Best Local Rock Songs Ever, Part Five [Charlie Rich, Dallas Frazier, Moldy Goldies, Moby Grape]

Nashville recorded rock 'n' roll in the '60s — the confluence of songwriters, performers and studios could only result in the occasional rock masterpiece. By the end of the decade, rock had decisively taken over, although Nashville remained an unconvinced outpost of another kind of music-making. For this — the fifth installment in our ongoing

— we present five songs that prove Nashville could rock in the rock era.

Charlie Rich, "Mohair Sam" (The Many New Sides of Charlie Rich)

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Dallas Frazier wrote "Mohair Sam" for singer Charlie Rich in 1965 — in fact, Frazier penned it in Nashville the night before a Rich recording session in Music City the spring of that year. As Frazier told me in a 2008 interview, "Ray Baker, the guy I was writing for at the time — he owned Blue Crest Music — he came by my house in the late afternoon, and he said, 'Dallas, I was just with Charlie Rich downtown, and he's gonna be recording.' He said, 'I told him you had a smash for him.'"