Chilton Price (December 25, 1913 – January 14, 2010) was an American songwriter, primarily known for

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

songs, which became

pop music Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom. The terms ''popular music'' and ''pop music'' are often used interchangeably, although the former descri ...

hits. She was born Chilton Searcy near Fern Creek, Kentucky, the daughter of Chesley Hunter Searcy, a lawyer, and Lillian Searcy, a pianist. At the age of 5, she was taught a couple of piano chords by her father, who was an amateur musician who played by ear. She studied music appreciation at the

University of Louisville The University of Louisville (UofL) is a public research university in Louisville, Kentucky. It is part of the Kentucky state university system. When founded in 1798, it was the first city-owned public university in the United States and one ...

. During the 1930s and 1940s, she played

violin The violin, sometimes known as a '' fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone ( string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument ( soprano) in the family in regu ...

for the

Louisville Orchestra The Louisville Orchestra is the primary orchestra in Louisville, Kentucky. It was founded in 1937 by Robert Whitney (1904–1986) and Charles Farnsley, Mayor of Louisville. The Louisville Orchestra employs salaried musicians, and offers a wide ...

. She got a job as a music librarian at the

Louisville Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border. ...

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a tr ...

station WAVE, where country music artists Pee Wee King and Redd Stewart were regular performers. She showed them some songs she had written, and they convinced her to publish them; since she had little experience in the commercial music world, she gave them partial credit, and so the songs "

Slow Poke "Slow Poke" is a 1951 popular song. Background "Slow Poke" is credited to three writers: Pee Wee King, Redd Stewart, and Chilton Price. Actually Price wrote the song in 1951, as she thought the song described her friend, King, very well. Kin ...

" and " You Belong to Me" were published with credits given as King/Stewart/Price. The former became a big hit for King, with a vocal by Stewart; the latter was a major hit for

Jo Stafford Jo Elizabeth Stafford (November 12, 1917July 16, 2008) was an American traditional pop music singer, whose career spanned five decades from the late 1930s to the early 1980s. Admired for the purity of her voice, she originally underwent classi ...

, and later was

covered Cover or covers may refer to: Packaging * Another name for a lid * Cover (philately), generic term for envelope or package * Album cover, the front of the packaging * Book cover or magazine cover ** Book design ** Back cover copy, part of copy ...

The Duprees The Duprees are an American musical group of doo-wop style who had a series of top-ten singles in the early 1960s. Their highest-charting single, " You Belong to Me" reached No. 6 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in 1962. In 1970, they recorded as T ...

. She was said to be happy with the arrangement, even though she had to share credit for songs she wrote herself, being grateful for the break she got in this way. She wrote other songs under her name only, including "Never Look Back" in 1954, which Doris Day sang in the film '' Love Me or Leave Me'' and which was a Top 20 hit on one of the U.S. charts.

Personal life

She was married for 65 years to Louisville businessman Robert L. Price, and had a daughter, two grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. She was widowed in 2000. She died in Louisville on January 14, 2010, aged 96. Price was an avid bridge player and played at the Louisville chapter of the ACBL, where she met ACBL Life Master Nona Dorsky.

External links

*
List of songs composed by Chilton Price

Touring on a tune
a 2002 interview with Chilton Price from the ''

Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the '' Chicago ...

'' * 1913 births 2010 deaths American country songwriters Musicians from Louisville, Kentucky Country musicians from Kentucky Songwriters from Kentucky {{Louisville-stub