“She’s Got to Be a Saint”
Ray Price
Written by Mike DiNapoli and Joe Paulini
Billboard
#1 (3 weeks)
December 30, 1972 – January 13, 1973
I was struggling with this one at first.
The protagonist here is shockingly loathsome in his mistreatment of the titular saint. He sings of his own cruelty as casually as if he’s acknowledging a slight change in the weather. Even Price’s peerless vocal performance can’t make this man likable.
Until the final verse, where he gives himself the comeuppance he deserves, and retroactively redeems the contrast he draws from the beginning between his sinful behavior and her saintly endurance of it.
I still can’t give it a perfect grade because of the “saint/ain’t” rhyme in the chorus. Just typing about it makes me shudder. But what a great performance and what a compelling character arc.
“She’s Got to Be a Saint” gets a B+.
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Willie Nelson has said on numerous occasions that Ray Price is his favorite singer and the reason is very clear: Ray is simply a supreme vocalist, capable of handling a wide variety of material. Like Frank Sinatra, Price is fearless in his choice of material, and like Sinatra he is the master of phrasing. This is far from being my favorite Ray Price recording; however, it still falls in the B to B+ range.
I only got to see Ray in concert one time when he was about 81 years old, but he could still sing most singers under the table at that age. By that time, he had incorporated both of his honky-tonk and countrypolitan hits back into his stage show.
I also struggled with this one. It’s not his best work by any means but it’s not bad. “B”
I really liked this one. Songs about sleazy antiheroes are right in my wheelhouse. This one seemed like an inspiration for both Mark Chesnutt’s “Thank God for Believers” and Mark Wills’ “When You Think of Me”, both songs I love. I’m not overly familiar with Ray Price’s catalogue but he left a great early impression of the first song I can definitively associate with his name.
This definitely is no one of my favorites by him but I do enjoy the next #1 single upcoming very much. I also think his 1975 album “If You Ever Change Your Mind ” is underrated. I enjoy the title track, “Between His Goodbye and my Hello” and my favorite version of the Kris Kristofferson classic “Nobody Wins”. So mellow but transports me to a place and time that I have not experienced but gives me the feeling all the same. Ray was always a phenomenal vocalist and his and Willie version “Faded Love” is one of my all time favorites performances ever.