- Dean Dillon
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Dean Dillon Birth name Larry Dean Flynn Born March 26, 1955 Origin Lake City, Tennessee, USA Genres Country Occupations Singer, songwriter Instruments Vocals, guitar Years active 1979–present Labels RCA
Capitol
AtlanticAssociated acts Gary Stewart
George StraitDean Dillon (born March 26, 1955) is an American country music artist. Between 1982 and 1993, Dillon recorded six studio albums on various labels, and charted several singles on the Billboard country charts. Although he has not charted since 1993, Dillon has continued to write several hit songs for other artists, most notably George Strait. He is the father of country music songwriter, Jessie Jo Dillon, and the two often collaborate.
Contents
Early life
Dillon is a native of Lake City, Tennessee, where he was born on March 26, 1955. He began playing the guitar at the age of seven, and when he was 15 he made his first public appearance as a singer and performer in the Knoxville variety show Jim Clayton Startime.[1] After finishing high school in 1973 he hitchhiked to Nashville with hopes of starting a music career.[2]
Career
Recording Artist
As a recording artist between 1979 and 1983, Dillon charted eight times, including one top 30 hit, "I'm into the Bottle (To Get You out of My Mind)." He was featured on several duet albums with songwriting partner Gary Stewart. Early songwriting success earned Dillon a recording deal with Capitol Records for whom he released two studio albums. In 1991, now at Atlantic Records, Dillon released his most successful and most recent studio album, Out of Your Ever Lovin' Mind.
Songwriter
As a songwriter, early successes includes George Jones' 1983 hit "Tennessee Whiskey". Dillon has written several singles for George Strait, including "The Chair," "Nobody in His Right Mind Would've Left Her," "It Ain't Cool to Be Crazy About You," "Ocean Front Property," "Famous Last Words of a Fool," "I've Come to Expect It From You," "If I Know Me," "Easy Come, Easy Go," "Lead On," "The Best Day," "She Let Herself Go" and "Living for the Night," which Strait and his son Bubba co-wrote with Dillon.
Discography
Albums
Year Album US Country Label 1982 Brotherly Love (with Gary Stewart) 23 RCA 1983 Those Were the Days (with Gary Stewart) 54 1988 Slick Nickel — Capitol 1989 I've Learned to Live — 1991 Out of Your Ever Lovin' Mind 58 Atlantic 1993 Hot, Country and Single — Singles
Year Single Chart Positions Album US Country CAN Country 1979 "I'm Into the Bottle (To Get You Out of My Mind)" 30 — Single only 1980 "What Good Is a Heart" 28 — "Nobody in His Right Mind Would've Left Her" 25 — 1981 "They'll Never Take Me Alive" 57 — "Jesus Let Me Slide" 77 — 1982 "Brotherly Love" (with Gary Stewart) 41 — Brotherly Love "Play This Old Working Day Away" 74 — "You to Come Home To" 65 — 1983 "Those Were the Days" (with Gary Stewart) 47 — Those Were the Days "Smokin' in the Rockies" (with Gary Stewart) 71 — "Famous Last Words of a Fool" 67 — Single only 1988 "The New Never Wore Off My Sweet Baby" 51 — Slick Nickel "I Go to Pieces" 39 * 1989 "Hey Heart" 58 * "It's Love That Makes You Sexy" 61 60 I've Learned to Live "Back in the Swing of Things" 89 70 1991 "Holed Up in Some Honky Tonk" 69 50 Out of Your Ever Lovin' Mind "Friday Night's Woman" 39 26 "Don't You Even (Think About Leavin')" 62 71 1993 "Hot, Country and Single" 62 — Hot, Country and Single Music videos
Year Video Director 1988 "The New Never Wore Off My Sweet Baby" 1991 "Holed Up in Some Honky Tonk" "Don't You Even (Think About Leaving)" (with Tanya Tucker) 1993 "Hot, Country & Single"[3] Mary Newman-Said Songs written by Dean Dillon
Dillon has worked with a younger generation of country stars including Toby Keith and Kenny Chesney. In 2002, he was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame along with Bob Dylan and Shel Silverstein. Dillon co-wrote two songs on Toby Keith's 2005 album Honkytonk University, and five on his 2006 album White Trash with Money, including the single "A Little Too Late."
