From the S&S archives:
Charley Pride touring U.S. bases in Europe

FRANKFURT, June 30 (S&S) — Successful hillbilly singers, nowadays, wear tailored Continental suits, shirts with French cuffs and black patent leather shoes. At least Charley Pride does.

And with his last two records breaking into the Top Ten on nationwide country and western music charts, Charley is definitely successful. He also appeared on Grand Ole Opry last January and is lined up for a spot on the Sept. 1 Lawrence Welk show.

Not only that, but this country singer is a Negro. Which makes Charley Pride about as unique in the realm of hillbilly music as a musical saw player at a Bach recital.

"I've been singing country music all my life," said Charley, a former professional baseball player now in town to open a 16-day tour of U.S. military clubs throughout Germany.

"First, I sang in the cotton fields of Mississippi, then, on the team bus going to ball games," he told The Stars and Stripes at a press party in the Frankfurter Hof.

Four years ago the dapper athlete-turned-singer was in Montana, playing baseball for the Missoula "Timberjacks" and singing club dates on weekends, when he landed a spot on a local show presented by country and western stars Red Foley and Red Sovine.

The next year Pride was called up for a tryout with the New York Mets. Casey Stengel told him, "We aren't running a training camp here." So Charley moved on to Nashville.

In this Tennessee city where hillbilly music is a $100-million-a-year business, Charley went to the Cedarwood Publishing Co. to "let somebody" hear him.

"Red Sovine told me to go there," Charley said. "I did, and soon cut my first record; 'Snakes Crawl at Night' and on the flip side 'Atlantic Coastal Line.' Neither side made it nationally, but the record was a big success at lots of local stations."

Since then a music career has blossomed for the country singer who says he plays guitar "good, but not too good." Now a polished performer with one hit record behind him and his current tune "I Know One" in the nation's Top Ten, the one-time Mississippi cotton picker is on his way.

On his current European tour, Charley is appearing this weekend in Vogelweh, Hanau, Mannheim and Rothwesten EM and NCO clubs and will play at other clubs until July 16.