Artist:Dwight Twilley f/Tom Petty
Song:Girls
Album:XXI
Everyone knows what a one hit wonder is. Occasionally I run across an artist who was a one hit wonder multiple times. In this case, Dwight Twilley scored two big hits but I'm on Fire was a top 20 hit in 1975 and Girls was a top 20 hit in 1984. And they were on different record labels. In the 70s, he led the Dwight Twilley Band and I'm on Fire reached #16 on the Billboard Hot 100. Afterwards, there were problems with Twilley's record label Shelter Records owned by Leon Russell and Denny Cordell. They weren't getting along. Plus Shelter switched distributors from MCA to ABC. Then ABC was sold to MCA and Shelter wanted out. They moved to Arista and after the 1977 album Twilley Don't Mind flopped, Phil Seymour left the band. Twilley continued as a solo act and released the 1979 album Twilley. Arista cancelled Twilley's next album Blueprint and Twilley left Arista for EMI America. The 1984 single Girls was on Twilley's second album for EMI Jungle. Girls reached #16 on the Billboard Hot 100. The album sold OK. Girls features Tom Petty on vocals. They were buddies from their days at Shelter. Twilley wrote most of the songs including Girls. The album was produced by former Gregg Allman Band guitarist John Hug. He also produced The Bus Boys. Both hits are on different labels but you can get both on this comp from EMI's reissue label The Right Stuff. Twilley was unhappy with EMI's promotion attempts. So he switched to Private I Records owned by radio promoter Joe Isgro with Epic distribution. Isgro was soon implicated in a payola scandal. Twilley would not record for another major label. His final album was released on his own label in 2014. Twilley died on Oct. 18, 2023 at age 72 when he suffered a stroke while driving and crashed into a tree. Here's the video for Girls by Dwight Twilley featuring Tom Petty.
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