Dwight Twilley (born June 6, 1951) is an American pop/rock singer and songwriter, best known for the Top 20 hit singles "

I'm on Fire "I'm on Fire" is a song written and performed by American rock performer Bruce Springsteen. Released in 1985, it was the fourth single from his album '' Born in the U.S.A.'' History "I'm on Fire" was first recorded in January 1982 during the f ...

" (1975) and "Girls" (1984). His music is associated with the

power pop Power pop (also typeset as powerpop) is a form of pop rock based on the early music of bands such as the Who, the Beatles, the Beach Boys, and the Byrds. It typically incorporates melodic hooks, vocal harmonies, an energetic performance, and c ...

style. Twilley and

Phil Seymour Philip Warren Seymour (May 15, 1952 - August 17, 1993) was an American drummer, singer, guitarist and songwriter, best known for the singles "I'm on Fire" (with The Dwight Twilley Band), his own solo hit "Precious to Me" and for providing backi ...

performed as the Dwight Twilley Band through 1978, and Twilley has performed as a solo act since then. His latest album, ''Always'', was released in November 2014 through Twilley's own label, Big Oak Records.

Personal life

Twilley was born in

Tulsa, Oklahoma Tulsa () is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 47th-most populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 census. It is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region with ...

, United States. He attended Edison High SchoolJennifer Chancellor
"Dwight Twilley is making music his own way"
''

Tulsa World The ''Tulsa World'' is the daily newspaper for the city of Tulsa, Oklahoma, and primary newspaper for the northeastern and eastern portions of Oklahoma. Tulsa World Media Company is part of Lee Enterprises. The new owners announced in January 20 ...

'', September 5, 2010. and went to

Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College (NEO) is a public community college in Miami, Oklahoma. Established as the Miami School of Mines in 1919, NEO has an enrollment of approximately two thousand students. The Golden Norsemen is the school mascot. ...

from 1971 to 1973.

The Dwight Twilley Band

Twilley and

met in Tulsa in 1967 at a theater where they had gone to see

The Beatles The Beatles were an English rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the most influential band of all time and were integral to the developmen ...

' '' A Hard Day's Night'', and soon began writing songs and recording together. They continued their partnership over the next several years under the band name Oister. Twilley wrote all the songs and played guitar and piano, Seymour played drums and bass, and both sang leads and harmonies. Later, guitarist Bill Pitcock IV played lead guitar on most of their tracks. Twilley and Seymour eventually decided to leave Tulsa and try to be discovered in

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...

. By sheer chance, the first recording studio that they wandered into was

Sun Studio Sun Studio is a recording studio opened by rock-and-roll pioneer Sam Phillips at 706 Union Avenue in Memphis, Tennessee, on January 3, 1950. It was originally called Memphis Recording Service, sharing the same building with the Sun Records label ...

, where they met, according to Twilley, "some guy named Phillips."Mack, Adrian
"Dwight Twilley Interview"
Nerve Magazine, June 2005. Retrieved 8-22-2007. After listening to a cassette of their folk/pop/country blend, Jerry Phillips (son of Sun founder

Sam Phillips Samuel Cornelius Phillips (January 5, 1923 – July 30, 2003) was an American record producer. He was the founder of Sun Records and Sun Studio in Memphis, Tennessee, where he produced recordings by Elvis Presley, Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis, ...

) referred them to the Tupelo, Mississippi studio of former Sun artist

Ray Harris Ray Harris (September 7, 1927 – November 13, 2003)'. ''The Independent''. November 27, 2003. was an American rockabilly musician and songwriter. He formed a band with Wayne Powers, and wrote the songs "Come On, Little Mama" and "Greenback Do ...

, whom both Twilley and Seymour credited for introducing them to

rockabilly Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music. It dates back to the early 1950s in the United States, especially the South. As a genre it blends the sound of Western musical styles such as country with that of rhythm and blu ...

and adding a harder edge to their sound. Ultimately, Twilley and Seymour left Tulsa and went to Los Angeles in 1974 to find a label, where they signed with

Shelter Records Shelter Records was a U.S. record label started by Leon Russell and Denny Cordell that operated from 1969 to 1981. The company established offices in both Los Angeles and Tulsa, Russell's home town, where the label sought to promote a "workshop ...

