On this day (October 27) in 1939, Dallas Frazier was born in Spiro, Oklahoma. Widely considered one of the greatest songwriters in country music history, his extensive catalog ranges from the Oak Ridge Boys’ infectious “Elvira” and Emmylou Harris’ heartrending “Beneath Still Waters”. Releasing his first single at age 14, he was a member of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame before he’d reached his 30th birthday.
On January 14, 2022, Dallas Frazier died at age 82 at a Gallatin, Tennessee care facility. Today, we’re revisiting his life and career in honor of what would have been his 87th birthday.
Dallas Frazier Was an Early Songwriting Success
Like many Dust Bowl-era Okies, Dallas Frazier’s family made their way to Bakersfield, California, where he grew up.
“We were part of The Grapes of Wrath,” he told writer Edd Hurt in a 2008 profile for the music website Perfect Sound Forever. “We were the Okies who went out to California with mattresses tied on the tops of their Model A Fords. My folks were poor.”
At 12 years old, Frazier won a talent contest at Bakersfield’s Rainbow Gardens. The preteen made such an impression on the show’s emcee, country singer Ferlin Husky, that he invited Frazier to move into his home and permanently join his band. So with his parents’ blessing, Frazier moved out of the family home and began his music career. He recorded his first single, “Space Command”, at age 14 in 1954.
Three years later he had his first major songwriting hit with “Alley Oop”, a No. 1 pop hit for The Hollywood Argyles.
Moving into Country Music
In the early 1960s, Dallas Frazier moved to Nashville to work as a songwriter.
He didn’t have to wait long for success, penning Husky’s 1964 hit “Timber I’m Falling”. His career really took off in 1966. Jack Greene took his composition “There Goes My Everything” to No. 1 on the country charts.
That same year, Frazier made his solo recording debut with Elvira. This is where he introduced listeners to the country music standard “Elvira”, which became a massive hit for beloved country-gospel quartet the Oak Ridge Boys in 1981.
“I’ve noticed this all my life in writing songs, there’s a thing called feel, and it’s magic when you get ahold of it,” he said in 2018, according to Billboard. “It can make or break a record. You can have a great song and all, but if it doesn’t have that feel, it just doesn’t do anything.”
“‘Elvira’ had the feel. And The Oaks, what a tremendous cut,” he continued. “With Richard Sterban doing his thing on it and the horns just making it first-class … it had so much magic in it, it’d just raise the hair on your arms.”
From Working With George Jones to Becoming a Christian Minister
Other notable works of Frazier’s include George Jones’ “If My Heart Had Windows” and Connie Smith’s “Ain’t Love a Good Thing.” In fact, the former released an entire album of Dallas Frazier tracks, fittingly titled George Jones Sings the Songs of Dallas Frazier. All ten tracks on the project were fully composed by Frazier.
Frazier notched three Grammy nominations for his work on “There Goes My Everything,” Charley Pride’s 1969 chart-topper “All I Have To Offer You (Is Me),” and “Elvira.”
He left the music industry behind in the late 1980s to become a non-denominational Christian minister.
Featured image by Terry Wyatt/Getty Images for Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum
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