Artist:The Dwight Twilley Band
Song:I'm On Fire
Album:Guitar Rock 1974-1975
I'm On Fire was a top twenty pop hit for The Dwight Twilley Band in 1975. Their career was stalled by record company management changes and then they split up. They had potential to be much bigger than they were. Twilley was born June 6, 1951 in Tulsa, OK. Phil Seymour was born May 15, 1952 in Oklahoma City, OK. They met in 1967 at a movie theater in Tulsa where they had gone to see A Hard Day's Night. They started writing and recording together as Oister. Twilley wrote all the songs and played guitar and piano, Seymour played bass and drums. They both sang. Bill Pitcock IV joined and played lead guitar. They moved to Memphis and wandered into Sun Studios. Sam Phillips' son Jerry Phillips sent them to rockabilly legend Ray Harris in Tupelo, MS and he gave them a rockabilly edge. They moved to Los Angeles in 1974 to get a record deal. They signed with Shelter Records owned by Tulsa native Leon Russell and producer Denny Cordell. Cordell changed the band name to The Dwight Twilley Band which Seymour didn't like because he thought the band was an equal partnership. I'm On Fire was recorded at Shelter's Tulsa studio. It reached #16 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was a surprise hit. They recorded two albums for Shelter. But distribution problems followed by Russell and Cordell suing each other and then selling Shelter to MCA killed the band. Seymour left in 1978. Twilley signed as a solo act with Arista in 1979. He recorded one album and then moved to EMI America for the 1982 album Scuba Divers. His 1984 single Girls from the album Jungle reached #16 on the Billboard Hot 100. EMI didn't seem to know what to do with Twilley either. He released the 1986 album Wild Dogs on the Epic distributed Private I label. Unfortunately Private I's owner was implicated in a payola scandal. From there Twilley recorded for his own label. There isn't a Twilley comp available right now. You can get I'm On Fire on this Time Life various artists comp. Twilley still records occasionally. Phil Seymour recorded two albums for Boardwalk Records. A couple of his singles charted. Sadly Seymour was diagnosed with cancer. He died on Aug. 17, 1993 at age 41. Here's Dwight Twilley performing I'm On Fire 1984.
I love their one hit, I'm on Fire. Got that on my computer and listen to it every now and then. Good song. To bad about their bad luck. They could have been bigger with the right breaks and management.
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