Mel Street Explained

Mel Street
Background:solo_singer
Birth Name:King Malachi Street
Birth Date:21 October 1933
Birth Place:Grundy, Virginia, United States
Death Place:Hendersonville, Tennessee, United States
Instrument:Guitar
Genre:Country
Occupation:Singer-songwriter
Years Active:1972–1978
Label:Metromedia, GRT, Polydor, Mercury

King Malachi "Mel" Street (October 21, 1933 – October 21, 1978)[1] was an American country music singer who had 13 top-20 hits on the Billboard country charts.

Biography

Street was born near Grundy, Virginia, United States.[2] [3] Publications cite his year of birth as 1933 and his family also maintains that he was born in 1933. However, his gravestone gives the year as 1936.[4] [5] He began performing on western Virginia and West Virginia radio shows at the age of sixteen. Street subsequently worked as a radio tower electrician in Ohio, and as a nightclub performer in the Niagara Falls, New York area.[6] He moved back to West Virginia in 1963 to open an auto body shop.[7]

From 1968 to 1972, Street hosted a show on a Bluefield, West Virginia television station.[8] He recorded his first single, "Borrowed Angel" – which he also wrote – in 1969 for a small regional record label, Tandem Records. A larger label, Royal American Records, picked it up in 1972 and it became a top-10 Billboard hit. He recorded the biggest hit of his career, "Lovin' on Back Streets", in 1972.

Street's last television appearance was in 1977, in which he performed his 1976 hit "I Met A Friend Of Yours Today" on That Good Ole Nashville Music.

Street recorded several hits in the mid-1970s, such as "You Make Me Feel More Like a Man," "Forbidden Angel," "I Met a Friend of Yours Today," "If I Had a Cheatin' Heart," and "Smokey Mountain Memories". He signed with Mercury Records in 1978, but suffering from clinical depression and alcoholism, he killed himself by a self-inflicted gunshot on October 21, 1978, his 45th birthday.[3] He had a record debut on the country charts on October 21 as well, called "Just Hangin' On",[9] and later charted four posthumous songs. Street's idol, George Jones, sang "Amazing Grace" at his funeral.[10]

His posthumous album, Mel Street's Greatest Hits, was promoted via television advertisements in 1981, and sold 400,000 copies.[10]

Discography

Albums

YearAlbumUS CountryLabel
1972Borrowed Angel14Metromedia Country
1973The Town Where You Live /
Walk Softly On the Bridges
37
1974Two Way Street37GRT
1975Smokey Mountain Memories16
1976Mel Street's Greatest Hits26
Country Colors
1977Mel Street45Polydor
1978Country Soul47
Mel StreetMercury
1980Many Moods of Mel61Sunbird

Singles

YearSingleChart PositionsAlbum
US CountryCAN Country
1972"Borrowed Angel"79Borrowed Angel
"Lovin' On Back Streets"58
1973"Walk Softly On the Bridges"116The Town Where You Live /
Walk Softly On the Bridges
"The Town Where You Live"3858
"Lovin' On Borrowed Time"117Two Way Street
1974"You Make Me Feel More Like a Man"15
"Forbidden Angel"1647Smokey Mountain Memories
1975"Smokey Mountain Memories"1343
"Even If I Have to Steal"1717
"(This Ain't Just Another) Lust Affair"23
1976"The Devil in Your Kisses (And the Angel in Your Eyes)"32Mel Street's Greatest Hits
"I Met a Friend of Yours Today"10Country Colors
"Looking Out My Window Through the Pain"24
1977"Rodeo Bum"56
"Barbara Don't Let Me Be the Last to Know"19Mel Street (1977)
"Close Enough for Lonesome"15
1978"If I Had a Cheating Heart"9Country Soul
"Shady Rest"24
"Just Hangin' On"68Mel Street (1978)
1979"The One Thing My Lady Never Puts Into Words"17Many Moods of Mel
1980"Tonight Let's Sleep On It Baby"30
"Who'll Turn Out the Lights"36
1981"Slip Away" (w/ Sandy Powell)48

References

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: October 21, 1978: Country Music Star Tragically Commits Suicide . November 8, 2021 .
  2. https://www.wvpublic.org/post/october-21-1935-country-musician-mel-street-born-virginia#stream/0 "October 21, 1933: Country Musician Mel Street Born in Virginia"
  3. Nelson, Dick (August 27, 2017). "Sunday Morning Country Classic Spotlight to Feature Mel Street". 98.1 Minnesota's New Country. Retrieved March 7, 2020.
  4. Schuler and Delp 2002, p. 23.
  5. http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM335Q_Mel_Street "Mel Street – Grave of a Famous Person"
  6. Web site: Mel Street | Biography & History . August 10, 2021 . AllMusic.
  7. Schuler and Delp 2002, p. 46.
  8. Schuler and Delp 2002, p. 51.
  9. Schuler and Delp 2002, p. 243.
  10. Book: The Guinness Who's Who of Country Music. Colin Larkin. Guinness Publishing. 1993. First. 0-85112-726-6. 398.