, a label with offices in Los Angeles and Tulsa that was co-owned by

Denny Cordell Dennis Cordell-Lavarack (1 August 1943 – 18 February 1995), known as Denny Cordell, was an English record producer. He is notable for his mid-1960s and early 1970s productions of hit singles for The Moody Blues, Leon Russell, The Move, Procol ...

and Tulsa's Leon Russell. Cordell promptly changed the group's name from Oister to the Dwight Twilley Band, which set the seeds for future problems arising from Seymour's anonymity in the partnership. Because of Shelter's Tulsa headquarters, they were able to self-produce many songs in their hometown, frequently without Shelter's knowledge. One of those songs, "

", became their debut single and reached #16 on the

Billboard charts The ''Billboard'' charts tabulate the relative weekly popularity of songs and albums in the United States and elsewhere. The results are published in '' Billboard'' magazine. ''Billboard'' biz, the online extension of the ''Billboard'' charts, p ...

in 1975 with relatively little promotion, largely because the band was in England recording its first album, tentatively called ''Fire'', with producer Robin Cable at

Trident Studios Trident Studios was a British recording facility, located at 17 St Anne's Court in London's Soho district between 1968 and 1981. It was constructed in 1967 by Norman Sheffield, drummer of the 1960s group the Hunters, and his brother Barry. ...

. The photos used on the single's picture sleeve were low quality from a photo booth, even less professional than the band's first promo picture. The unexpected success of the self-produced "I'm On Fire" caused most of the English tracks recorded with Cable to be relegated to a second album, thereafter known as ''The B Album''. Leon Russell then permitted the band to record new tracks at his 40-track home studio, where one of the engineers was Roger Linn, who also contributed lead guitars and bass to some of their recordings. During an appearance on '' American Bandstand'', the band played what was to be its follow-up single, "Shark (in the Dark)", produced by Twilley, Seymour and Russell. The success of the film '' Jaws'', however, caused Cordell and Shelter to reject the single, apparently to keep the group from being perceived as a cash-in novelty act. The eventual follow-up single, "You Were So Warm" backed with "Sincerely", failed due to distribution problems; just after the single was released, Shelter Records collapsed in the midst of a lawsuit between Russell and Cordell. The Dwight Twilley Band's completed album went unreleased for 10 months due to Shelter's switch from

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 w ...

to ABC Records for distribution, and ''The B Album'' was left unreleased. When the album '' Sincerely'' was finally released in 1976, it failed as well, peaking at #138. During this time, Seymour and Twilley befriended labelmate

Tom Petty Thomas Earl Petty (October 20, 1950October 2, 2017) was an American musician who was the lead vocalist and guitarist of the rock band Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, formed in 1976. He previously led the band Mudcrutch, was a member of the la ...

and Phil sang backing vocals on " Breakdown" and " American Girl", creating a long-lasting friendship. In 1977, the Dwight Twilley Band performed on the short-lived CBS Saturday morning kids show ''Wacko!''. Shelter then switched distribution again to Arista Records. ABC elected to keep Petty and J. J. Cale, leaving Twilley alone on the Shelter/Arista label. Pitcock became a credited member of the Dwight Twilley Band during touring and recording of the second album. However, that album, '' Twilley Don't Mind'', proved to be another commercial disappointment in 1977. Seymour left the band the following year, pursuing a solo career with some success until he developed what proved to be terminal cancer. He died of

lymphoma Lymphoma is a group of blood and lymph tumors that develop from lymphocytes (a type of white blood cell). In current usage the name usually refers to just the cancerous versions rather than all such tumours. Signs and symptoms may include enla ...

in 1993, and as of 2007 Twilley still did not perform Dwight Twilley Band songs that featured lead vocals by Seymour.Benjamin, Kent
"The Dwight Twilley Story."
dwighttwilley.com. Retrieved 8-22-2007. The Dwight Twilley Band albums were reissued in CD form with bonus tracks by the audiophile DCC Compact Classics label in 1989 and 1990. In 1993, shortly before Phil Seymour's death, the Dwight Twilley Band released '' The Great Lost Twilley Album'', which collected a fraction of the "hundreds" of early unreleased songs Twilley and Seymour had recorded for Shelter, including several songs from ''The B Album'' and ''Blueprint'' (a Twilley solo album discussed below), as well as a few alternate versions of released songs. However, once again the Dwight Twilley Band fell victim to some label politics, as

