It's hard to overstate how huge Charley Pride was in his 1970s heyday. Thirty #1 hits. Incredible.

I think a lot of that had to do with how beloved he was as a personality, because about twenty of those songs sound interchangeable to my ears. But in that mass of hit songs, a good half dozen are singular, immortal country standards.

"Is Anybody Goin' to San Antone?," "Kiss An Angel Good Mornin'," "The Snakes Come Out at Night," "Mountain of Love," "Never Been So Loved (In All of My Life)," "Where Do I Put Her Memory," "Does My Ring Hurt Your Finger," "Burgers and Fries."

Huge, eternal classics.

Clearly, obviously, Pride was a trailblazer as by far the most successful black country singer in history. What I find fascinating is how his singing and his songs neither ran away from or ran towards his racial identity. Instead, he sang from the POV of a middle class everyman.

Modest songs primarily covering the emotional ups and downs of domestic life. He never seemed to present himself as an exception from the normal currents of country culture. He seemed so comfortably, so deeply his own country self.

I can't help but think that his career not only brought a lot of warmth & pleasure to his millions of fans, but that he probably did a lot to demystify the inner lives of middle class black folks for a primarily white audience that might otherwise not see past appearances.

When I was about six, my very favorite song for awhile was Charley Pride's "Burgers and Fries." I think I loved it for the profound reason that I, too, loved burgers and fries and cherry pies and drive-in picture shows. I wasn't capable of much deeper reflection than that.

As a white blue collar kid growing up in an almost entirely white small town, exposed to almost entirely white rural culture (I can't recall another album by a black artist in my dad's vast album collection) I find it interesting now that Pride's blackness didn't really register.

I just loved the song as a song. He didn't sound white or black to me. He just sounded like Charley Pride. I'm no expert on social relations or racial politics, but I think that probably laid some important inner ground for the older me to see a little bit beyond my own limits.

I can only imagine the unseen challenges & outrages Pride had to overcome to practice his art. I find it moving to think that the man broke so many barriers by being true to his muse, which authentically seemed to be all about exploring intimacy, modesty, and simple pleasures.

Ultimately, the story of country music can't be told without telling Charley Pride's story. May he rest in peace.