Dean has written, or helped write, the following singles for other artists:
- Alabama: "Changes Comin' On"
- Brooks & Dunn: "I'll Never Forgive My Heart" (with Ronnie Dunn & Janine Dunn)
- David Allan Coe: "Tennessee Whiskey"
- Gary Stewart: "An Empty Glass"
- George Jones: "Tennessee Whiskey"
- George Strait: "A Real Good Place to Start" (with Gary Nicholson)
- George Strait: "Any Old Love Won't Do" (with Frank Dycus)
- George Strait: "Back to Bein' Me" (with Hank Cochran)
- George Strait: "Down and Out" (with Frank Dycus)
- George Strait: "Easy Come, Easy Go" (with Aaron Barker)
- George Strait: "Famous Last Words of a Fool" (with Rex Huston)
- George Strait: "For Christ's Sake, It's Christmas" (with Hank Cochran)
- George Strait: "Four Down and Twelve Across" (with Tom Douglas)
- George Strait: "Friday Night Fever" (with Frank Dycus & Blake Mevis)
- George Strait: "Give Me More Time" (with Al Anderson & Scotty Emerick)
- George Strait: "Good News, Bad News" (with Dale Dodson & Lee Ann Womack)
- George Strait: "Her Goodbye Hit Me in the Heart" (with Frank Dycus)
- George Strait: "He's Got That Something Special" (with George Strait & Bubba Strait)
- George Strait: "Holding My Own" (with Pam Belford)
- George Strait: "Honk If You Honky Tonk" (with Ken Mellons & John Northrup)
- George Strait: "Honky Tonk Crazy" (with Frank Dycus)
- George Strait: "Honkytonkville" (with Buddy Brock & Kim Williams)
- George Strait: "I Ain't Her Cowboy Anymore" (with Scotty Emerick & Maria Cannon-Goodman)
- George Strait: "I Get Along With You" (with Frank Dycus, Murray F. Cannon, Raleigh Squires, & Jimmy Darrell)
- George Strait: "I'd Just as Soon Go" (with Aaron Barker)
- George Strait: "If I Know Me" (with Pam Belford)
- George Strait: "If Heartaches Were Horses" (with Buddy Brock & Wil Nance)
- George Strait: "If It's Gonna Rain" (with Scotty Emerick & Donny Kees)
- George Strait: "I'm All Behind You Now"
- George Strait: "Is It That Time Again" (with Buddy Cannon & Vern Gosdin)
- George Strait: "It Ain't Cool to Be Crazy About You" (with Royce Porter)
- George Strait: "I've Come to Expect It From You" (with Buddy Cannon)
- George Strait: "Just Any Old Love Won't Do" (with Frank Dycus)
- George Strait: "Lead On" (with Teddy Gentry)
- George Strait: "Living for the Night" (with George Strait & Bubba Strait)
- George Strait: "Marina del Rey" (with Frank Dycus)
- George Strait: "Nobody in His Right Mind Would've Left Her"
- George Strait: "Ocean Front Property" (with Hank Cochran & Royce Porter)
- George Strait: "Peace of Mind" (with Aaron Barker)
- George Strait: "Rockin' in the Arms of Your Memory" (with Norro Wilson)
- George Strait: "She Let Herself Go" (with Kerry Kurt Phillips)
- George Strait: "She's Playing Hell Trying to Get Me to Heaven" (with David Wills & Charles Quillen)
- George Strait: "She Took the Wind From His Sails" (with Donny Kees)
- George Strait: "That's My Kind of Woman" (with Tammy Hyler)
- George Strait: "That's the Breaks" (with Royce Porter)
- George Strait: "That's Where I Wanna Take Our Love" (with Hank Cochran)
- George Strait: "The Best Day" (with Carson Chamberlain)
- George Strait: "The Breath You Take" (with Jessie Jo Dillon & Casey Beathard)
- George Strait: "The Chair" (with Hank Cochran)
