The Maryland-born country musician, who co-wrote hit singles for the likes of Reba McEntire and Alan Jackson, passed away at the age of 71 in Florida a week ago.
- April 28, 2021
AceShowbiz - Prolific country songwriter Charlie Black has died, aged 71.
He died in Florida, where he lived with his wife Dana Hunt Black, on Friday (23Apr21).
Born in Maryland, Black moved to Nashville, Tennessee after graduating from the University of Maryland and found success as a songwriter with Tommy Overstreet, who scored a big country hit with "I Don't Know You (Anymore)" in 1971.
Overstreet also recorded Black's songs "Heaven Is My Woman's Love", "Jeannie Marie (You Were a Lady)", and "If I Miss You Again Tonight", which were all top 10 country hits.
Black also wrote or co-wrote hits for Reba McEntire, Earl Thomas Conley, K.T. Oslin, Kenny Rogers, Tanya Tucker, Brenda Lee, and Alan Jackson, among others, but he's perhaps best known for his collaborations with singer Anne Murray in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The pair's "A Little Good News" topped the charts and landed a 1984 Grammy and a Country Music Association award.
Among his many accolades, Charlie was awarded the SESAC Country Songwriter of the Year in 1979, and the ASCAP Country Songwriter of the Year in 1983 and 1984. He was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1991.
"Turns out songwriting is the best job around," Charlie Black once said, according to his biography on the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame website. "You just can't beat hearing your words and music on the radio, or going No. 1 or staying No. 1."
