Turley Richards (born Richard Curtis Turley, June 12, 1941) is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Richards was born in

Charleston, West Virginia Charleston is the capital and List of cities in West Virginia, most populous city of West Virginia. Located at the confluence of the Elk River (West Virginia), Elk and Kanawha River, Kanawha rivers, the city had a population of 48,864 at the 20 ...

. He was blinded in the left eye at the age of four in an

archery Archery is the sport, practice, or skill of using a bow to shoot arrows.Paterson ''Encyclopaedia of Archery'' p. 17 The word comes from the Latin ''arcus'', meaning bow. Historically, archery has been used for hunting and combat. In m ...

accident and lost sight in the right eye as well at the age of twenty-nine. He began playing in a group called The Five Pearls while still a teen in the 1950s. His first appearance on record was in 1959, a single titled "All About Ann", released on label Fraternity Records. "Makin' Love With My Baby", also released by Fraternity Records, followed later that year. Richards was named a Rockabilly Legend in the Rockabilly Hall of Fame for this song. He moved to

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

with an ensemble in the early 1960s, but his band failed and he returned to West Virginia. Later in the 1960s he moved to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, playing upper East Side bars and eventually finding success. He toured with

The Kingsmen The Kingsmen are a 1960s rock band from Portland, Oregon, United States. They are best known for their 1963 recording of R&B singer Richard Berry's "Louie Louie", which held the No. 2 spot on the ''Billboard'' charts for six weeks and ha ...

in 1967 and appeared on The Johnny Carson Show in 1969 performing " Summertime". Known as the "West Virginia Superstar", his debut album was released on

Warner Bros. Records Warner Records Inc. (formerly Warner Bros. Records Inc.) is an American record label. A subsidiary of the Warner Music Group, it is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded on March 19, 1958, as the recorded music division of the ...

in 1970, and he scored two minor hit singles in the early 1970s. Further releases followed later in the decade, as did a third hit in 1980. Richards made the first recording of

Tom Snow Thomas Righter Snow (born 1947 in Princeton, New Jersey) is an American songwriter. Biography Snow has written songs for Gayle McCormick "( Even a Fool Would Let Go" with Kerry Chater – a song covered by a number of artists including Kenny ...

and Nan O'Byrne's " You Might Need Somebody", which was subsequently a UK hit twice, reaching No. 11 for Randy Crawford in 1981 and No. 4 for

Shola Ama Shola Ama (born 8 March 1979) is a British singer from London, who scored her biggest hits with "You Might Need Somebody" (1997), a cover of Randy Crawford's 1981 hit, " You're the One I Love" and "Still Believe" (1999) which was one of the fi ...

in 1997. His autobiography, ''Blindsighted'', was published in 2014. Richards resides in the

Louisville, Kentucky 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 ...

area where he still performs. He also acts a vocal coach with some of his students making it to the finals of '' The Voice'' and ''

American Idol ''American Idol'' is an American singing competition television series created by Simon Fuller, produced by Fremantle North America and 19 Entertainment, and distributed by Fremantle North America. It aired on Fox from June 11, 2002, to Ap ...

''.

Discography

Albums

*1965: ''The Many Souls of Turley Richards'' (

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...

) *1970: ''Turley Richards'' (

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Di ...

) *1971: ''Expressions'' (Warner Bros.) *1972: ''From Darkness to Light'' (Silba) *1976: ''West Virginia Superstar'' (

Epic Epic commonly refers to: * Epic poetry, a long narrative poem celebrating heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation * Epic film, a genre of film with heroic elements Epic or EPIC may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and medi ...

) *1979: ''Therfu'' (

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...

) *2007: ''A Matter of Faith'' (Kiongazi) *2007: ''Back to My Roots'' (Kiongazi) *2008: ''BlindSighted'' (Kiongazi)

Singles

As Richard Turley *1959: "All About Ann" / "Makin' Love with My Baby" (

Fraternity A fraternity (from Latin language, Latin ''wiktionary:frater, frater'': "brother (Christian), brother"; whence, "wiktionary:brotherhood, brotherhood") or fraternal organization is an organization, society, club (organization), club or fraternal ...

) *1959: "Since I Met You" / "I Wanna Dance" (Fraternity) *1961: "I Wanna Dance" / "Since I Met You" ( Dot) As Turley Richards *1964: "Since You've Been Gone" / "What's Your Name" (

MGM Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 a ...

