Dallas Frazier

Induction Year: 1976

Birth Name: Dallas June Frazier

Birth Date: 10-27-1939

Place of Birth: Spiro, Oklahoma

Death Date: 01-14-2022

Place of Death: Nashville, Tennessee

Dallas Frazier was one of the most recorded and successful country songwriters of the 1960s and '70s before he decided to put his songwriting career aside. He was born in Oklahoma, but when he was a young child his family joined the Dust Bowl migration. He was raised amid the cotton fields and labor camps of the Bakersfield, California region.

Highly musical from boyhood, Frazier began writing songs when he was 10 years old. He was 12 when he won a talent contest hosted by Ferlin Husky in 1952. Husky signed him to be a featured entertainer in his road show. At age 14, Frazier was signed to Capitol Records and began issuing teen-themed singles. From 1954 to 1958, the budding songwriter was featured on Cliffie Stone's Los Angeles television show Hometown Jamboree. He was also a regular on Cousin Herb Henson's country TV show in Bakersfield. Frazier wrote "Alley Oop" while working in a cotton gin. In 1960, the novelty tune became a # 1 pop hit for the Hollywood Argyles.

He relocated to Nashville in the fall of 1963 and went to work writing songs for Ferlin Husky's publishing company. Next, he was a staff songwriter for a publishing company owned by Jim Reeves. Then he joined former Reeves staff member Ray Baker at Blue Crest Music. This is where his country songwriting career caught fire.

Recorded by Jack Greene, Frazier's "There Goes My Everything" was the Country Music Association's Song of the Year for 1967. The songwriter also provided several major hits to George Jones and Connie Smith, both of whom devoted entire albums to his compositions. "All I Have to Offer You (Is Me)" is one of the chart-topping songs he wrote for Charley Pride.

Frazier's classics include "If My Heart Had Windows," "Beneath Still Waters," "What's Your Mama's Name," "Elvira," "Mohair Sam," "The Son of Hickory Hollow's Tramp" and "Fourteen Carat Mind." The songwriter recorded four solo albums between 1966 and 1971. He was already entirely deserving of the honor when he was elected to the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1976 at age 36.

Ironically, Frazier began to withdraw from the music business that very year. He left the music business entirely in 1988. He became a non-denominational Christian minister and was the pastor of Grace Community Fellowship in White House, Tennessee, from 1999 to 2006. After that, he resumed writing songs and recording.

Read More

Read Less

Song Catalog

 

"(I'm So) Afraid of Losing You Again"

(written with Doodle Owens)

Charley Pride1969 #1 country, #74 pop
Dallas Frazier1970 
Connie Smith1970 
Dottie West1970 
Ernest Tubb1970 
Bobby Bare & Skeeter Davis1970 
The Wilburn Brothers1970 
Tommy Cash1970 
David Houston1970 
Roy Drusky1970 
Hank Williams Jr.1971 
Norma Jean1971 
Marvin Rainwater1972 
Mickey Gilley1978 
Carl Butler1980 
Tammy Wynette1989 
Ashley Evans1990 #76 country
Ruby Lovett1998 
J. D. Crowe & the New South1999 
 

"Ain't Had No Lovin'"

Connie Smith1966 #2 country
Skeeter Davis1966 
Dallas Frazier1967 
Ferlin Husky1967 
Jan Howard1967 
Goldie Hill1969 
 

"Ain't Love a Good Thing"

Connie Smith1973 #10 country
Loretta Lynn1974 
Ricky Skaggs1997 
 

"Ain't You Had No Bringing Up at All"

Dallas Frazier1954 

"All I Have to Offer You (Is Me)"

(written with Doodle Owens)

Charley Pride1969 #1 country
Red Sovine1969 
Jack Greene1969 
Warner Mack1969 
George Jones1970 
Dallas Frazier1970 
Don Gibson1970 
Jimmy Dean1970 
Billy Walker1970 
The Statler Brothers1970 
Conway Twitty1971 
Bill Anderson1971 
Commander Cody1973 
Larry Boone1991 
McBride & the Ride1992 
Ted Hawkins1995 
Barry & Holly Tashian1997 
Ricky Van Shelton2000 
 

"Alley Oop"

The Hollywood Argyles1960 #1 pop
Dante & the Evergreens1960 #15 pop
The Dyna-Sores1960 #59 pop
Dallas Frazier1966 
 

"Back in the Arms of Love"

Jack Greene1969 #4 country

"Beneath Still Waters"

George Jones1969 
Diana Trask1970 #38 country
Emmylou Harris1980 #1 country
Diane Schuur2011 

"Elvira"

BMI Country Song of the Year

Dallas Frazier1966 #72 pop
Kenny Rogers and The First Edition1970 
Rodney Crowell1978 #95 country
Ronnie Hawkins1979  
The Oak Ridge Boys1981  #1 country, #5 pop, #8 adult contemporary
 

"Fourteen Carat Mind"

(written with Larry Lee)

