Mel Street
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
King Malachi Street (October 21, 1933 – October 21, 1978), commonly known as Mel Street, was an American country music singer.
Street was born to a West Virginia coal-mining family in 1933. His family said 1935. He began performing on West Virginia radio shows at the age of sixteen. Street subsequently worked as a radio tower electrician in Ohio, and as a night-club performer in the Niagara Falls area. He moved back to West Virginia in 1963 to open up a body shop.
From 1968 to 1972, Street hosted his own show on a local West Virginia television station. He recorded his first single "Borrowed Angel" in 1970 for a small regional record label. 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 the Back Streets" in 1973.
Street continued to flourish throughout the mid-1970s, recording several hits, 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," among others. He signed with Mercury Records in 1978, but he gave in to clinical depression and alcoholism, committing suicide on October 21, 1978.
[edit] 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
External links
