Dave Loggins

Induction Year: 1995

Birth Name: David Allen Loggins

Birth Date: 11-10-1947

Place of Birth: Mountain City, Tennessee

Death Date: 07-10-2024

Place of Death: Nashville, Tennessee

Dave Loggins was born and raised in the mountains of east Tennessee, in a town three square miles wide and with a population of just over a thousand. His dad was a country fiddle player, and Dave started playing the guitar and writing songs in high school.

As he worked towards becoming a professional musician, he supported himself first as a draftsman at a metal company, then as an insurance salesman. In1970, he took a chance and moved to Nashville. All he had was his guitar and a notebook full of original songs in a soft acoustic style similar to that of James Taylor and Dan Fogelberg.

"Nashville was hard, because if you didn't have country tunes, people didn't want to hear it," Loggins later said. "I spent a couple of hard years there."

In 1972, Loggins released his debut album, Personal Belongings. Though it didn't sell much, one of the songs, "Pieces of April," became a pop hit for the group Three Dog Night later that year. Loggins' second album, 1974's Apprentice (In a Musical Workshop), yielded a #5 pop hit "Please Come to Boston" (the song earned a Grammy for Best Male Vocal Performance). Though his recording career stalled shortly after, Loggins avoided one-hit wonderdom by taking another run at Nashville and gradually reinventing himself as a country hit writer.

In the '80s and '90s, he had a string of chart-topping country hits recorded by Alabama, Don Williams, Restless Heart, Reba McEntire, Gary Morris and Wynonna Judd. He also won 25 ASCAP Awards and was named ASCAP's Songwriter of the Year for 1987. His successful run has continued into the new century, with songs recorded by Lee Ann Womack, Mindy Smith and Willie Nelson. Loggins also wrote "Augusta," which has been used for years as the theme song for the annual Masters Golf Tournament.

As a recording artist, Loggins scored a country #1 in a duet with Anne Murray on "Nobody Loves Me Like You Do" in 1984. The recording helped earn Loggins and Murray a 1985 CMA Vocal Duo of the Year Award.

Dave is the second cousin of pop singer Kenny Loggins. Among his major career moments, Loggins counts "touring England in the early '70s with the Everly Brothers, meeting John Lennon at the Grammys in '75, and writing six #1 records and not winning songwriter of the year, and then having seven the next year to win."

Read More

Read Less

Song Catalog

 

"Closing This Memory Down"

(written with John Bettis)

Lee Ann Womack2002 
 

"Don't Underestimate My Love for You"

(written with Stephen Dorff, Steve Diamond)

Lee Greenwood1986 #1 country
 

"Every Day""

(written with J. D. Martin)

The Oak Ridge Boys1984 #1 country
 

"Fast Movin' Train"

Restless Heart1990 #4 country
 

"Forty Hour Week (For a Living)"

(written with Don Schlitz, Lisa Silver)

Alabama1985 #1 country
 

"Heartbeat in the Darkness"

(written with Russell Smith)

Don Williams1986 #1 country
 

"I Love Only You"

(written with Don Schlitz)

The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band1984 #3 country
 

"I Only Get This Way with You"

(written with Alan Ray)

Rick Trevino1997 #7 country
 

"I'll Never Stop Loving You"

(written with J. D. Martin)

Gary Morris1985 #1 country
 

"Just as Long as I Have You"

(written with J. D. Martin)

Gus Hardin & Dave Loggins1985 #72 country
Don Williams1990 #4 country
 

"Love Will Find its Way to You"

(written with J. D. Martin)

Marie Osmond1986 
Reba McEntire1988 #1 country
Lee Greenwood1988 
 

"Lovin' Somebody on a Rainy Night"

Dave Loggins1976 
LaCosta1976 #23 country
England Dan & John Ford Coley1978 
 

"Maggie's Dream"

(written with Lisa Silver)

Don Williams1984 #11 country
 

"Makin' Up for Lost Time"

(written with Gary Morris)

Gary Morris & Crystal Gayle1985 #1 country, #36 adult contemporary
 

"Morning Desire"

Kenny Rogers1985 #1 country, #8 adult contemporary

"One Promise Too Late"

(written with Don Schlitz, Lisa Silver)

Reba McEntire1987 #1 country
 

"Pieces of April"

Three Dog Night1972 #6 adult contemporary, #19 pop
Andy Williams1972 
Twiggy1976 
Dave Loggins1979 

"Please Come to Boston"

Dave Loggins1974 #1 adult contemporary, #5 pop
B. W. Stevenson1974 
Tammy Wynette1974 
Joan Baez1976 
Willie Nelson1984 
David Allan Coe1985 
Glen Campbell1988 
Reba McEntire1995 
Ted Hawkins2001 
Kenny Chesney2004 
Babyface2007 

"Roll on Eighteen Wheeler"

Alabama1984 #1 country
Aaron Tippin2009 
 

"She and I""

Alabama1986 #1 country

"She Is His Only Need"

Wynonna Judd1992 #1 country, #25 adult contemporary
Gypsy Eden2007 
 

"Someday"

Dave Loggins1974 #57 pop
 

"Sunset Woman"

B. W. Stevenson1973 
Dave Loggins1974 
 

"Takin' on Water"

(written with Dennis Robbins, John Scott Sherrill)

Willie Nelson2008 
 

"Til the World Ends"

Three Dog Night1975 #11 adult contemporary, #32 pop
 

"We've Got a Good Fire Goin"

Don Williams1986 #3 country
Country Gazette1991 
 

"Wheels"

Restless Heart1987 #1 country
 

"You Just Forgot"

(written with Dennis Robbins, John Scott Sherrill)

Mindy Smith2006 

"You Make Me Want to Make You Mine"

Juice Newton1985 #1 country
 

"You've Got Me to Hold on To"

Dave Loggins1976 
Tanya Tucker1976 #3 country
Lynn Anderson1977 
Anne Murray1978 
The Cox Family1996 

Other Media

Dave Loggins

Induction Year: 1995