Ten Acts Who Belong in the Country Hall of Fame: Dallas Frazier (#9)

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This is an unusual "top ten" list, because it's not going to interest 99.999% of you. I'm doing this after @JohnRoberts suggested a list of ten acts I thought belonged in the Country Music Hall of Fame. And, I need to point out at this juncture, this list is by no means complete. There are another ten who also belong who won't make this list. I'm including these ten because I think they're the biggest oversights. #9: Dallas Frazier As most people aren't country music students most of these names are going to cause a shrug. Unlike yesterday's entry, the late historian Dr. Charles K. Wolfe, I can explain who Dallas Fraizer is with just one word. Elvira. Oom-papa-mow-mow! Frazier is a Nashville Songwriters' Hall of Fame songwriter who's been cranking out hit after hit after hit after hit since the early 60s. Want to discuss the reach of his fame? Diana Ross has covered his songs. George Jones did an entire album of Dallas Frazier songs. The very first "song of the year" award presented by the CMA at their inaugural awards show went to a Dallas Frazier song ("There Goes My Everything"). And then there's "Elvira." Frazier himself recorded the song in 1966, but it wasn't much of a success then. Rodney Crowell covered the song on his first album, Ain't Living Long Like This, in 1978. It wasn't until the Oak Ridge Boys did the song, however, in 1981 (after hearing Crowell's version) that the song became an institution. It was a #1 country song and a top five pop tune! And whether you like it or not, you at least know that singalong chorus of "giddy-up, oom papa oom papa mow mow." Every third year the Country Music Hall of Fame, as part of its rotating category, inducts a songwriter. The songwriter category is on the ballot in 2017. Here's hoping it'll be the legendary Dallas Frazier. Dallas Frazier Born October 27, 1939, Spiro, Oklahoma Claim to fame: Songwriter Best work: "There Goes My Everything" (hit for Jack Greene) "If It Ain't Love (Let's Leave It Alone)" (hit for Connie Smith) "Honky Tonk Downstairs" (recorded by Poco, George Jones, and others) "Elvira" (hit for the Oak Ridge Boys) Here's that classic hit that Dallas Frazier wrote: