Charles Kindred Vassy (August 16, 1943 – June 23, 1994) was a singer-songwriter, who in addition to his solo recordings also recorded with other artists, most notably

Kenny Rogers Kenneth Ray Rogers (born Kenneth Donald Rogers) (August 21, 1938 – March 20, 2020) was an American singer and songwriter. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, Country Music Hall of Fame in 2013. Rogers was particul ...

Frank Zappa Frank Vincent Zappa (December 21, 1940 – December 4, 1993) was an American guitarist, composer, and bandleader. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa composed Rock music, rock, Pop music, pop, jazz, jazz fusion, orchestra ...

and

Elvis Presley Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977) was an American singer and actor. Referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one of the most significant cultural figures of the ...

. In the 1960s, Vassy was a member of

The Back Porch Majority The Back Porch Majority was an American folk music group founded by Randy Sparks in 1963. It was intended to be a rehearsal space for The New Christy Minstrels, another group Sparks had established in 1961, but it ended up becoming successful on ...

. He left that group in 1969 and joined the

country rock Country rock is a music genre that fuses rock and country. It was developed by rock musicians who began to record country-flavored records in the late 1960s and early 1970s. These musicians recorded rock records using country themes, vocal sty ...

band

Kenny Rogers and The First Edition Kenny Rogers and the First Edition, until 1970 billed as the First Edition, were an American rock band. The band's style was difficult to singularly classify, as it incorporated elements of country, rock and psychedelic pop. Its stalwart memb ...

. As a member of the group he recorded a top 30 album — '' Something's Burning'' — and one of his own songs "Heed The Call" became a top 40 hit in 1970. He performed lead vocal on the group's 1972 single "School Teacher". In 1973, he sang the "Yipee-Yi-Yo-Ty-Yay's" on the outro of

's single "

Montana Montana ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota to the east, South Dakota to the southeast, Wyoming to the south, an ...

" from the " Over-Nite Sensation" album. Vassy left the First Edition in 1972 after '' The Ballad of Calico'' album and was replaced by Jimmy Hassell. He went on to work on both a solo career and as a

session musician A session musician (also known as studio musician or backing musician) is a musician hired to perform in a recording session or a live performance. The term sideman is also used in the case of live performances, such as accompanying a reco ...

. In 1980, Vassy released two singles for the International Artists (IA) record label: "Do I Ever Cross Your Mind" and "Makes Me Wonder If I Ever Said Goodbye." He moved to the

Liberty Records Liberty Records was a record label founded in the United States by chairman Simon Waronker in 1955 with Alvin Bennett as president and Theodore Keep as chief engineer. It was reactivated in 2001 in the United Kingdom and had two previous rev ...

label and released seven singles on it, including

Earl Thomas Conley Earl Thomas Conley (October 17, 1941 – April 10, 2019)Wood, Gerry. (1998). "Earl Thomas Conley". In ''The Encyclopedia of Country Music''. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 108. was an American country music singer-songwriter. Between ...

's "When You Were Blue and I Was Green", which reached No. 21 on

Hot Country Songs Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States. This 50-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly by collecting airplay data along with digital sales and streaming. ...

. Vassy continued to work with Rogers on various projects, such as his 1984 album ''What About Me?''. Vassy also composed the song "Kentucky Homemade Christmas" for Rogers, released on ''Christmas'' (Liberty Records, 1981). Also in 1984, he performed a song with country-gospel singer

Stella Parton Stella Mae Parton (born May 4, 1949) is an American Country music, country singer and songwriter widely known for a series of country singles that charted during the mid-to-late-1970s, her biggest hit being "I Want to Hold You in My Dreams Tonig ...

, for the ''Rhinestone'' soundtrack, which Stella's sister Dolly had starred in. Vassy died of lung cancer in 1994.

Discography

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vassy, Kin 1943 births 1994 deaths American country singer-songwriters American male singer-songwriters Deaths from cancer in Georgia (U.S. state) Kenny Rogers and The First Edition members Liberty Records artists People from Carrollton, Georgia American session musicians 20th-century American singer-songwriters Country musicians from Georgia (U.S. state) 20th-century American male singers The Back Porch Majority members Singer-songwriters from Georgia (U.S. state)