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Mel Street

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Mel Street
Street in 1975
Street in 1975
Background information
Birth nameKing Malachi Street
Born(1935-10-21)October 21, 1935
Grundy, Virginia, United States
DiedOctober 21, 1978(1978-10-21) (aged 43)
Hendersonville, Tennessee, United States
GenresCountry
OccupationSinger-songwriter
InstrumentGuitar
Years active1972–1978
LabelsMetromedia, GRT, Polydor, Mercury

King Malachi "Mel" Street (October 21, 1935 – 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, although his family maintains that he was born in 1935 and 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.[6] Street subsequently worked as a radio tower electrician in Ohio,[6] and as a nightclub performer in the Niagara Falls, New York area.[1] 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.[6] A larger label, Royal American Records, picked it up in 1972 and it became a top-10 Billboard hit.[6] He recorded the biggest hit of his career, "Lovin' on Back Streets", in 1972.[6]

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,[6] he killed himself by a self-inflicted gunshot on October 21, 1978, his 43rd 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.[6]

His posthumous album, Mel Street's Greatest Hits, was promoted via television advertisements in 1981, and sold 400,000 copies.[6]

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

  1. ^ a b "Mel Street | Biography & History". AllMusic. Retrieved August 10, 2021.
  2. ^ "October 21, 1935: Country Musician Mel Street Born in Virginia". West Virginia Public Broadcasting. October 21, 2019. Retrieved March 7, 2020.
  3. ^ a b 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. ^ "Mel Street – Grave of a Famous Person". Waymarking.com. The Social Security Death Index also shows 1936.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h Colin Larkin, ed. (1993). The Guinness Who's Who of Country Music (First ed.). Guinness Publishing. p. 398. ISBN 0-85112-726-6.
  7. ^ Schuler and Delp 2002, p. 46.
  8. ^ Schuler and Delp 2002, p. 51.
  9. ^ Schuler and Delp 2002, p. 243.

References

  • 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
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