From:   dik.de.heer
Date:  Tue Feb 4, 2003  7:57 am
Subject:  Born To Be With You : Dale Wright

DALE WRIGHT

Born Harlan Dale Riffe, 4 February 1938, Middleton, Ohio

An early teen idol of sorts, Dale Wright was a little gutsier than the usual
singer of that genre, though not a real good vocalist, and not one that made
very memorable records. Signed by the Cincinnati-based Fraternity label in
1957, he did crack the Top 40 once in early 1958, with his second single,
"She's Neat," (# 38) one of his harder-rocking efforts, credited to Dale Wright
with the Rock-Its. Wright soon formed a new backing group, the Wright Guys,
with Ray Hart and Don Leedy (guitars), Don Debord (bass) and Benny Terrell
(drums). They appear on later Fraternity singles.
Wright had come to the attention of Fraternity boss Harry Carlson as a disc
jockey on station WING in Dayton, OH, when he performed a song he'd written
live over the air. He recorded quite a bit for Fraternity in the late '50s, and
wrote
most of them himself, but only made the Top 100 one more time, with "Please
Don't Do It", which peaked at # 77 in September 1958. His "That's Show Biz"
was a fairly witty rock & roll satire, but he was off Fraternity by the early
'60s,
though he kept recording for small labels into the middle of the decade.
Eventually he became a long-running radio talk-show host and programme
director in Lexington, Kentucky.

More info can be found in Now Dig This, issue 84.
CD : She's Neat : The Fraternity Sides (Ace 402).
"She's Neat" and "That's Show Biz" are also on "All American Rock'n'Roll
from Fraternity Records" (Ace 316).