Anthony Michael Arata (born October 10, 1957) is an American singer-songwriter. His best known song is " The Dance", a number-one U.S. country hit for

Garth Brooks Troyal Garth Brooks (born February 7, 1962) is an American country music singer and songwriter. His integration of pop and rock elements into the country genre has earned him popularity, particularly in the United States with success on the co ...

in 1990 which was nominated at the 33rd Grammy Awards for

Best Country Song The Grammy Award for Best Country Song (sometimes known as the Country Songwriter's Award) has been awarded since 1965. The award is given to the songwriter(s) of the song, not to the artist, except if the artist is also the songwriter. There ha ...

. He also wrote the 1994 No. 1 U.S. country hit "

Dreaming with My Eyes Open "Dreaming With My Eyes Open" is a song written by Tony Arata and recorded by American country music singer Clay Walker. It was released on May 27, 1994 as the fourth and final single from his self-titled debut album, and was featured in the soundt ...

" recorded by

Clay Walker Ernest Clayton Walker Jr. (born August 19, 1969) is an American country music artist. He made his debut in 1993 with the single " What's It to You", which reached Number One on the '' Billboard'' Hot Country Singles & Tracks (now Hot Country Son ...

. Other artists who have recorded his songs include

Suzy Bogguss Susan Kay Bogguss (born December 30, 1956) is an American country music singer and songwriter. She began her career in the 1980s as a solo singer. In the 1990s, six of her songs were Top 10 hits, three albums were certified gold, and one album re ...

Lee Roy Parnell Lee Roy Parnell (born December 21, 1956) is an American country music and blues artist, singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Active since 1990, he has recorded eight studio albums, and has charted more than twenty singles on the ''Billboard'' Hot C ...

Patty Loveless Patty Loveless (born Patricia Lee Ramey, January 4, 1957) is an American country music singer. She began performing in her teenaged years before signing her first recording contract with MCA Records' Nashville division in 1985. While her first ...

Trisha Yearwood Patricia Lynn Yearwood (born September 19, 1964) is an American singer, actress, author and television personality. She rose to fame with her 1991 debut single " She's in Love with the Boy," which became a number one hit on the ''Billboard'' c ...

and

Emmylou Harris Emmylou Harris (born April 2, 1947) is an American singer, songwriter and musician. She has released dozens of albums and singles over the course of her career and has won 14 Grammys, the Polar Music Prize, and numerous other honors, including ...

Arata was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2012.Tony Arata
Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. Arata was born and grew up in

Savannah, Georgia Savannah ( ) is the oldest city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia and is the county seat of Chatham County, Georgia, Chatham County. Established in 1733 on the Savannah River, the city of Savannah became the Kingdom of Great Br ...

, attended the

Georgia Southern University Georgia Southern University (GS or Georgia Southern) is a public research university in the U.S. state of Georgia. The flagship campus is in Statesboro, and other locations include the Armstrong Campus in Savannah and the Liberty Campus in Hine ...

, and moved to

Nashville Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and the ...

in 1986.Tony Arata biography
on CountryMusic.About.com During that time, he released an album called ''Changes'' for

MCA Records MCA Records was an American record label owned by MCA Inc., which later became part of Universal Music Group. Pre-history MCA Inc., a powerful talent agency and a television production company, entered the recorded music business in 1962 wit ...

and Noble Vision. He recorded for Noble Vision Records in 1984, charting two singles on the

Hot Country Songs Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States. This 50-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly by collecting airplay data from Nielsen BDS along with digital sal ...

charts. He also released an album, ''The Change.'' In 2000, Arata released his album, ''Way Back Then''.Information a
AllMusic
/ref> He released a further album ''Such Is Life'', in 2005. Other top-20 U.S. country hits written or co-written by Arata include "

I'm Holding My Own "I'm Holding My Own" is a song written by Tony Arata, and recorded by American country music singer Lee Roy Parnell. It was released in January 1994 as the second single from his album ''On the Road''. The song spent 20 weeks on the Hot Country S ...

", a No. 3 hit for Lee Roy Parnell in 1994, " Here I Am", a No. 4 hit for Patty Loveless, released in 1994, "The Man in the Mirror" (#17,

Jim Glaser James William Glaser (December 16, 1937 – April 6, 2019) was an American country music artist. He was born in Spalding, Nebraska. Biography The brother of country singers Chuck and Tompall Glaser, he performed as both a solo artist and alo ...

, 1983), and "The Change" (#19, Garth Brooks, 1995).

Discography

Albums

Singles

Song Writing Catalog

References

External links

Official Website

Bibliography

* Barry McCloud (1995)
Definitive Country: The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Country Music and Its Performers, p. 21-22
', . 1957 births Living people American country singer-songwriters American male singer-songwriters Writers from Savannah, Georgia Musicians from Savannah, Georgia Georgia Southern University alumni Country musicians from Georgia (U.S. state) Singer-songwriters from Georgia (U.S. state) {{songwriter-stub