Bill Dees
Bill Dees | |
---|---|
Birth name | William Marvin Dees |
Born | (1939-01-24)January 24, 1939 Borger, Texas, United States |
Died | October 24, 2012(2012-10-24) (aged 73) Mountain Home, Arkansas, United States |
Genres | Country |
Occupation | Singer-songwriter |
Instrument | Vocals |
Years active | 1959–2012 |
Formerly of | Roy Orbison |
William Marvin Dees (January 24, 1939 – October 24, 2012) was an American musician known for his songwriting collaborations with singer Roy Orbison.[1]
Career
Born and based out of Borger, Texas, United States, Dees played guitar and sang with a band called The Five Bops doing his first recordings with Norman Petty at his Clovis, New Mexico studio in May 1958. They later became The Whirlwinds, gaining enough recognition to perform on an Amarillo, Texas radio station. Dees eventually made his way to Nashville, Tennessee, where his meeting with Roy Orbison led to a collaboration that produced a string of successful songs for Monument Records, including the hits "Oh, Pretty Woman" and "It's Over".[2]
In 1967, Dees co-wrote all the songs for the Orbison album and MGM motion picture The Fastest Guitar Alive.[3]
Beyond his work with Orbison, Bill Dees wrote hundreds of songs, a number of which were recorded by performers such as Johnny Cash, Loretta Lynn, Skeeter Davis, Glen Campbell, Billy Joe Royal, Frank Ifield, Mark Dinning, and Gene Pitney. In 2000, he recorded his own album titled Saturday Night at the Movies, a compilation of songs previously sung by Orbison that had been written with Dees and some that Dees had written alone.
Bill Dees lived in Ozark, Arkansas & New Boston, Texas, for a number of years. There he continued writing and playing his music. Later he resided near Branson, Missouri, and continued to write songs with collaborator Jack Pribek until his death on October 24, 2012.[4] He was living at a nursing facility in Mountain Home, Arkansas, at the time of his death.[5][6]
References
- ^ William Yardley, Bill Dees, 73, Orbison Collaborator, Dies, The New York Times, November 1, 2012
- ^ "Mercy: Behind Roy Orbison's 'Pretty Woman'". NPR. December 6, 2008. Retrieved March 15, 2010.
- ^ "The Fastest Guitar Alive (1967) – Soundtracks". IMDb. Retrieved March 15, 2010.
- ^ "Songwriter Bill Dees Dies in Mountain Home". khozradio.com. Archived from the original on January 27, 2013. Retrieved October 26, 2012.
- ^ Minovitz, Ethan (October 26, 2012). "Oh, Pretty Woman Songwriter Bill Dees Dead at 73". Big Cartoon News. Archived from the original on December 3, 2012. Retrieved October 26, 2012.
- ^ "Bill Dees, US songwriter, dies aged 73". BBC News. November 1, 2012. Retrieved November 1, 2012.
External links
- Bill Dees at IMDb
- v
- t
- e
- Lonely and Blue (1961)
- Roy Orbison at the Rock House (1961)
- Crying (1962)
- In Dreams (1963)
- There Is Only One Roy Orbison (1965)
- Orbisongs (1965)
- The Orbison Way (1966)
- The Classic Roy Orbison (1966)
- Roy Orbison Sings Don Gibson (1967)
- The Fastest Guitar Alive (1967)
- Cry Softly Lonely One (1967)
- Roy Orbison's Many Moods (1969)
- Big O (1970)
- Hank Williams: The Roy Orbison Way (1970)
- Roy Orbison Sings (1972)
- Memphis (1972)
- Milestones (1973)
- I'm Still in Love With You (1975)
- Regeneration (1976)
- Laminar Flow (1979)
- In Dreams: The Greatest Hits (1987 – studio re-recordings of earlier hits)
- Mystery Girl (1989)
- King of Hearts (1992)
- One of the Lonely Ones (2015)
- Roy Orbison's Greatest Hits (1962)
- More of Roy Orbison's Greatest Hits (1964)
- Early Orbison (1964)
- The Great Songs of Roy Orbison (1970)
- The All-Time Greatest Hits of Roy Orbison (1972)
- In Dreams: The Greatest Hits (1987)
- The Legendary Roy Orbison (1989)
- 16 Biggest Hits (1999)
- Greatest Hits Live (2006)
- The Essential Roy Orbison (2006)
- A Love So Beautiful (2017)
- Unchained Melodies (2018)
- Class of '55 (1986)
- Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1 (1988)
- Roadie (1980)
- Blue Velvet (1986)
- Less than Zero (1987)
- A Black & White Night Live (1989)
- "Tryin' to Get to You"
- "Ooby Dooby"
- "Go Go Go"
- "Only the Lonely"
- "Blue Angel"
- "Running Scared"
- "Crying" / "Candy Man"
- "Dream Baby (How Long Must I Dream)"
- "Working for the Man"
- "In Dreams"
- "Blue Bayou"
- "Pretty Paper"
- "It's Over"
- "Oh, Pretty Woman"
- "Memphis, Tennessee"
- "You Got It"
- "She's a Mystery to Me"
- "I Drove All Night"
- Traveling Wilburys
- Roy Orbison/The Beatles Tour
- Fred Foster
- In Dreams (musical)
Category