EMI EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British Transnational corporation, transnational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in March 1 ...

bought the rights to Shelter just weeks after the release, and all three of the DCC Dwight Twilley Band albums went out of print again. In 1997, The Right Stuff, a reissue label owned by EMI, reissued '' Sincerely'' and '' Twilley Don't Mind'' with somewhat different bonus tracks from the DCC versions. They both went out of print the following year, when EMI discontinued the label. The Dwight Twilley Band albums '' Sincerely'' and '' Twilley Don't Mind'' were reissued in a two-disk compilations by Australia's

Raven Records Raven Records was an Australian record label that specialised in retrospectives and reissues or recordings by American, British and Australian artists. Raven Records was established in 1979 by Glenn A. Baker, Kevin Mueller and Peter Shillito ...

in 2007 with still different bonus tracks. Finally, in 2009, a tape of the Dwight Twilley Band's October 1976 concert at the Agora Theatre and Ballroom in

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

, which had been recorded for broadcast on Cleveland radio station

WMMS WMMS (100.7 FM) – branded ''100.7 WMMS: The Buzzard'' – is a commercial radio station licensed to Cleveland, Ohio, serving Greater Cleveland and much of surrounding Northeast Ohio. Widely regarded as one of the most influential rock s ...

, was remastered and released as a live album entitled '' Live From Agora''.

Solo years

After the demise of the Dwight Twilley Band, Twilley continued as a solo act, keeping Pitcock on lead guitar and adding Susan Cowsill on harmony vocals. This lineup released the album ''Twilley'' for Shelter/Arista in 1979, although the album's most successful song, "Darlin'", featured backing vocals by Seymour. Twilley's next album, ''Blueprint'', co-produced by

Jack Nitzsche Bernard Alfred "Jack" Nitzsche ( '; April 22, 1937 – August 25, 2000) was an American musician, arranger, songwriter, composer, and record producer. He first came to prominence in the early 1960s as the right-hand-man of producer Phil Spec ...

, was rejected by Arista after the failure of the 1979 single "Somebody to Love" although it was assigned an Arista release number. ''Blueprint'' ultimately was never released, keeping Twilley out of circulation until his Shelter contract expired at the end of 1981. He then moved to

EMI America EMI America Records was started in 1978 by EMI as a second US label next to Capitol Records. It absorbed Liberty Records in 1984. In the late 1980s, EMI America was consolidated with Manhattan Records to form EMI Manhattan Records, which lat ...

for ''Scuba Divers'' (1982), a combination of rejected ''Blueprint'' tracks and new material. His follow-up album, ''

Jungle A jungle is land covered with dense forest and tangled vegetation, usually in tropical climates. Application of the term has varied greatly during the past recent century. Etymology The word ''jungle'' originates from the Sanskrit word ''ja� ...

'' (1984), produced his second national hit single, "Girls", featuring a counterpoint vocal by Petty, which also reached #16 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #2 on the '' Billboard''

Top Tracks Classic Vinyl is a Sirius XM Radio channel focusing on classic rock music mostly from the late-1960s to the mid-1970s, with the channel's name meant to indicate that it consists of music that first appeared on vinyl records. This encompasses musi ...

chart. His follow-up single, "Little Bit of Love", reached #77. Twilley left EMI America at that point, which once again dissipated his momentum from the hit. Twilley's 1986 album ''Wild Dogs'' was recorded for Private I Records, a custom label run by independent radio promoter

Joe Isgro Joe Isgro (born c. 1948) is an American former record promoter and a reputed soldier in the Gambino crime family. In the 1980s, Isgro was at the center of investigations into the role of payola in the music industry. Early life Isgro was bor ...

