Mel Street

{{Use mdy dates|date=December 2020}} {{Infobox musical artist | name = Mel Street | image = Mel Street.png | caption = Street in 1975 | image_size = 250px | background = solo_singer | birth_name = King Malachi Street | alias = | birth_date = {{Birth date|1933|10|21}} | birth_place = Grundy, Virginia, United States | death_date = {{Death date and age|1978|10|21|1933|10|21}} | death_place = Hendersonville, Tennessee, United States | instrument = Guitar | genre = Country | occupation = Singer-songwriter | years_active = 1972–1978 | label = Metromedia, GRT, Polydor, Mercury | website = }}

'''King Malachi "Mel" Street''' (October 21, 1933 – October 21, 1978)<ref>{{Cite web |title=October 21, 1978: Country Music Star Tragically Commits Suicide |date=November 8, 2021 |url=https://kxrb.com/heres-a-little-known-fact-about-classic-country-star-mel-street/}}</ref> 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.<ref>[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"]. West Virginia Public Broadcasting. October 21, 2019. Retrieved March 7, 2020.</ref><ref name=MinnesotaNewCountry>Nelson, Dick (August 27, 2017). [https://minnesotasnewcountry.com/sunday-morning-country-classic-spotlight-to-feature-mel-street/ "Sunday Morning Country Classic Spotlight to Feature Mel Street"]. 98.1 Minnesota's New Country. Retrieved March 7, 2020.</ref> 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.<ref>Schuler and Delp 2002, p. 23.</ref><ref>[http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM335Q_Mel_Street "Mel Street – Grave of a Famous Person"]. Waymarking.com. The Social Security Death Index also shows 1936.</ref> He began performing on western Virginia and West Virginia radio shows at the age of 16.<ref name="LarkinCountry"/> Street subsequently worked as a radio tower electrician in Ohio<ref name="LarkinCountry"/> and as a nightclub performer in the Niagara Falls, New York, area.<ref name="AMG">{{Cite web |title=Mel Street | Biography & History |url=https://www.allmusic.com/artist/mel-street-mn0000869809 |access-date=August 10, 2021 |website=AllMusic}}</ref> He moved back to West Virginia in 1963 to open an auto body shop.<ref>Schuler and Delp 2002, p. 46.</ref>

From 1968 to 1972, Street hosted a show on a Bluefield, West Virginia, television station.<ref>Schuler and Delp 2002, p. 51.</ref> He recorded his first single, "Borrowed Angel" – which he also wrote – in 1969 for a small, regional record label, Tandem Records.<ref name="LarkinCountry"/> A larger label, Royal American Records, picked it up in 1972, and it became a top-10 ''Billboard'' hit.<ref name="LarkinCountry"/> He recorded the biggest hit of his career, "Lovin' on Back Streets", in 1972.<ref name="LarkinCountry"/>

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,<ref name="LarkinCountry"/> he killed himself by a self-inflicted gunshot on October 21, 1978, his 45th birthday.<ref name=MinnesotaNewCountry/> He had a record debut on the country charts on October 21, as well, called "Just Hangin' On",<ref>Schuler and Delp 2002, p. 243.</ref> and later charted four posthumous songs. Street's idol, George Jones, sang "Amazing Grace" at his funeral.<ref name="LarkinCountry">{{cite book|title=The Guinness Who's Who of Country Music|editor=Colin Larkin|publisher=Guinness Publishing|date=1993|edition=First|isbn=0-85112-726-6|page=398}}</ref>

His posthumous album, ''Mel Street's Greatest Hits'', was promoted via television advertisements in 1981, and sold 400,000 copies.<ref name="LarkinCountry"/>

==Discography== ===Albums=== {| class="wikitable" ! Year ! Album ! US Country ! Label |- | 1972 | ''Borrowed Angel'' | align="center"| 14 | rowspan="2"| Metromedia Country |- | 1973 | ''The Town Where You Live / Walk Softly On the Bridges'' | align="center"| 37 |- | 1974 | ''Two Way Street'' | align="center"| 37 | rowspan="4"| GRT |- | 1975 | ''Smokey Mountain Memories'' | align="center"| 16 |- | rowspan="2"| 1976 | ''Mel Street's Greatest Hits'' | align="center"| 26 |- | ''Country Colors'' | align="center"| — |- | 1977 | ''Mel Street'' | align="center"| 45 | rowspan="2"| Polydor |- | rowspan="2"| 1978 | ''Country Soul'' | align="center"| 47 |- | ''Mel Street'' | align="center"| — | Mercury |- | 1980 | ''Many Moods of Mel'' | align="center"| 61 | Sunbird |}

