Dennis Morgan

Induction Year: 2004

Birth Name: Dennis W. Morgan

Birth Date: 07-30-1952

Place of Birth: Tracy, Minnesota

Dennis Morgan has enjoyed enormous songwriting success both in country and pop music since his emergence in the late 1970s. He was 11 years old when he saw the Beatles perform on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1964. Like millions of kids across the country, Morgan soon after got his first guitar and started pursuing his musical dreams. But unlike 99 percent of those kids, Morgan's dreams came true, in platinum-selling fashion.

After dropping out of high school, Dennis hit the road with his first band. They got a recording deal. The deal fell through. In the early '70s, he moved to Nashville, where he played in honky-tonk bars for a few years. Slowly, a few session gigs came his way. He wrote jingles for Opryland, Kentucky Fried Chicken and Rubbermaid. He got a staff writer deal with Charley Pride's publishing company. And then in 1978, after he and Kye Fleming co-wrote "Sleeping Single in a Double Bed," a country #1 for Barbara Mandrell, his career took off. Together Fleming and Morgan wrote a string of top country hits from the late '70s into the early '80s for pop-leaning country artists like Barbara Mandrell, Ronnie Milsap and Sylvia.

By the mid-'80s, Morgan had started his own publishing company, Little Shop of Morgansongs, and was consistently scoring hits on the country and pop charts alike. In 1987, with English songwriter-artist Simon Climie, he co-wrote "I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)," a globally seismic, Grammy-winning #1 duet for Aretha Franklin and George Michael. During the '80s, he also accumulated a shelf-load of awards, including BMI's Country Songwriter of the Year four times, and England's prestigious Ivor Novello Award (Morgan is one of only three Americans ever to receive it).

In the '90s, his success continued with cuts by Amy Grant, Neil Diamond and Faith Hill. As Morgan's publishing company expanded, he signed other writers, including future Nashville Songwriters Hall of Famer Tony Arata, who wrote "The Dance," the Garth Brooks smash.

With over 20 #1 hits under his belt, Morgan says he would like to be remembered "as a songwriter who touched others with his music, not a specific song. If I'm lucky enough to write songs that last, beautiful. But the pure pleasure is in the doing of it. That's what a songwriter is. You have to love it, because you're going to have more rejections than acceptances."

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Song Catalog

 

"All Roads Lead to You"

(written with Kye Fleming)

Steve Wariner1981 #1 country
 

"Best of Strangers"

(written with Kye Fleming)

Barbara Mandrell1980 #6 country
 

"Black and White"

(written with Kye Fleming)

Rosanne Cash1989 #37 country
 

"Carolina Dreams"

(written with Kye Fleming, Marie Tomlinson)

Ronnie Milsap1982  
 

"Crackers"

(written with Kye Fleming)

Barbara Mandrell1980 #3 country
Sara Evans2006  
 

"Don't Bother to Knock"

(written with Kye Fleming)

Jim Ed Brown & Helen Cornelius1981 #13 country

"I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)"

(written with Simon Climie)

Aretha Franklin & George Michael1987 #1 pop
Michael McDonald2008  

"I Was Country When Country Wasn't Cool"

(written with Kye Fleming)

Barbara Mandrell1981 #1 country
Kenny Chesney & Reba McEntire2006  
 

"I Wouldn't Have Missed It for the World"

(written with Kye Fleming, Charles Quillen)

Ronnie Milsap1981 #1 country
 

"In Times Like These"

(written with Kye Fleming)

Barbara Mandrell1983 #4 country
 

"Just a Little Love"

(written with Steve Davis)

Reba McEntire1984 #5 country
 

"Let Me Let Go"

(written with Steve Diamond)

Faith Hill1998 #1 country,#33 pop
 

"Like Nothing Ever Happened"

(written with Kye Fleming)

Sylvia1982 #2 country
 

"Love Changes Everything"

(written with Simon Climie, Bob Fisher)

Climie Fisher1988 #23 pop
 

"Missin' You"

(written with Kye Fleming)

Charley Pride1979 #2 country
 

"Morning Comes Too Early"

(written with Kye Fleming)

Jim Ed Brown & Helen Cornelius1980 #5 country
 

"My Heart Can't Tell You No"

(written with Simon Climie)

Rod Stewart1989 #4 pop
Sara Evans2011 #21 country

"Nobody"

(written with Kye Fleming)

BMI Country Song of the Year

Sylvia1982 #1 country
 

"Only a Lonely Heart Knows"

(written with Steve Davis)

Barbara Mandrell1984 #2 country
 

"Operator, Long Distance Please"

(written with Kye Fleming)

Barbara Mandrell1982 #9 country
 

"Radio Heart"

(written with Steve Davis)

Charly McClain1985 #1 country
 

"Roll on Mississippi"

(written with Kye Fleming)

Charley Pride1981 #7 country
 

"Room to Move"

(written with Simon Climie, Rob Fisher)

Animotion1989 #9 pop
 

"She Keeps the Home Fires Burning"

(written with Mike Reid, Don Pfrimmer)

Ronnie Milsap1985 #1 country
 

"Sleeping Single in a Double Bed"

(written with Kye Fleming)

Barbara Mandrell1978 #1 country
Terri Clark2006  

"Smoky Mountain Rain"

(written with Kye Fleming)

Ronnie Milsap1980 #1 country
 

"Tennessee Moon"

(written with Neil Diamond)

Neil Diamond1996  
 

"There's No Love in Tennessee"

(written with Steve Davis)

Barbara Mandrell1985 #7 country
 

"Wish You Were Here"

(written with Kye Fleming)

Barbara Mandrell1981 #2 country,#40 adult contemporary

"Years"

(written with Kye Fleming)

Barbara Mandrell1980 #1 country,#38 adult contemporary
Wayne Newton1985  
Randy Owen2006  
Kimberly Cash2009  

Other Media

Dennis Morgan

Induction Year: 2004