Winnie's song, part 4
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March 17, 2023
Against overwhelming odds, Winnie Simms’s efforts to get her song into the hands of country music star Charley Pride had succeeded, and Pride had recruited John Swheers to add music to Winnie’s words.
The result was a gospel hymn called “I Don’t Deserve a Mansion.” Pride recorded the song in a Nashville studio in 1974 with backing vocals provided by the well-known group, The Jordanaires.
Two years later, Pride released his second gospel album, “Sunday Morning with Charley Pride,” which featured “Mansion” as the first song on the “A” side of the disk.
When Pride, soon thereafter, released “Mansion” as a single along with another song from the album, he was following the pattern that had proven so successful in 1971 with his first religious album, “Did You Think to Pray.”
Unfortunately, Pride’s second gospel album was not as successful as the first. Whereas the first record had reached No. 1 on the country albums chart, the second peaked at No. 14.
More significantly, the first album produced two singles that made the charts and garnered two Grammy awards. The second album produced one Grammy nomination (which Pride did not win) and its singles did not chart.
The first album became a “gold” record but the second sold only 300,000 copies, which – while a good number – was well below the 500,000 copies needed for “gold” designation.
Nevertheless, for Winnie Simms, all of this was success beyond anything she could have imagined. Moreover, Pride featured her song on a “greatest hits” compilation entitled “The Best of Charley Pride, Volume III” that went to No. 3 on the country charts and sold over 400,000 copies.
Additionally, “I Don’t Deserve a Mansion” has been recorded by other artists, most notably by Jeannie C. Riley (who is best known for having “socked it to” the hypocritical members of the Harper Valley PTA).
Before she died on June 11, 2015, the quiet and unassuming Winnie Simms made sure that her obituary made no mention of the small but important contribution she made to American cultural history.
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