I love her?

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My name is Michael Sanchez and I’m an avid record collector and obscure song searcher. My goal is to post one song a day that’s been on my stereo/turntable frequently. If you don’t like the song… too bad 🙂 I do.

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