Gene Watson1981 #1 country
The Osborne Brothers1991 
Special Consensus2010 
 

"I Can't Believe That You've Stopped Loving Me"

(written with Doodle Owens)

Charley Pride1970 #1 country
Conway Twitty1970 
Connie Smith1971 
Norma Jean1971 
 

"I Can't Get There From Here"

George Jones1967 #5 country
Kitty Wells1967 
 

"I'm a People"

George Jones1966 #6 country
 

"If It Ain't Love (Let's Leave it Alone)"

Connie Smith1972 #7 country
Billie Jo Spears1972 
The Whites1985 #12 country

"If My Heart Had Windows"

George Jones1967 #7 country
Ernest Tubb1968 
Kitty Wells1968 
Red Sovine1968 
Goldie Hill1968 
Johnny Darrell1968 
Jeannie Seely1968 
Jack Greene1968 
Connie Smith1970 
Don Gibson1970 
Amy Wooley1982 #51 country
Patty Loveless1988 #10 country
Vince Gill2007 
 

"Johnny One-Time"

(written with Doodle Owens)

Willie Nelson1968 #36 country
Brenda Lee1969 #3 adult contemporary, #41 pop, #50 country
Loretta Lynn1969 
Johnny Duncan1969 
Jody Miller1973 
Jessica James1976 #87 country
 

"Just for What I Am"

(written with Doodle Owens)

Connie Smith1972 #5 country
Glen Campbell1972 
Kitty Wells1972 
Johnny Duncan1972 
 

"Mohair Sam"

Charlie Rich1965 #21 pop
Dallas Frazier1966 
Quincy Jones1966 
Peggy Lee1966 
Bobby Rydell1966 
Tom Jones1967 
Manfred Mann1968 
Mickey Gilley1980 
The Derailers2001 
 

"Say It's Not You"

George Jones1968 #8 country
Charlie Louvin1968 
Bob Luman1968 
Keith Richards & George Jones1994 
 

"Son of Hickory Hollow's Tramp"

Johnny Darrell1967 #22 country
Merle Haggard1968 
O. C. Smith1968 #32 R&B, #40 pop
Billy Vera1968 
Del Reeves1968 
Bobby Bare1969 
Dallas Frazier1970 
The Country Gentlemen1972 
Johnny Russell1977 #32 country
Kenny Rogers1977 
 

"The Baptism of Jesse Taylor"

(written with Whitey Shafer)

Jeannie C. Riley1973 
The Oak Ridge Boys1974 
Johnny Russell1973 #14 country
George Jones1974 
The Statler Brothers1974 
Tanya Tucker1974 
Connie Smith1974 
Donna Fargo1981 
Bill & Gloria Gaither1998 
Ralph Stanley2005 
Longview2008 
 

"Then Who Am I"

(written with Doodle Owens)

Charley Pride1975 #1 country

"There Goes My Everything"

CMA Song of the Year

Jack Greene1966 #1 country, #65 pop
Ray Price1966 
Ferlin Husky1966 
George Jones1967 
Loretta Lynn1967 
Tammy Wynette1967 
The Statler Brothers1967 
Dottie West1967 
Sue Raney1967 #33 adult contemporary
Johnny Paycheck1967 
Kitty Wells1967 
Jim Ed Brown1967 
The Wilburn Brothers1967 
Jean Shepard1967 
Engelbert Humperdinck1967 #20 pop
Patti Page1967 
Connie Smith1968 
Anne Murray1968 
Webb Pierce1968 
Hank Snow1968 
Hank Williams Jr.1970 
Don Gibson1970 
Dallas Frazier1970 
Elvis Presley1971 #9 country
Sonny James1975 
The Holmes Brothers1993 
Eddy Arnold1995 
 

"Touching Home"

(written with Doodle Owens)

Jerry Lee Lewis1971 #3 country
Ernest Tubb1971 
Dallas Frazier1971 
Johnny Russell1972 
 

"True Love Travels on a Gravel Road"

(written with Doodle Owens)

Elvis Presley1969 
Duane Dee1969 #58 country
Percy Sledge1969 
The Afghan Whigs1992 
Nick Lowe1994 
The Highwaymen1995 
Ronnie McDowell2002 
Wylie & the Wild West2007 
 

"Until My Dreams Come True"

Jack Greene1969 #1 country
Ferlin Husky1969 
Charlie Louvin1969 
Jan Howard1969 
Wilma Burgess1969 
 

"What's Your Mama's Name"

(written with Earl Montgomery)

Tanya Tucker1973 #1 country
George Jones1973 
Brush Arbor1973 
Tammy Wynette1985 
 

"Where Did They Go, Lord"

(written with Doodle Owens)

Elvis Presley1971 #18 adult contemporary, #33 pop, #55 country
 

"Will You Visit Me on Sundays"

Charlie Louvin1968 #20 country
The Osborne Brothers1969 
Merle Haggard1969 
Dallas Frazier1970 
George Jones1970 
Dale Ann Bradley2011 

Other Media

Dallas Frazier

Induction Year: 1976