From: "Dik de Heer"
Date: Sun Oct 27, 2002 2:57 am
Subject: Born To Be With You : Dallas Frazier
DALLAS FRAZIER
Born Dallas June Frazier, 27 October 1939, Spiro, Oklahoma.
Songwriter / singer.
Dallas Frazier and his family migrated to Bakersfield, California,
when he was a teenager. In 1951 he won a talent contest sponsored
by Ferlin Husky. He signed with Capitol in 1953, was a regular on
Cliffie Stone's Hometown Jamboree and became part of Ferlin Husky's
road show, 1956-58.
Although he did perform and had a few hits (see below), he is mostly
known for his outstanding songwriting talent ; perhaps his most widely
known song is the novelty "Alley-Oop", a number 1 hit in 1960 for the
Hollywood Argyles, a studio band which included Dallas himself. His
pop songwriting career showed a great sense of humour, close to that
of Leiber and Stoller. For the Coasters he wrote "Ridin' Hood" and "She's
A Yum Yum", "Mohair Sam" was a # 21 hit for Charlie Rich in 1965,
and "The Son Of Hickory Holler's Tramp" did well for O.C. Smith.
The long list of the country hits he had, as a songwriter, from 1963 on
(when he moved to Nashville) would probably bore the members of
this list. Let's just mention Emmylou Harris ("Beneath Still Waters"), Elvis
Presley ("There Goes My Everything"), Dean Martin, Brenda Lee, George
Jones, Connie Smith and to this day, modern performers like George Strait,
Randy Travis or Patty Loveless.
Though he made many good singles and LPs as a singer, he had only two
chart entries during his entire career : "Elvira" (# 72 pop, 1966) and "Every-
body Oughta Sing A Song" (# 28 country, early 1968), both on Capitol.
"Elvira" was revived by the Oak Ridge Boys in 1981 with great success
(# 1 country, # 5 pop). The record won the CMA Award for Single of the Year.
Dallas himself was named Country music songwriter of the year in 1976.
(With thanks to Alain Dormoy.)
More info: http://www.nashvillesongwritersfoundation.com/fame/frazier.html