Mel Street
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King Malachi "Mel" Street (October 21, 1933 – October 21, 1978) 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. 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. He began performing on western Virginia and West Virginia radio shows at the age of 16. Street subsequently worked as a radio tower electrician in Ohio and as a nightclub performer in the Niagara Falls, New York, area. He moved back to West Virginia in 1963 to open an auto body shop.
From 1968 to 1972, Street hosted a show on a Bluefield, West Virginia, television station. 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. He had a record debut on the country charts on October 21, as well, called "Just Hangin' On", and later charted four posthumous songs. Street's idol, George Jones, sang "Amazing Grace" at his funeral.
His posthumous album, Mel Street's Greatest Hits, was promoted via television advertisements in 1981, and sold 400,000 copies.
Discography
Albums
| Year | Album | US Country | Label |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1972 | Borrowed Angel | 14 | Metromedia Country |
| 1973 | The Town Where You Live / Walk Softly On the Bridges | 37 | |
| 1974 | Two Way Street | 37 | GRT |
| 1975 | Smokey Mountain Memories | 16 | |
| 1976 | Mel Street's Greatest Hits | 26 | |
| Country Colors | — | ||
| 1977 | Mel Street | 45 | Polydor |
| 1978 | Country Soul | 47 | |
| Mel Street | — | Mercury | |
| 1980 | Many Moods of Mel | 61 | Sunbird |
Singles
| Year | Single | Chart Positions | Album | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US Country | CAN Country | |||
| 1972 | "Borrowed Angel" | 7 | 9 | Borrowed Angel |
| "Lovin' On Back Streets" | 5 | 8 | ||
| 1973 | "Walk Softly On the Bridges" | 11 | 6 | The Town Where You Live / Walk Softly On the Bridges |
| "The Town Where You Live" | 38 | 58 | ||
| "Lovin' On Borrowed Time" | 11 | 7 | Two Way Street | |
| 1974 | "You Make Me Feel More Like a Man" | 15 | — | |
| "Forbidden Angel" | 16 | 47 | Smokey Mountain Memories | |
| 1975 | "Smokey Mountain Memories" | 13 | 43 | |
| "Even If I Have to Steal" | 17 | 17 | ||
| "(This Ain't Just Another) Lust Affair" | 23 | — | ||
| 1976 | "The Devil in Your Kisses (And the Angel in Your Eyes)" | 32 | — | Mel Street's Greatest Hits |
| "I Met a Friend of Yours Today" | 10 | — | Country Colors | |
| "Looking Out My Window Through the Pain" | 24 | — | ||
| 1977 | "Rodeo Bum" | 56 | — | |
| "Barbara Don't Let Me Be the Last to Know" | 19 | — | Mel Street (1977) | |
| "Close Enough for Lonesome" | 15 | — | ||
| 1978 | "If I Had a Cheating Heart" | 9 | — | Country Soul |
| "Shady Rest" | 24 | — | ||
| "Just Hangin' On" | 68 | — | Mel Street (1978) | |
| 1979 | "The One Thing My Lady Never Puts Into Words" | 17 | — | Many 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 | — |
Footnotes
- Huey, Steve. (2003). Edited by Vladimir Bogdanov, Chris Woodstra, & Stephen Erlewine. "Mel Street (King Malachi Street)." All Music Guide to Country, 2nd ed. San Francisco: Backbeat Books, 2003. ISBN 0-87930-760-9
- Schuler, Dennis Sr. and Larry J. Delp. Mel Street – A Country Legend, Charleston, WV: Mountain State Press, 2002. ISBN 0-941092-47-X
External links
- at Find a Grave