- George Strait: "The Road Less Traveled" (with Buddy Brock)
- George Strait: "Unwound" (with Frank Dycus)
- George Strait: "We're Supposed to Do That Now and Then" (with David Anthony & Joseph-Nicholas-Pancrac Royer)
- George Strait: "West Texas Town" (with Robert Earl Keen)
- George Strait: "What Would Your Memories Do" (with Hank Cochran)
- George Strait: "When You're in Love" (with Kerry Kurt Phillips)
- George Strait: "Without Me Around" (with John Northrup)
- George Strait: "Without You Here" (with Royce Porter)
- George Strait: "You Sure Got This Ol' Redneck Feelin' Blue" (with Buzz Rabin)
- Hank Williams, Jr., Waylon Jennings, Ernest Tubb: "Leave Them Boys Alone"
- Keith Whitley: "Miami, My Amy"
- Keith Whitley: "Homecoming '63"
- Kenny Chesney: "A Chance" (with Royce Porter)
- Kenny Chesney: "A Lot of Things Different" (with Bill Anderson)
- Kenny Chesney: "Be As You Are" (with Kenny Chesney)
- Kenny Chesney: "Boats" (with Kenny Chesney & Scotty Emerick)
- Kenny Chesney: "Guitars and Tiki Bars" (with Kenny Chesney & Mark Tamburino)
- Kenny Chesney: "I'm Alive"" (with Kenny Chesney & Mark Tamburino)
- Kenny Chesney: "She Always Says It First" (with Kenny Chesney)
- Kenny Chesney: "Soul of a Sailor" (with Kenny Chesney & Scotty Emerick)
- Kenny Chesney: "The Angel at the Top of My Tree" (with Kenny Chesney and Buddy Cannon)
- Lee Ann Womack: "Have You Seen That Girl?"
- Lee Ann Womack: "Twenty Years and Two Husbands Ago"
- Lee Ann Womack: "We've Called It Everything But Quits"
- Pam Tillis: "All the Good Ones Are Gone"
- Pam Tillis: "Spilled Perfume"
- Paul Overstreet: "If I Could Bottle This Up"
- Rodney Atkins: "The Corner" (with Dale Dodson & Jessie Jo Dillon)
- Sammy Kershaw: "One Day Left to Live"
- Shenandoah: "Darned If I Don't (Danged If I Do)"
- Toby Keith: "A Little Too Late" (with Toby Keith & Scotty Emerick)
- Toby Keith: "Ain't No Right Way" (with Toby Keith & Scotty Emerick)
- Toby Keith: "Burnin' Moonlight" (with Toby Keith & Scotty Emerick)
- Toby Keith: "Get My Drink On" (with Toby Keith & Scotty Emerick)
- Toby Keith: "Go with Her" (with Toby Keith & Scotty Emerick)
- Toby Keith: "I Ain't Already There" (with Toby Keith & Scotty Emerick)
- Toby Keith: "Knock Yourself Out" (with Toby Keith & Scotty Emerick)
- Toby Keith: "Note to Self" (with Toby Keith & Scotty Emerick)
- Toby Keith: "Too Far This Time" (with Toby Keith & Scotty Emerick)
- Toby Keith: "You Ain't Leaving (Thank God Are Ya)" (with Toby Keith & Scotty Emerick)
- Vern Gosdin: "Is It Raining at Your House"
- Vern Gosdin: "Set 'Em Up, Joe"
- Vince Gill: "Whippoorwill River" (with Vince Gill)
References
- ^ Sterling, Todd. "Biography: Dean Dillon". AMG. http://www.allmusic.com/artist/p71100/biography. Retrieved 7 May 2010.
- ^ Biography, Dean Dillon website, accessed December 22, 2009
- ^ "CMT : Videos : Dean Dillon : Hot, Country, And Single". Country Music Television. http://www.cmt.com/videos/dean-dillon/384247/hot-country-and-single.jhtml. Retrieved September 30, 2011.
Categories:- 1955 births
- American male singers
- American country singers
- American country singer-songwriters
- Living people
- People from Anderson County, Tennessee
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