Singer. He gained fame as an American singer, who had a two-week Billboard #1 Hit from February 8 to 15, 1960, "Teen Angel." The youngest of nine children, Dinning was raised on a farm near Nashville, Tennessee. During the 1940s, three of his siblings, Jean, Ginger, and Lou, formed the popular vocal trio The Dinning Sisters, and at age 17, he decided to follow them into show business. Thanks to the efforts of Nashville publisher Wesley Rose, he landed a contract with MGM Records in 1957, but his attempts at launching a career as a country singer with the singles "Ramblin' Man," "The Streets of Laredo," and "I'm Just a Country Boy" fizzled. It was at a family gathering in 1959 that Dinning first heard "Teen Angel," newly written by his sister Jean. "I really wasn't too crazy about the song," he later admitted, though he agreed to record the song as a low-budget single, releasing the record in October of 1959. A doleful ballad about a girl who is killed by a train while trying to retrieve her boyfriend's ring, "Teen Angel," was not standard pop radio fare at the time. In England, it was banned by the BBC, and a number of American stations refused to play the tune as being "too morbid." But it struck a nerve with young audiences and by 1960 had risen to the #1 spot on the US charts. It also spawned the "teenage tragedy" sub-genre that produced several more classic songs, among them "Tell Laura I Love Her" and "Last Kiss." Dinning never repeated this success. He cut three more singles for MGM, none of which made it to the Top 40, and eventually settled into performing at small clubs. At age 52, he died of a heart attack while driving home from a gig.
Singer. He gained fame as an American singer, who had a two-week Billboard #1 Hit from February 8 to 15, 1960, "Teen Angel." The youngest of nine children, Dinning was raised on a farm near Nashville, Tennessee. During the 1940s, three of his siblings, Jean, Ginger, and Lou, formed the popular vocal trio The Dinning Sisters, and at age 17, he decided to follow them into show business. Thanks to the efforts of Nashville publisher Wesley Rose, he landed a contract with MGM Records in 1957, but his attempts at launching a career as a country singer with the singles "Ramblin' Man," "The Streets of Laredo," and "I'm Just a Country Boy" fizzled. It was at a family gathering in 1959 that Dinning first heard "Teen Angel," newly written by his sister Jean. "I really wasn't too crazy about the song," he later admitted, though he agreed to record the song as a low-budget single, releasing the record in October of 1959. A doleful ballad about a girl who is killed by a train while trying to retrieve her boyfriend's ring, "Teen Angel," was not standard pop radio fare at the time. In England, it was banned by the BBC, and a number of American stations refused to play the tune as being "too morbid." But it struck a nerve with young audiences and by 1960 had risen to the #1 spot on the US charts. It also spawned the "teenage tragedy" sub-genre that produced several more classic songs, among them "Tell Laura I Love Her" and "Last Kiss." Dinning never repeated this success. He cut three more singles for MGM, none of which made it to the Top 40, and eventually settled into performing at small clubs. At age 52, he died of a heart attack while driving home from a gig.
Bio by: Bobb Edwards
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