Frank Dycus (Dec. 5, 1939 –Nov.23, 2012) was one of Music Row’s best raconteurs. He was the stellar songwriter behind hits for George Strait, Jerry Lee Lewis, George Jones, Mark Chesnutt, Porter Wagoner, Tracy Byrd, and others.Hehad over 500 songs published during a 45-year career that included many works with frequent Strait songwriter Dean Dillon.
Born Marion Franklin Dycus, in Hardmoney, Kentucky, USA, he has referred to himself as the "last token hillbilly." Frank initially had no thoughts of pursuing a career as a songwriter. At school he was reckoned to be studious and was writing poems to his mother when he was 14. He relocated to California in 1955 and soon afterwards, he enlisted in the US Air Force. He learned to play guitar and with his friend, singer Don Gonsalez, formed a duo called Don And Frank. They attempted to be soundalike Everly Brothers and found regular bookings over two or three States sometimes opening for touring stars such as Jim Reeves and Buck Owens and for a time they were regulars on KPEG Spokane.
After discharge in 1962, Dycus spent a short time in Nashville but failed to find work and eventually settled in Wichita, where he worked for Boeing in the aircraft industry and also hosted a radio show on KATE. In 1967, he returned to Nashville and worked as a songwriter in Pete Drake’s music publishing company. In 1970, Dycus formed his own company, Empher Music, in partnership with Larry Kingston and Roger Fox. They first tasted songwriting success in 1970 when George Morgan had a hit with his co-written “Lilacs and Fire.” They also achieved several minor hits including Wynn Stewart’s Top 50 with ‘Paint Me A Rainbow’.
Porter Wagoner took Frank’s song “Charley’s Picture” to #15 in 1971. In 1972, they sold their company to Dolly Parton and Porter Wagoner and Dycus joined Parton’s Owpar Publishing. He also managed Parton and Wagoner’s Fireside Recording Studios. At Wagoner’s instigation, Dycus made some recordings of a skiffle nature as Lonesome Frank And The Kitchen Band, with Wagoner helping out with backing vocal on some tracks.
The songwriter’s first top 10 hit was with the 1974 Jerry Lee Lewis single, “He Can’t Fill My Shoes.” The Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton 1976 top 10 hit duet, “Is Forever Longer Than Always,” was also from Frank’s catalog. In 1979, he worked in Sweden with Abba’s drummer and other local musicians before returning to the USA to record an album "Honky Tonk Crazy" that gained Swedish release on Sonet Records.
He teamed with a young writer he had met several years early, Dean Dillon, and they wrote Unwound, Marina Del Ray, Down and Out that launched George Strait's career. In 1981, George Strait gained his first two Billboard chart hits with their songs namely ‘Unwound’ (number 6) and ‘Down And Out’ (number 16) and the following year Strait gained another number 6 hit with the song, ‘Marina Del Rey’Frank also wrote charted singles for Johnny Bush, Red Sovine, Johnny Paycheck, Joe Sun, Stella Parton, David Ball, Doug Supernaw, Gary Allan, Ronny Robbins, The Rovers, Southern Reign, Gary Stewart, and his frequent song collaborator, Dean Dillon.
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| L-R: Billy Yates, George Foreman, Nancy & George Jones and Frank Dycus |
In 1987, Dycus, who had been in failing health for some time, had heart bypass surgery and was inactive for more than two years. In 1990, after initially deciding to retire from the music business, he formed a new publishing company in Nashville and gained further success with George Jones’ recordings of ‘I Don’t Need Your Rocking Chair’ and ‘Walls Can Fall’, songs he co-wrote with Billy Yates. George Jones won a 1992 CMA Award for “I Don’t Need Your Rockin’ Chair.” In 1995, he hit #1 with “Gonna Get a Life,” sung by Mark Chesnutt, earning him SESAC’s Songwriter of the Year honour.
Frank
also wrote charted singles for Johnny Bush, Red Sovine, Johnny Paycheck, Joe
Sun, Stella Parton, David Ball, Doug Supernaw, Gary Allan, Ronny Robbins, The
Rovers, Southern Reign, Gary Stewart, and his frequent song collaborator, Dean
Dillon.
In 2003, he released 'Horny Frank and the Tennessee Shitkickers,' and in 2008 he unleashed 'Ghost Train.' Frank Dycus died Nov. 23, 2012, in Lyons, Georgia, following a lengthy illness. He was 72.
(Edited from AllMuisc, Country Music Television & Taste Of Country)