) *1965: "I Need to Fall in Love" / " Shout" (20th Century Fox) *1966: " Crazy Arms" / "I Just Can't Take It Any Longer" ( Columbia) *1966: "I Feel Alright" / "I Can't Get Back Home to My Baby" (Columbia) *1967: "I'm a Lonely Man" / "I Can't Get Back Home to My Baby" (Columbia) *1968: "This is My Woman" / "Everything's Goin' For Me" ( Kapp) *1968: "Such a Wonderful Feeling" / "Don't Tell Me It's Raining" (Kapp) *1969: "Freedom Mountain" / "Tomorrow Will Never Come" (Warner Bros.) *1970: " Love Minus Zero-No Limit" / "Gone from Yesterday" (Warner Bros.) - US #84, CAN #70, AUS #96 *1970: "I Heard the Voice of Jesus" / "Then I'll Go Away" (Warner Bros.) - US #99 *1970: "Child of Mine" / "Maybe I Can Change My Mind" (Warner Bros.) - AUS #83 *1971: "The Last Day" / "Train Back to Mama (Broken Dreams)" (Warner Bros.) *1971: " It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" / "Virginia Woman" (Warner Bros.) *1971: "

One Too Many Mornings "One Too Many Mornings" is a song by Bob Dylan, released on his third studio album '' The Times They Are a-Changin in 1964. The chords and vocal melody are in some places very similar to the song " The Times They Are A-Changin'". "One Too Many ...

" / "Beautiful Country" (Warner Bros.) *1976: "West Virginia Superstar" / "Happy" (

) *1978: " Under the Boardwalk" / "Holy Holy" (Epic) *1979: " You Might Need Somebody" / "It's All Up to You" (Atlantic) - US #54 *1980: " Stand by Me" / "All Over The World" (Atlantic)

EPs

*1984: ''Skin Fever'' (Vitag)

Appearances

U.S. releases only. *1970: ''Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies'': "I Heard the Voice of Jesus" (Warner Bros.) *1973: ''Because I Am'': "Because I Am" (Clearlight) *1976: ''It's A Knockout Round 2'': "West Virginia Superstar" (Epic) *2000: ''The Gospel According to Austin, Tx'': "I Heard the Voice of Jesus" (Kickbutt Gospel)

Producer

Albums *1972: Turley Richards - From Darkness to Light (Silba) *1975: Country Folk – ''Down To Earth'' (Mugtime) *1981: Ed Raetzloff – ''Drivin' Wheels'' ( NewPax) *1982: James Ward – ''Faith Takes a Vision'' ( Lamb & Lion) *1983:

Carman In Celtic mythology, Carman or Carmun was a warrior and sorceress from Athens who tried to invade Ireland in the days of the Tuatha Dé Danann, along with her three sons, Dub ("black"), Dother ("evil") and Dian ("violence"). She used her magical ...

– ''Sunday's on the Way'' (Priority) *1985: Stark Raven – ''One Hundred Million Reasons'' (Vitag) *1981:

Brown Bannister Elliott Brown Bannister III (born August 15, 1951) is an contemporary Christian music (CCM) producer and songwriter. Bannister released one album of his own, ''Talk to One Another'', in 1981 on NewPax Records. It was reissued on the Reunion Recor ...

– ''Talk to One Another'' (NewPax) *19??: Len Loyd, Jr. – ''Lenny'' (none) Singles *1972: Denny Lile – "Hear the Bang" / "If You Stay on Solid Ground" (Bridges) *1979: Mary Welch – " I Could Have Danced All Night" / "When It Was Good" (20th Century Fox) *1981: James Ward – "Child of Bethlehem" / "Child of Bethlehem" (Lamb & Lion) *1982: James Ward – "Faith Takes a Vision" / "Vessel" (Lamb & Lion) *1982: Mickey Clark – "Sweet Evangeline" / "You Take the Leavin' Out of Me" (Snake River) *1983: Mickey Clark – "The Cardinal Cannonball" / "The Battle of New Orleans, 1982" (Snake River) *1983: Mickey Clark – "The Battle of New Orleans, 1982" / "Shanty Boat Bill" (Snake River) *1983: Mickey Clark – "She's Gone to L.A. Again" / "The Tequila Express" (

Monument A monument is a type of structure that was explicitly created to commemorate a person or event, or which has become relevant to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, due to its artistic, his ...

) *1986: The Score – "Go Go Boy" / "Oh My My" (Sleeping Giant) *1987: Mickey Clark – When I'm Over You" / "Sweet Evangeline" (Evergreen) *198?: Tom Dooley and the Cosmic Cowboys – " Paradise (Muhlenberg County)" / "Figure It Out" (Kentucky) ;Discography notes

References

External links

Official websiteTurley Richards singles discography at 45cat.comTurley Richards discography at Discogs.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Richards, Turley Singers from West Virginia American male singers Musicians from Charleston, West Virginia Living people Blind musicians 1941 births The Kingsmen members American blind people American musicians with disabilities