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."October 21, 1933: Country Musician Mel Street Born in Virginia". West Virginia Public Broadcasting. October 21, 2019. Retrieved March 7, 2020.Nelson, Dick (August 27, 2017). "Sunday Morning Country Classic Spotlight to Feature Mel Street". 98.1 Minnesota's New Country. Retrieved March 7, 2020. 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.Schuler and Delp 2002, p. 23."Mel Street – Grave of a Famous Person". Waymarking.com. The Social Security Death Index also shows 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.Schuler and Delp 2002, p. 46.
From 1968 to 1972, Street hosted a show on a Bluefield, West Virginia, television station.Schuler and Delp 2002, p. 51. 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".
Suffering from clinical depression and alcoholism, Street died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound on October 21, 1978, his 45th birthday. He also had a record debut on the country charts that day, titled "Just Hangin' On",Schuler and Delp 2002, p. 243. 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
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. Schuler, Dennis Sr. and Larry J. Delp. Mel Street – A Country Legend, Charleston, WV: Mountain State Press, 2002.
External links Mel Street @ Last.fm