that was distributed by Epic Records; however, when Isgro was implicated in a 1986 radio promotion scandal, Private I Records collapsed. Instead, the album was quietly released by Epic's CBS Associated label, where it went largely unnoticed, despite the appearance of the last Twilley/Seymour song, "Shooting Stars". After the failure of ''Wild Dogs'', Twilley found himself without a label (or a lead guitarist, as Bill Pitcock IV had quit). Twilley wrote a parenting book based on his long-distance relationship with his daughter Dionne, entitled ''Questions From Dad''. He then titled his next album, intended for release in 1994, ''The Luck''. The irony did not help Twilley with record label executives, and Twilley was unable to secure distribution for it. In 1996, EMI issued a 21-song Twilley "greatest hits" collection entitled ''XXI'', which included two new songs (one of which had been on ''The Luck'') on its The Right Stuff reissue label, followed by reissues of the two Dwight Twilley Band studio albums the next year. All three of these releases again went out of print in 1998, when EMI discontinued the label. However, in 1998, Pitcock rejoined Twilley, and the rise of digital audio meant that placing a record on a major label became less of a priority. In 1999, Twilley released both another rarities collection, ''Between the Cracks, Vol. 1'' (Not Lame Records), made up of songs not owned by Shelter, EMI or CBS, and his first new album in 13 years, ''Tulsa'' (Copper Records). In 2001, Twilley finally released ''The Luck'' (Big Oak Records), although with some changes to the version he had completed in 1994. he six-song seasonal EP ''Have a Twilley Christmas'' (Digital Musicworks International, "DMI") appeared in 2004, followed by two more albums on the same label, his ninth studio album, ''47 Moons'', in 2005 and his first live album, ''Live: All Access'' in 2006. ''Tulsa'' was sold to DMI (now Digital Music Group, Incorporated, or DMGI) in 2004. Additionally, the first two Twilley solo albums ''Twilley'' and ''Scuba Divers'' are available in two-disk compilations by Australia's

. ''Wild Dogs'' was reissued on CD in 2022 by Iconoclassic Records with nine bonus tracks, including the original demos for the album. However, ''Jungle'' has never been released in CD format. In November 2007, Twilley's DMGI catalog was acquired by DMGI founder and CEO, Mitchell Koulouris, who moved the artist to his new label, Gigatone. A post-major label retrospective titled ''Northridge to Tulsa'' (Twilley lived in Northridge while recording ''The Luck'') was the first to be released by Gigatone (in December 2007). In addition, a new release of ''47 Moons'' with bonus tracks and a remastered edition of ''Tulsa'' were also released by Gigatone in December 2007. Finally, seven volumes of outtakes, demos and live recordings in a series titled ''Rarities'' was also released by Gigatone. In 2009, Twilley released albums covering some of his favorite songs by

and other artists. In 2010 he released the album ''Green Blimp''. In November 2014, Twilley released his album ''Always'' through Big Oak Records. The 12-song LP features an array of appearances from power-pop and rock'n'roll musicians like Ken Stringfellow, Timm Buechler and Mitch Easter.

Discography

;The Dwight Twilley Band * '' Sincerely'' (1976, reissued 1989, 1997, 2007) US #138 * '' Twilley Don't Mind'' (1977, reissued 1990, 1997, 2007) US #70 * '' The Great Lost Twilley Album'' (1993) * '' Live from Agora'' (2009) ;Solo * '' Twilley'' (1979, reissued 2006) US #113 * ''Scuba Divers'' (1982, reissued 2006) US #109 * ''Jungle'' (1984) US #39 * ''Wild Dogs'' (1986) * ''XXI'' (1996) - greatest hits * ''Between the Cracks, Vol. 1'' (1999) * ''Tulsa'' (1999, remastered 2007) * ''The Luck'' (2001) * ''Have a Twilley Christmas'' (EP, 2004; expanded and remastered, 2005) * ''47 Moons'' (2005, reissued 2007) * ''Live: All Access'' (2006) * ''Northridge to Tulsa: The Best of Dwight Twilley 1997-2007'' (2007) * ''Rarities, Volume 1'' (2007) * ''Rarities, Volume 2'' (2008) * ''Rarities, Volume 3'' (2008) * ''Rarities, Volume 4'' (2008) * ''Out of the Box'' (2009) * ''Rarities, Volume 5'' (2009) * ''Rarities, Volume 6'' (2009) * ''Rarities, Volume 7'' (2009) * ''Rarities, Volume 8'' (2009) (unconfirmed release) * ''The Beatles'' (2009) * ''Green Blimp'' (2010) * ''Soundtrack'' (2011) * ''Always'' (2014) ;Videos ;The Dwight Twilley Band * (with Tom Petty) ;Solo * (music video, with Tom Petty) * (live) ;Charting singles

References

External links

Official site

VH1 biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Twilley, Dwight Living people 1951 births American rock singers American rock songwriters Musicians from Tulsa, Oklahoma Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College alumni Songwriters from Oklahoma Singers from Oklahoma