On this day (July 10) in 2024, Dave Loggins died in Nashville, Tennessee, at the age of 76. While he had hits as a recording artist, he is best remembered as a songwriter. He penned multiple No. 1 hits for Reba McEntire, Don Williams, Alabama, and many others.
Loggins grew up in a small town in the Appalachian Mountains of East Tennessee, listening to his father play the fiddle. He took up the guitar and began writing songs when he was in high school. After graduating, he worked as a draftsman at a metal company. Then, he became an insurance salesman. Finally, in 1970, the 23-year-old Loggins moved to Nashville with a guitar and a collection of songs in the vein of James Taylor.
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According to the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, he didn’t find immediate success in Music City. “Nashville was hard, because if you didn’t have country tunes, people didn’t want to hear it,” Loggins recalled. “I spent a couple of hard years there.”
Dave Loggins’ Recording Career
Two years after arriving in Nashville, Dave Loggins released his debut album, Personal Belongings, via Vanguard Records. Neither the album nor its two singles were hits for him. However, an album cut titled “Pieces of April” became a hit for Three Dog Night later that year.
He released his sophomore album, Apprentice (In a Musical Workshop), on Epic Records in 1974. It landed at No. 53 on the Billboard 200. The LP’s lead single, “Please Come to Boston,” reached No. 5 on the Hot 100 and topped the Adult Contemporary chart. It also brought him the Grammy for Best Male Vocal Performance.
He released three more albums on Epic–Country Suite (1976), One Way Ticket to Paradise (1977), and David Loggins (1979)–but never replicated the chart success of his sophomore outing. His biggest hit as a recording artist came in 1984. He joined Anne Murray on her recording of “Nobody Love Me Like You Do,” written by James Dunne and Pamela Phillips-Oland. It topped the country chart and reached No. 10 on the Adult Contemporary tally.
Loggins Had Plenty of “Country Tunes”
Dave Loggins hadn’t written any country songs before moving to Nashville. After a few years, he began working with some of Music City’s top songsmiths. He penned songs with Stephen Dorff, Don Schlitz, J. D. Martin, and Lisa Silver, among others. Before long, he had his name on multiple No. 1 country songs and pop hits.
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Loggins got his first No. 1 as a songwriter in March 1984, when Alabama took “Roll on (Eighteen Wheeler)” to the top of the country chart. They also went to No. 1 with “She and I,” and “Forty Hour Week (For a Living),”
Below is a list of notable hits from Loggins’ deep catalog.
- “Don’t Underestimate My Love for You”–Lee Greenwood (No. 1)
- “Every Day”–Oak Ridge Boys (No. 1)
- “Heartbeat in the Darkness”–Don Williams (No. 1)
- “Love Will Find Its Way to You”–Reba McEntire (No. 1)
- “Morning Desire”–Kenny Rogers (No. 1)
- “She Is His Only Need”–Wynonna Judd (No. 1)
Dave Loggins Had Famous Family
Dave wasn’t the only Loggins that found success in the music industry. His cousin, Kenny Loggins, also wrote and recorded hit songs. He is best known for the songs he penned for films, which earned him the moniker The King of the Movie Soundtrack. He was behind “Footloose,” the No. 1 pop hit from the film of the same name. “Danger Zone” from Top Gun, and later Archer, reached No. 2 on the Hot 100. He also wrote and recorded songs for Caddyshack, Caddyshack II, and Over the Top.
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