Dick Glasser

Richard Eugene "Dick" Glasser (December 8, 1933 – July 10, 2000) was a singer, songwriter, and record producer.

Biography

Glasser was born in Canton, Ohio. His biggest hit as a songwriter was "Angels in the Sky," which he recorded and released on Jack Gale's Triple-A label in early 1954. RCA Records subsequently made an offer to Gale for the song and gave it to their singer Tony Martin that same year. The deal also involved Gale pulling the Glasser original off the market. The following year, the song was revived by The Crew-Cuts on Mercury and their version sold a million copies.

Glasser went on to release many excellent recordings during the mid to late 50s on Dot, Argo, then Columbia, before moving to Liberty in 1960 where he was appointed head of Metric Music—Liberty's song publishing arm. In January 1961 Gene Vincent recorded the Glasser song "Teardrops," and released it on Capitol. Aside from running Metric, Glasser also released eight singles for the label, the pick being "Handsome Guy," a 1962 recording produced by Snuff Garrett and written by PJ Proby under his real name, James Marcus Smith. The record was a top 10 hit for him that year in Australia. He also did session work for the label as a guitarist, in addition to producing a number of recordings for other acts including Vic Dana, The Fleetwoods, and The Ventures.

From Liberty, Glasser moved to Warner Bros. Records where he produced a number of recordings by The Everly Brothers, including their Two Yanks in England album, as well as Freddy Cannon. After Warners he moved to Reprise in the mid 60s where he produced a series of hits by The Vogues. By the 1970s he had accepted the position of managing MGM Records' country music division in Nashville and there he produced C. W. McCall's #1 record "Convoy," a worldwide hit for the company.

Among artists who recorded his songs were Bobby Vee, PJ Proby, Chet Atkins, Walter Brennan, Glen Campbell, Billy Fury, Johnny Cash ("That's All Over"), Dean Martin ("I Will"), Buddy Greco, The Kingston Trio, and Ruby Winters. Deana Martin recorded her own version of her father, Dean Martin's, recording on her 2009 album “Volare.”

Among the artists whose recordings he produced were Vic Dana, The Everly Brothers, Hank Williams Jr, Gary Puckett and the Union Gap, and The Ventures, and Andy Williams among many.

He was a general manager of Dolton Records, an A&R director for Warner Bros. Records, and started Richbare Music.

Glasser died of lung cancer in Thousand Oaks, California at the age of 66.^[1]

References

External links

• Dick Glasser at AllMusic
• Dick Glasser discography at Discogs
• Salute to Dick (Lory) Glasser at the Wayback Machine (archived October 27, 2009)