===Singles=== {| class="wikitable" ! rowspan="2"| Year ! rowspan="2"| Single ! colspan="2"| Chart Positions ! rowspan="2"| Album |- ! width="50"| US Country ! width="50"| CAN Country |- | rowspan="2"| 1972 | "Borrowed Angel" | align="center"| 7 | align="center"| 9 | rowspan="2"| ''Borrowed Angel'' |- | "Lovin' On Back Streets" | align="center"| 5 | align="center"| 8 |- | rowspan="3"| 1973 | "Walk Softly On the Bridges" | align="center"| 11 | align="center"| 6 | rowspan="2"| ''The Town Where You Live / Walk Softly On the Bridges'' |- | "The Town Where You Live" | align="center"| 38 | align="center"| 58 |- | "Lovin' On Borrowed Time" | align="center"| 11 | align="center"| 7 | rowspan="2"| ''Two Way Street'' |- | rowspan="2"| 1974 | "You Make Me Feel More Like a Man" | align="center"| 15 | align="center"| — |- | "Forbidden Angel" | align="center"| 16 | align="center"| 47 | rowspan="4"| ''Smokey Mountain Memories'' |- | rowspan="3"| 1975 | "Smokey Mountain Memories" | align="center"| 13 | align="center"| 43 |- | "Even If I Have to Steal" | align="center"| 17 | align="center"| 17 |- | "(This Ain't Just Another) Lust Affair" | align="center"| 23 | align="center"| — |- | rowspan="3"| 1976 | "The Devil in Your Kisses (And the Angel in Your Eyes)" | align="center"| 32 | align="center"| — | ''Mel Street's Greatest Hits'' |- | "I Met a Friend of Yours Today" | align="center"| 10 | align="center"| — | rowspan="3"| ''Country Colors'' |- | "Looking Out My Window Through the Pain" | align="center"| 24 | align="center"| — |- | rowspan="3"| 1977 | "Rodeo Bum" | align="center"| 56 | align="center"| — |- | "Barbara Don't Let Me Be the Last to Know" | align="center"| 19 | align="center"| — | rowspan="2"| ''Mel Street'' (1977) |- | "Close Enough for Lonesome" | align="center"| 15 | align="center"| — |- | rowspan="3"| 1978 | "If I Had a Cheating Heart" | align="center"| 9 | align="center"| — | rowspan="2"| ''Country Soul'' |- | "Shady Rest" | align="center"| 24 | align="center"| — |- | "Just Hangin' On" | align="center"| 68 | align="center"| — | ''Mel Street'' (1978) |- | 1979 | "The One Thing My Lady Never Puts Into Words" | align="center"| 17 | align="center"| — | rowspan="4"| ''Many Moods of Mel'' |- | rowspan="2"| 1980 | "Tonight Let's Sleep On It Baby" | align="center"| 30 | align="center"| — |- | "Who'll Turn Out the Lights" | align="center"| 36 | align="center"| — |- | 1981 | "Slip Away" (w/ Sandy Powell) | align="center"| 48 | align="center"| — |}

==Footnotes== {{Reflist}}

==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}}

==External links== *[http://www.last.fm/music/Mel+Street Mel Street @ Last.fm] *{{Find a Grave|8898}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Street, Mel}} Category:1933 births Category:1978 deaths Category:1978 suicides Category:People from Grundy, Virginia Category:American male singer-songwriters Category:American country singer-songwriters Category:Mercury Records artists Category:Polydor Records artists Category:20th-century American singer-songwriters Category:Singer-songwriters from Virginia Category:20th-century American male singers Category:Suicides by firearm in Tennessee Category:Male suicides Category:Musicians from Bluefield, West Virginia